How to prepare grilled tenderloin and enjoy wild game over a fire: Outdoors column

The outdoor cooking season is here and in full swing.

Summer evenings spent around a campfire, great food, with the added ambiance and spice of good friendship, as we share the bounty of hunts and fishing trips.

Hard to beat.

These times don’t seem to happen so much in the fall, winter or spring.

Indeed, summer is the time for cookouts.

Share the game; pass the stories.

And I’ll take a second helping of that!

Over the years we’ve been able to put a few notions together about camp cooking that has added to the enjoyment of these wonderful, precious and all-too-fleeting times.

So first of all, let me qualify the following with this maxim: everyone has their own tastes.

I know, I know … with the popularity of cooking channels on TV, experts tell us there is only one way to cook it or we are chopped.

But here, under the sky, there is no real right and wrong way so much because we are cooking wild game for different tastes.

Cooking outside is not an exercise in morality, no matter how opinionated, persuasive, and dogmatic someone else may profess “the right way” is.

No matter how much they wag their finger.

I hate it when someone says that I have to eat meat the way they like it, and my way is wrong.

Why do people think that way?

Those men who penned the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights were the wisest and most erudite fellows to ever stick a fork in a baked potato.

And as we celebrate them at this time of year … one caveat.

The fathers of the country forgot to add one right into the Bill of Rights – The Freedom of Taste.

One person may like their meat well-done, cooked through-and-through, even burnt to a crisp. And maybe to me, meat they like may look like shoe leather with the flavor cooked out.

And on the other extreme, some of us like meat so bloody that you’d swear you have to stab it with a sharp fork to keep it from crawling off the plate. And then, some believe that undercooked meat is not warmed up enough to bring out the flavors.

The real challenge for the outdoor campfire cook, “if he chooses to accept this mission,” should be to be able to grill for everyone and make them all happy, no matter what side of the campfire they are sitting on, from burnt to raw.

My favorite way to prepare grilled tenderloin

My favorite recipe is a treatment for venison back-straps, or tenderloin.

And I have never had anyone say anything but good about it.

To date, there are rarely any leftovers, even for the dogs. (And my dogs have always liked venison better than any other meat.)

Anyway, the back-strap is then marinated in Italian salad dressing in a zip-lock bag for a couple hours in the refrigerator before cooking. And that works fine, simple and is easy. No mess.

When camping, a cooler with ice works fine for keeping the venison cool, right along with the beverages.

My favorite way to prepare grilled back-strap is to first of all grind black pepper, or better yet grind a mix of peppercorns on the meat.

In every other inch-deep cut, cram a big sliver of garlic and in the empty ones pack in half a pat of butter.

Kind of squeeze it together so the garlic and butter doesn’t fall out of the slices in the loin before cooking.

The importance of the quality of the fire, in the fire pit, can’t be understated.

A good bed of hardwood coals is crucial for success. We find that using a long-handled shovel is the best way to move the coals out of the center of the fire near the edge where a metal grill can be set up to cook the meat.

A final trick-of-the-trade, when outside the house on a grill or at camp over a fire pit, is to place the prepared venison back-strap in a freezer or on ice after it is peppered and fitted with garlic and butter.

Let it get cold and then bring the filet out and set it aside to warm up about half hour or so before it is placed in the honored position on the grill.

This way the center of the meat is cold and cooks slower than it would if it was the same temperature as the outside.

Better to let the outside of the meat warm up a bit so that it doesn’t char too much and the cooking radiates inward toward the center.

The fire needs to be hot and radiating heat. Leave the meat on about four minutes a side (four sides). But this depends on a number of variables: temperature of the fire, size and temperature of the meat, wind, outside temperature and height of the grill above the coals.

When on the grill, I like to rotate the meat three times. The first turn is 180 degrees, the second turn is 90 degrees and the third 180. That way there is an even and consistent cooking process going on.

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Poke the meat with a long-handled fork. When it just starts to stiffen up … done.

The center of the tenderloin should be rare and about the size of a quarter. From there and radiating out, the meat is medium well-done and juicy to well-done on the very outside of the filet, slightly blackened or browned with a hint of crunch.

To top it off and dress it up, on the side can be a ladle or two of sautéed mushrooms (preferably wild) depending on the season; morels in early summer, or chicken-of-the-woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) during July, cooked down with a couple of shallots and a nice big, shaved garlic clove.

There is nothing finer, nothing more delectable and mouthwatering, than this venison.

Remember one thing about serving venison … always on a warm plate. Trust me.

Truly wild meat is “organic” meat. No preservatives, synthetic hormones, or chemicals of any kind. And as a super bonus, wonderfully low in cholesterol and fat.

How could something so wonderfully tasty be so good for you too?

What a blessing.

Be sure to give thanks.

Bon apetite.

-- Oak Duke writes a weekly column.

This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Enjoy wild game over a fire: How to prepare grilled tenderloin