Cooking game meat in a pan or on the grill
Time: 10-15 min
Difficulty: Easy
For smaller items such as fillet and tenderloin from reindeer, deer and wild boar, it can often be best to cook them directly in the pan instead of using the oven. At the same time, you don't have to fuss with a lot of ingredients and instead let the tenderness of the meat and its great flavour take centre stage.
- Small fillets and outer fillets of game (reindeer, deer, wild boar)
- Butter
- Salt and pepper
Execution
As always, it's important not to leave the meat in the pan too long. Like all low-fat game meat, if you cook it for too long, it often becomes a little dry. We believe that the fillet and tenderloin are best served rare or medium rare. You cook a fillet in much the same way as you cook a roast.
- Trim the meat of fat and skin. Then rub it with salt and pepper
- Stir the meat in butter over high heat to get a nice crispy surface all around the meat (about 1 min per side). Reduce the heat slightly when you have a nice surface
- Cut a small incision to make sure you have the right "bloodiness" in the centre of the meat. Choose how bloody you want it to be, but make sure it is not overcooked
- Serve directly
If you cook the meat on the grill, you follow basically the same instructions. First on direct (high above the embers) heat to get a crispy surface. If the meat is still too bloody, move it to indirect heat (on the side, not above the coals) until it has the desired bloodiness.
Serve with, for example, hazelnut potatoes and baked root vegetables. A good game sauce or game butter further enhances the flavour experience. Here you can find recipes for game butter.
If you have a larger piece of meat, such as an moose fillet, we recommend cooking it in the oven instead. You can read more about it on the page Game meat in the oven.
Here you can find fine details:
Buy reindeer fillet
Buy deer fillet (fallow deer)
Buy wild boar fillet