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Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Nothing like rainy days — days and days of rain — to bring out the braised meat urge in me. Storms slow us all down, and there must be some sort of aromatherapy going on when you fill your home with the smell of slowly cooking goodness.
Nothing braises quite like a shank, whether it be lamb, beef, veal or, in this case, venison. For the hunters out there, we all know that we really shouldn’t waste the shanks of the deer, elk or antelope we shoot. But shanks have so much sinew and connective tissue there really isn’t much to do with them. So most of us grind it for burger meat.
This is a shame, as my shank-eating friends will attest. Shanks, frankly, suck if not cooked slowly and for a long, long time. The only other thing you can do with a shank besides braise it is to put them in a stock or stew. But well browned and then bathed in aromatic juices and served falling off the bone? Oooh, this is seriously good stuff.
Why? Shanks are essentially an animal’s calf. In fact, these venison shanks bore a disturbing resemblance to my left calf, with its torn Achilles tendon. Sigh. I will heal. This deer, which Holly shot in Placer County this year, will not. But I digress. Calves, as we all know, do a lot of work. And muscles that do a lot of work get a) tough as hell, and b) really, really flavorful.
The trick is to break down all that connective tissue into a silky coating that moistens and sweetens the meat. Add to this a powerful sauce — shanks always need a good sauce, in my opinion — and you have a surpassing meal from a lowly piece of the animal.
But which sauce? You pretty much need something big for a shank, and as I began paging through cookbooks, I thought about a one I’d recently bought by David Leite called The New Portuguese Table. 
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Naturally I can’t leave well enough alone, so I modified Leite’s recipe by adding chiles and juniper berries, doubling the red wine called for and by finely pureeing the sauce at the end.
Why puree? Because you can use the leftover sauce to dress homemade pasta such as tagliatelle…
Typical sides for a braised thing are a mashed thing and a green thing. Why mess with the formula? So I decided to mash celery root with two tablespoons of mascarpone cheese and one tablespoon of butter — if you’ve never done the mascarpone and mashed veggie thing, try it! Heaven.
And for the greens, I just happened to have some nettles on hand, thanks to my friend Josh, who was nice enough to gather them for me. I am about to embark on an exploration of All Things Nettle (more on that later), and I wanted to start by eating them au naturale — blanched, then sauteed with olive oil and salt.
I gotta say, nettles are bland without help. Slightly less flavorful than spinach. But everything else was dy-no-mite! The sauce was sweet-savory-spicy-hot-rich (did I mention there is six ounces of pureed, simmered homemade bacon in it?). The venison shank we ate with just a fork — no knife needed. And it was tender, silky-smooth and super flavorful.
Could you do this recipe with a lamb shank? You bet, although it will not be as flavorful because the animal was young. Better to use a slice of beef shank, or the shank from a hog. Hunters, don’t hesitate to use this recipe on wild boar or elk shanks, too — I need to go elk hunting this fall so I can get me more of them!
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BRAISED VENISON SHANKS, PORTUGUESE STYLE
Every deer has four shanks, and as a conscientious hunter you know you ought to do something with them, so most people have the butcher turn them into ground meat. A shame, as a properly braised whole venison shank is every bit as tender as a lamb shank.
These venison shanks are so tender you could eat them with a fork, and the sauce is so rich you’ll want to save the leftovers for pasta sauce. We served these shanks with sauteed nettles and celery root puree with a little mascarpone cheese mixed in. You could do that, but mashed potatoes and spinach would be just as good.
Serves 4.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 4 hours
- 4 venison shanks or lamb shanks
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon allspice berries
- 1 teaspoon juniper berries
- 8 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 hot dried chile
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 ounces of slab bacon cut into chunks (use thick-cut slices if you can’t get slab bacon)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 yellow onions, grated on a coarse grater
- 1 head of garlic, cloves peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 bottle red wine
- 2 cups beef stock or venison stock
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- Salt
- Salt shanks and set aside.
- In a shallow pot with a lid (a Dutch oven will do), put spices and herbs in with the wine and molasses. If your bacon had the rind on it, put that in, too. Turn the heat to medium-low.
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
- Pour olive oil into a second pan set over medium heat. Fry the bacon slowly, turning all sides to get crispy. As each piece crispifies, toss it into the pot with the wine. Do not let the wine pot go past a gentle simmer.
- When the bacon is done, brown the shanks on all sides except the one with the bone; this helps the shank stay together after long cooking. Take your time on this one, and do this over medium heat. It could take 20 minutes.
- Move the shanks to the wine pot, bone side sticking up.
- Put the onions in the other pan and turn the heat up to high. Toss to combine. You will notice the onions will deglaze the pan. After about 5 minutes like this, add the garlic and toss to combine. Continue cooking until you hear the sound change: That’s onions losing enough moisture to begin browning. Cook another minute or two.
