Sweet and tart with a little horseradish kick, this works
There are several tricks to serving venison to people who say they don’t like the taste, and getting them to savor it enough to demand more.
Mine is quite simple — Jezebel Sauce.
My mom was not originally a great lover of our venison steaks that we traditionally ate every Thanksgiving for the last 15 years of her life. She made it a tradition after the second year, when I introduced her to my friend Jezebel. She did not like the venison the first year, and demanded I cook her a ribeye steak that second time around.
After talking Mom into trying venison again, I told her to “just dab it in that sauce there and try it.”
Her reaction was one for the books. She had pretty eyes and they lit up like stars and she smiled as she smacked her lips.
“Bobby, that stuff would be good on a boot,” she said, pushing aside the beef. She grabbed a couple of the venison steaks (cut from backstrap and grilled to a perfect medium rare, spooned up a heap of the Jezebel Sauce and ate every bite. “I’m even sopping up the leftover sauce with my bread.”
To be honest, Jezebel Sauce goes well with pork and lamb, and I’m betting that was the original use. I took some with a ham to deer camp one week and when a friend of mine grilled up some venison steaks, I took a bite of one with the Jezebel.
I went nuts and have served the two together religiously ever since.
Cooking the steaks
Now, I even incorporate the sauce into the cooking of my deer steaks. Prior to cooking the 1-inch thick, 5-inch long backstrap steaks over an extremely hot grill, I will thin some Jezebel with about a 30-second zap in the microwave. I then mix the thinned sauce in a big bowl with the steaks and toss to cover them thoroughly on all sides.
The fire’s flames will lick the steaks, charring the sugary sauce. The key is to establish the increments at which to turn the steaks so that all four sides char but the middle keeps its dark pink color.
In my Bayou Classic Cypress Cooker, one of the egg-shaped ceramic grills on the market, I take the temperature up to 600 degrees and cook the venison steaks between 45 seconds and a minute per side, all four sides. Then I move them to the outside edges, shut all vents and allow to cook 1 ½ minutes as the temperature falls.
On my Weber charcoal grill, I cook over direct heat with a hot fire, turning every 1 ½ to 2 minutes until all four sides have charred.
Either way, I let the steaks rest for at least five minutes on the platter before serving with the still cold Jezebel Sauce, which has the consistency of jelly.
Making the sauce
You can find many versions of Jezebel Sauce on the Internet, and most are identical to my simple version.
In a glass or plastic bowl, I combine one 15-ounce jar of apple jelly with an equal amount of pineapple preserves. I prefer to stir instead of using a processor since a hard electronic whipping can leave the sauce thin with a reluctance to thicken in the refrigerator.
After thoroughly combining the jelly and preserves, I add 7 ounces of prepared horseradish (not horseradish sauce) and one heaping tablespoon of dry ground mustard, and stir it in. The final ingredient is cracked black pepper, and I do that to taste. Start with a teaspoon and work up.
If you don’t want a strong kick from the horseradish, try dropping down to 4 or 5 ounces, but no less.
That’s it, except for returning the final product to the two empty glass jars and placing them in the refrigerator. I suggest making the sauce at least two days to a week ahead of its planned use, allowing the flavors plenty of time to marry. Rarely have I had the opportunity to test its limits, I have kept a jar of Jezebel at least two months, refrigerated.
Trust me on this, even if your venison tastes like a boot, Jezebel Sauce will make it edible.
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