The Hunter's Haunch ― What You Don't Know About Deer and Venison That Will Change the Way You Cook

A new way to look at deer meat that anyone who owns a venison cookbook must read!

There is a plethora of venison cookbooks offering recipes for chili, burgers, stuffed mushrooms, sausage, and much more. But venison is a notoriously tricky game meat, and if you don’t understand the fundamentals of this meat, it doesn’t matter how extravagantly you dress it up.

Making delicious venison starts all the way back with the hunt. Did you know that the phrase, ?One shot, one kill,” is not only a hunting mentality but also a smart culinary practice? Focusing on the anatomy of the animal and particularly its transformation into venison, The Hunter’s Haunch examines the deer as a living creature in the wild, and how its status as prey affects its treatment in the kitchen.

Is a doe better eating than a buck? Is hanging really necessary? Why can’t venison be aged? Will soaking in milk make that gamy taste go away? Author Paula Young Lee provides straightforward and fascinating reasons why certain methods work and why others don’t. She also points out faulty practices and myths that have stubbornly survived through generations of hunters and cooks.

Learn the history of deer hunting, practical lessons in game anatomy, and indispensable tips for dressing and prep, and see for yourself why The Hunter’s Haunch is an essential read for anyone who cooks venison.

Paula Young Lee is a faculty fellow at Tufts University’s Center for Animals and Public Policy, author, and hunter. She has written books on topics such as the global history of game hunting, the rise of slaughterhouses in modern society, and the history of hunting at seventeenth-century courts of Europe. She has also written a memoir of her experiences taking her from Paris, France, to Paris, Maine, and becoming a hunter and do-it-yourself food enthusiast in the process.