- Pour in the stock and mix it well with the onions. Bring to a furious boil and make sure you’scraped everything off the bottom of the pan.
- Add to the wine pot, mixing in with all the other ingredients. Make sure the shanks are still bone side up.
- Cover and cook in the oven for 3-4 hours. Venison, being wild, is difficult to gauge doneness — you might have shot an old deer, or a yearling. Each will require different cooking times.
- When the meat is almost falling off the bone, remove it gently and tent it with foil.
- Fish out the bay leaves, cinnamon stick and as many cloves, peppercorns, allspice and juniper berries as you can in a few minutes. It’s OK if you don’t get them all.
- Puree the sauce in a blender or pass it through a food mill set on a medium setting. It should be thick. Pour over the shanks and serve at once with mashed root veggies and something green.
I was hoping you’d offer up your rendition of a shank braise. I’ve got a few matching sets ready for the treatment. Holly’s pic of the marrow looks inviting….any report on how that tasted???
Holy smack – what an improvement! How slick! How polished!
I’ve had mixed success with braising game shanks. Probably just didn’t give them enough time. I now have a 5 hour minimum rule for anything that needs long and slow.
For whatever reason I never really considered doing venison or elk shanks. I’ll be putting that on my list if I bag one or both this fall.
On a side note I braised a pig roast from a sow I shot this summer. I was light on fat despite adding some slab bacon, but once again your estratto came in handy. That stuff is awesome for braising, too bad I’m running low.
Wow, that sounds delicious!
“Hank’s Shanks”…or not, given your Achilles reference.
Congrats again to Holly on her first deer. And thanks for the recipe. I’ll keep it in mind if the gods of the hunt smile on me next fall.
Would kill for venison shanks! Alas, all we have are lamb, goat and alpaca.
Sounds really good. We are running low on venison as we did not get a deer this year. Time to get serious about steelheading I guess.
Too bad you posted this after deer season ended here in Virginia. I used all of mine (32) to make several batches of Pho’ this past year. I was sure it was the best use for a shank until now. I guess the verdict will be out till next bow season…
I am not sure about the nettles on the left side of the nation but here we have stinging nettles which are excellent in a pesto or cremed like spinach with nutmeg. I picked up a small book on the uses of nettles that covers everthing from rennett, to wine, to intimate marital aid (seriously) let me know if you’re in need.
Carolina Rig: Marrow is, as always, smooth and delicious. I only go a few bites of this one, because I did not feel like cracking the bones.
Kevin: Thanks for the kind words about the new site. As for wild game shank tenderness, all things come in time. Five hours is a long time, but maybe you need that for your Calgary moose…
J.R. Glad you like the estratto! Make more next year. I make a couple quarts and it is all gone by May,
Tovar: You’ll get your deer. Just be sure to scout well in summertime!
Stephanie: Alpaca shanks? Oooh, sporty! Any noticable difference in taste? Oh, and goat shanks will be closer to venison than lamb. Goats tend to be more athletic than baby sheep.
Brady: You shot EIGHT deer this year? Christ. And yes, pho is an excellent use of a shank — a few Vietnamese places here in Sacramento offer shank as an option in their pho. As for that nettle book, where can I find it? I am looking for all the info I can gather…
They are like rats here in VA. If you shoot’em small like I like to, you need to get some serious numbers if you want to put any meat away. Some guys like to talk about the points on the rack, I’d rather talk about the two young does I took in one evening, both with headshots. Now that was a sweet buthering job. I like to french out the racks and it’s a lot easier to do without a .300 WSM hole in the rib cage.
I’ll check on the book and get back with you.
Great post, Hank, and happy to get all welted up picking nettles for you.
I’ve tried mine, and they are a tad bland, too. Another nettle-nerd headed out with me last Saturday, and she put it in a lasagna, I believe. We’ll be making a duck egg-&-nettle quiche in a couple of days here.
Next batch, I’m trying something with the nettle tea.
Brady, I’m also very interested in that nettle book, and would love to know the title!
Here here to shanks!
Did two Jamaican Curry Goat Shanks last night, came out amazingly. Goat is great but most parts need a braise, and shanks are top of that list.
Fantastic stuff. Like you I live for braising on cold days. Course, mine has never consisted of a venison shank!
Hank –
I can’t tell you how much I feel like for kickin’ myself for all those years, I let my buddy that I hunt the San Mateo County coast with keep throwing his deer shanks, and mine, to his deer hounds. Yes, they earned them, but this family’s dogs got enough from other great fresh scraps every Half Moon Bay area deer season for the last 180 years.
Once I modified a Greek recipe from Mykonos, on Polk in San Francisco (they use lamb shanks–great recipe I should post on my blog that includes vinegar, mint leaves, tomatoes and onions), I no longer put my venison shanks in the dog bowl.
