Venison steak with juniper butter
Leaner than beef and higher in protein, so it wants a compound butter rather than a longer cook — and it is ruined by both overcooking and resting too briefly.
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Ingredients
For the whole dish · serves 2
- Venison loin13 oz
- Butter1¾ oz
- Shallot1½ oz
- Juniper berries6, crushed
- Thymea few sprigs
- Sea saltto taste
Served with
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+3g net · 105 kcal · 12 min · together 5g net, 497 kcal
Method
6 steps · 20 minutes
- Mash the crushed juniper and the thyme leaves into two-thirds of the butter with a pinch of salt, and put it back in the fridge to firm up.
- Take the venison out of the fridge 20 minutes ahead and dry it thoroughly. Salt it just before it goes in the pan.
- Get the pan very hot with the remaining butter and sear the steaks 2 minutes a side for rare, 3 for medium-rare. Venison has almost no fat to protect it and goes from pink to gray fast.
- Add the finely sliced shallot to the pan for the last minute, tossing it in the fat.
- Rest the steaks somewhere warm for a full 8 minutes — as long as they cooked. This is not optional with a lean cut.
- Slice thickly against the grain and put a disc of the juniper butter on each portion so it melts on the way to the table.
Macros are per serving and are estimates worked out from the ingredients. Keto Tracker AI is a food logging tool and does not give medical advice; talk to a doctor before changing your diet.
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