From the deer stand to the dinner table, a chef’s guide to better venison

Good deer meat starts with good marksmanship, says Hank Shaw. “Don’t shoot a running deer,” the award-winning wild game chef and author advises, explaining that adrenaline pumping through a deer’s muscles can give the meat an unpleasant flavor. The same happens if a shot doesn’t kill the deer quickly, and it runs for a good distance before dying. “The ideal kill of a deer is where the deer never saw it coming.” Choosing their shot wisely is just one factor hunters need to remember heading into Minnesota’s regular firearms deer season Saturday. More than 400,000 hunters are expected to climb into tree stands or sit on hay bales on opening morning, hoping a buck or doe walks past. Most deer yield at least 55 pounds of lean, high-protein red meat that can become the most delicious meals you’ll ever eat — as long as you know how to care for and prepare it. Advertisement Shaw, a former reporter with the St. Paul Pioneer Press who took up hunting as an adult, is amid a book tour for the 10-year anniversary edition of his cookbook, “Buck, Buck, Moose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Venison,” which sold 100,000 copies and is considered by many to have set a new standard for venison butchering, preparation and cooking. Why the new edition? “Think about anything you’re good at. Now think about how much better you are now than you were 10 years ago,” he said in a recent interview from his home in St. Paul. The new edition has 30 new recipes, about 100 new photographs and, Shaw said, an eye toward more accessible recipes. “Things like casseroles that you can make on a weeknight,” he said. “I also peppered throughout ways to cook with an Instant Pot or an air fryer, even a Crock Pot.”