Braisin' 2: Julia and Me

For my next act, I decided to revisit the braised shoulder, this time adhering closely to the recipe detailed in  "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1" by Child, et al.  Really, I didn't deviate far, basically just omitting celery from the marinade because I was too lazy to go to the store to get some and then adding pearl onions and carrots directly in the braising liquid with the venison instead of preparing them separately.  I won't go into every detail, but the new elements for me were marinating the shoulder 24 hrs in the fridge in a mix of red wine, diced carrots, thin cut onions, bay leaves, and some other stuff I forget right off the bat.  The meat was then well-dried and browned on all sides over fairly high heat.

The marinade was then reduced, and went into a pot over low heat with the meat and a few cups of beef broth.  I added larger cuts of carrot and pearl onions about an hour later.

This bubbled away for about four hours (Julia Child recommended baking in the oven but I though stove top heat was fine).  Meanwhile, towards the end of the braising I prepared rice using some beef broth I reserved and some salted butter.  When the meat was done, I removed it from the pot and pulled it apart.  The stock I further reduced with some butter.  I was supposed to add a thickener but I didn't feel it even needed it.

This is actually the next-day version, great for leftovers.

I'd say that of the non-grilled venison, this was the best so far.  Possibly even 1st place overall.  The vegetables were just as good.  Its hard to believe that some people consider the shoulder only fit for grind.  But then again, I'm sure the animal makes a big difference, all my personal experience so far is with a sample size of two muley does, I have no idea how versatile a whitetail buck will be.

I pulled a bag of random bits from the hindquarters out to thaw for a stew, not sure where I'm going with it yet.  I probably won't cook it until the weekend, so I have time to research.