Venison Haunch Steak Recipe with Truffled Mushrooms

Last Updated on November 28, 2020

Cooking with Venison – Haunch Steaks with Truffled Mushrooms.

Skip straight to my Venison Haunch Steak recipe

I’m in the process of experimenting with a fabulous steak box from Lake District Farmers.  While there’s plenty of beef in the selection, the box also has a range of other meats – lamb, pork, veal and venison.  And, although I tend to buy venison loin to roast or cook as noisettes, my box contained haunch steaks of venison.  Their venison is sourced from Aynhoe Park, the same place that Brett Graham from The Ledbury and The Harwood Arms sources his meat.  I’ve eaten venison at the Harwood on many occasions (it used to be my local!) so  I had no doubt that my haunch steaks would be properly aged and perfectly tender.  For that reason, I could happily have made this venison haunch recipe without resorting to a sous-vide.  But, using the sous-vide allowed me to relax a bit and shortened the final cooking time.   If you were unsure of the provenance of your venison or knew that it was from a larger animal, using the sous-vide would be an easy way to make sure the meat was perfectly tender.  For me, it was simply a matter of being able to prepare everything in advance and just finish the venison haunch steaks off quickly on a griddle before resting and serving.  If you don’t have a sous-vide, I’m providing the cooking method to cook the venison steaks using a griddle without the sous-vide so you can enjoy this venison haunch recipe either way.

Venison is one of my favourite red meats.  Lower in fat and calories than beef, it still has the depth of flavour I remember from my childhood.  Whether or not it is wild or park reared, Venison is grass-fed, like the best beef. It’s high in protein and contains a wealth of nutrients – iron, B vitamins and linoleic acid.  The lean meat though does need careful cooking to make sure it isn’t dried out.  For the sous-vide version of my venison haunch steak recipe, I seasoned the meat then sealed the steaks in individual bags with a sprig of thyme, rosemary, a crushed clove of garlic and a good pat of butter.  If you were not using a sous-vide, I’d suggest taking the meat out of the fridge and making a paste with some softened butter, the herbs and garlic and some salt and pepper.  Smear the venison steaks well with the buttery mixture and leave at room temperature until you are ready to cook. 

To sous-vide the steaks for a rare to medium-rare result, prepare a water bath to 54C and put the steaks in for at least an hour and up to two hours. If you prefer medium steaks, then increase the water bath temperature to around 58C.  This kind of temperature and length of cooking will not make a lot of difference to the texture of the meat but it will make sure that the steaks are cooked through and simply need to be seared quickly before serving. 

One of the biggest challenges for those of us who are not butchers when cooking venison haunch steak is to know what part of the haunch you are cooking with.  A venison haunch is made up of a number of different muscles which I believe are equivalent to rump, topside and silverside of beef.  And, different butchers treat the haunch in different ways.  I’ve certainly had haunch steaks cut horizontally across the grain of the muscle.  But, there are also parts of the haunch (one prosaically known as the ‘salmon’ cut) which make fillet shapes, like the meat I’ve been cooking here.  

Cooked sous-vide and then cut into noisettes, these haunch of venison steaks were as tender as loin

If you are not going to sous-vide the meat, you’ll need to allow a little longer to cook the meat on your griddle.  Preheat the griddle on full flame, then add the steak to the pan. For the sous-vide meat you simple need to seal the meat until you have a good char (about a minute), while if you haven’t used a sous-vide, cook on each side for 2-3 minutes for a rare steak, a minute longer on each side for medium-rare to medium.  You can use a meat thermometer if you have one to check that you have an internal temperature of 54-60C before removing the meat to rest.   You’ll need to rest the meat for 5 minutes before cutting into slices. 

To accompany my venison haunch steaks, I made a mushroom and truffle mixture using normal chestnut mushrooms diced and pimped up with a little truffle sauce from my friends at Terfezia. Again, something you can part make in advance…cook the shallot and mushroom then just reheat gently and stir through the truffles at the very end.  It won’t take any longer than resting your meat!  And, I made buttered cavolo nero (black kale).  If you prefer something different, spinach would be a fine alternative or even a nest of mashed potato.

