HOLIDAY COUNTDOWN Review: Venison by Jonathon Wipfli

Title: Venison: The Slay to Gourmet Field to Kitchen Cookbook
Author: Jonathon Wipfli
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: October 1st 2017
Source: Netgalley


Book Description:

Written and photographed by the team behind Slay to Gourmet, a Minneapolis-based catering service specializing in wild game, Venison takes readers through author, chef, and outdoorsman Jonathon Wipfli's technique for quickly and efficiently processing a deer, as well as a raft of contemporary recipes for venison dishes and accompanying sides.

Wipfli describes and illustrates the breakdown of a deer, focusing on the fronts, middles, and rears before proceeding to more specific cuts like sirloins, shanks, ribs, loins, roasts, sausage scraps, and more. Whether the reader has been hunting for two years or for thirty, there’s a good chance they’ve never approached processing by muscle groups. Wipfli demystifies them and in the process shows the value of individual cuts and how to maximize one's quarry.

More than 50 recipes for venison and accompanying accoutrements and sides are beutifully photographed and presented. The result is a venison book like no other, sure to appeal to those new hunters as well as veteran outdoorspeople.

Review:

★★★★

When I saw this book, I knew I had to read it. My fiance absolutely LOVES venison. It's her favorite thing ever and is super nostalgic for her, because her grandfather used to hunt & prepare it when she was a kid. And, I try to adapt my recipes to include the things she loves; but I've never prepared venison before. Wipfli's Venison is a very approachable first look at all things deer to the heart.

The book is divided into three sections. The first part is the hunt, and it goes into how one catches a deer and narrations about hunting. It was interesting, since I'm not even outdoorsy, let alone a huntress.

The second part is the butchery. As you probably guessed, it's about how to butcher a deer. Like, all of it. I honestly wasn't really prepared for the graphic photos of a whole deer, but, that's what venison is so I don't know why I was caught off guard. But this portion of the book is very well written. It includes photos of each and every step, as well as descriptions on what to do. It goes pretty far in depth, but it is written in really basic terms so it's easy to understand even if you're not chunking out meat as part of your regular daily routine.

The third part of this book is the recipes: shareables and entrees. Though this section is the last, it is certainly not the least. By far, this is the largest section of the three- you're getting more recipes than any other content included in the book. The recipes have short, easy to follow steps. When it came to some harder techniques, the book again included step by step photos to help you through the process. I really appreciate this as someone who just isn't that familiar with the meat.

A few of the recipes that sound the best include venison meatballs with cherry BBQ sauce and venison and pineapple chili.

All in all, I think this is a really good cookbook, especially for those who are either intimidated or inexperienced with cooking venison. I'd for sure buy a copy of this for my fiance. I also think it'd make a good gift for a hunter or a midwesterner (I don't know about other places in the US but I know here in the Midwest we love us some venison). It sort of goes without saying, but if you're squeamish about meat or animals, this might not be the book for you.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.