BTW ShotShow was great–reconnected with a number of manufacturers (Beretta, Aya, Arietta [weird speaking Spanish Spanish and aspirating those Zs into Tha-thas, instead of S]) and built some great relationships with new companies: will you be healed in time to try these new Trulock Turkey chokes I have to field trial and review (Spring turkey opener’s end of March)?
Gotta take more time for ShotShow next year: but it really conflicts with Safari Club Int’l in Reno. Splits up writers too much.
Cheers,
Cork
Hey hank
Really looking forward to your Nettle investigations.
my aunt and dad have both reported a vast improvement in the strength of their finger nails since they have been drinking a daily nettle tea.
SBW
We processed about 20 lbs of venison today for sausage and got so sick of the tedium of cutting all the connective tissue away from the shanks, so I told Charlie to stop and I’d make the shanks for dinner tonight. We made a sort of bastardized version of this based on what we had available. It was un-freaking believable. So delicious. I (and about 8 of my neighbors) were so happily stuffed on this wonderful recipe. It was perfect timing that you posted this! We benefited immesely. Thanks!
We’ve been on a bit of a shank fest lately ourselves. Over the holidays I made lamb shanks with garam masala that were pretty delish and then this last week my hubby made some that were braised with red wine. He served them with a blue cheese infused barley pilaf and roasted fennel. So yummy!
Made the recipe yesterday with a batch of Canada goose legs and did the slow cooking in the crock pot. Man, it was awesome. Made a convert of my buddy who was over for dinner–he’s typically a breast-out only goose hunter and now says he “pulling legs”!
[...] dining experience, however, does not cooking expertise make. Thus, I looked at a few recipes, here, here, and here, blending them all together and hoping for the [...]
[...] Two months ago, I got lucky in rifle season and thought back to one of Hank’s posts about braising venison shanks. Instead of trimming and grinding all those small, tough muscles, I decided to freeze the [...]
I’m looking at what is labeled a venison shank in my freezer and it looks like the TOP of the leg, not the calf. Did they mis-label it?
Brigid: Yep, they mislabeled. Shank is the “calf” of an animal, not the top.
The Portugese venison shanks are superb. Thank you, Hank. I think it’s the cinnamon and the molasses.
[...] Two months ago, I got lucky in rifle season and thought back to one of Hank’s posts about braising venison shanks. Instead of trimming and grinding all those small, tough muscles, I decided to freeze the [...]
hank, your pic looks frenched. Any technique to this? french from bottom up?
Hank, how well do the whole shanks freeze? Any problem with freezing shanks for awhile before braising them? I’ve always been frustrated trying to separate the shank meat from the “compartments” of silver skin on small to mid size deer.
Christian: They freeze just fine. Wrap them in plastic wrap, then butcher paper. They cannot be easily vacuum sealed unless you have a heavy duty model. The shanks I made this recipe with were frozen…
I was just introduced to this site by a friend. A few weeks back I had asked the butcher to save the shanks from my deer rather than grind with sausage meat. I can’t wait to try this. than you.
[...] tonight is some leftover venison shank I made last night with this delicious Portuguese recipe. I’m planning to take out the leftover meat, and clean off some of the fat and unappetizing [...]
Thanks for this awesome recipe, We enjoyed this one last night with gnocchi in the sauce. I overdid the molasses, but added the dregs of coffee (steeping all day in the french press) to bring back the sweetness and to make up for not having any stock.
[...] Shaw has some excellent shank recipes over Hunter Angler Garder Cook site. We have used his Portugese Style Shank Recipe as a foundation for improvised recipes and found them to be a big hit at the table. At this [...]
Just tried this recipe with some medium sized doe shanks and they were fantastic. I’ve always loved lamb shanks and these tasted very much like the best I’ve ever had. They took exactly four hours in the oven to get tender. I served them with wild rice and mixed greens (kale, mustard, and turnip) and they were a huge hit. It’s great finally finding something to do with the shanks other than just grinding them up (and having them bog down my grinder in the process). Thanks for the recipe. By the way, I’m on my third copy of your book. I’ve loaned it out twice and have never been able to get it back, which is either an indication of the high quality of the book or the low quality of my friends.
Just made this with a single shank from a Colorado mule deer buck. Fed three with sides of mashers and kale and lots of wine. In this case, 8 hours with a little extra water seemed to be ideal: 6 hours at 300 degrees two days ago, then a day in the fridge while I figured out who to invite, then a 2-hour reheat at 275 degrees this evening.
It’s ridiculously good, and I’ve got 3 cups of the blended sauce to pour over a more traditional roast, or just to sop up with good bread. I like backstraps like everyone else, but I’ve begun to covet the shanks and give them the white glove treatment when butchering. There’s a little bit of magic as the tendons and silver skin disappear into a moist, delicious chunk of meat. Warning: this is a gateway recipe – you’ll start to reconsider your venison cut hierarchy, and you may just have a lot less burger and chili to contend with when the next hunting season comes around.