Here’s a printable recipe if you’d like to try this for yourself.  It looks long because there are instructions for with and without a sous-vide.

5 from 2 votes

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Venison Haunch Steak with Truffled Mushrooms

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

1 hr 15 mins

Without Sous Vide

25 mins

Total Time

1 hr 25 mins

 

An easy recipe for Venison Haunch Steaks - sous-vide or just griddled, venison steaks with truffled mushrooms

Course: Main

Cuisine: British

Keyword: haunch, steak, Truffle, venison

Servings: 2

Calories: 465 kcal

Author: Fiona Maclean

Ingredients

Venison

• 2 medium venison haunch steaks around 250g each
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 sprig thyme
• 2 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
• salt and pepper to taste

Truffled Mushrooms

• 200 g chestnut mushrooms cleaned and diced
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp terfezia black truffle sauce
• 1 banana shallot peeled and finely sliced
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Venison Steak (sous-vide)

1. if you are using a sous-vide,two hours before you plan on eating fill your pan and pre-heat the water to 54C while you make up your vacuum bags

2. season each venison haunch steak well and press the thyme and a crushed clove of garlic onto each one before placing in the vacuum bag with a teaspoon of butter in each bag

   

3. seal the bags and place in the water bath for at least an hour and up to two hours.

4. remove the venison steaks carefully from the vacuum bags, drain any juices and set to one side

   

5. heat the griddle brushed with the remaining butter

6. sear the venison quickly on full heat for a minute on each side. Cover loosely with foil and set to one side to rest.

   

7. once the meat has rested, carve into slices if appropriate (some haunch steaks are flat like a sirloin while others are as pictured.

   

Venison Steak (no sous-vide)

1. if you are not using a sous-vide, take the venison steaks from the fridge a few hours before you want to cook

2. mix 2/3rds of the butter with the thyme, crushed garlic and some salt and pepper and smear each steak well.

3. cover and leave at room temperature until 20 minutes before you are ready to eat.

4. pre-heat the griddle brushed with a teaspoonful of butter

5. add the venison to the griddle and cook on each side for 3 minutes (for medium-rare) or for 4 minutes for medium. Cover loosely with foil and set to one side to rest

6. once the meat has rested, carve into slices if appropriate (some haunch steaks are flat like a sirloin while others are as pictured.

   

Truffled Mushrooms

1. Heat the oil and butter in a heavy-based pan

2. Add the finely chopped shallot and cook for 4-5 minutes over a moderate heat till soft

3. Add the diced mushrooms and cook stirring gently until soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste. The dish can be set to one side at this point.

4. While your meat is resting, reheat the mushrooms and stir through a teaspoon of truffle sauce or a little truffle oil.

The joy of this recipe for venison steaks is that at least if you use the sous-vide, you will find most of the dish can be made up in advance and you don’t need to watch over it.  With quality meat, you really don’t need the sous-vide though, for me it’s more of a convenience in case my guests are running late.  But if you are in any way unsure of the provenance of your venison, a sous-vide is a great sous-chef!  

This recipe is one of a series I will be making using the Lake District Farmers‘  Steak Box I was gifted which retails for £85 and includes the two venison haunch steaks I’ve used here in addition to beef sirloin, bavette, veal escalopes, lamb leg steaks, pork escalopes and pork loin steaks.  The meat all comes in vacuum packs so you can easily freeze it at home if you can’t eat it straight away.  And so far I haven’t had a single failure.  

I’m in very good company in liking the Lake District Farmers’ produce.  Their list of chefs reads like a who’s who of the British culinary world, with the likes of Michel Roux Jnr and Marcus Wareing endorsing their products and more particularly their ethos. In addition to the meat boxes, they also have some spectacular ‘restaurant at home’ offerings from Jason Atherton at Home and Le Gavroche at Home and some special Christmas boxes.  And, of course, if you are after something in particular, they have a ‘build your own box’ option.  I’m refreshingly surprised at how reasonable the meat prices are.

If you are looking for other game recipes, there are plenty on London-Unattached.  How about this venison sausage pasta recipe?  Or for something completely different, this delicious pot roast partridge with sage that would make the perfect Christmas lunch for a small household.   Explore our other game recipes and let us know how you get on