First off, if the meat is frozen, thaw it out in the fridge (should take a day, sometimes two). Now that you have the meat thawed out, you're going to soak it overnight in salt-water in the refrigerator. This will draw most of the remaining blood out of the meat. I know lots of people who soak it overnight in milk, wine, brine, etc. Personally, I think it's a waste of good milk to soak it in milk, brining is useful only for certain recipes, and wine can be a great marinade once the meat has been soaked overnight in salt water. Again, that's just me - but it works.
Using a large bowl or pan that is large enough for the meat to get lost in, make a solution of salt water. This doesn't have to be salty enough to be considered brine. I will typically use a large mixing bowl for smaller cuts or a 5-quart pot for larger cuts. I'll add about 3 tablespoons of salt in the mixing bowl and about 1/3 cup or so to the large pot. Then fill it with water and stir until the salt is dissolved. Soak the meat, completely submerged, in the salt water overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, take the meat out of the salt water and dry it out a bit by squeezing the water out (your hands are clean, right?) and patting it with paper towels.
At this point, we're on to seasoning and tenderizing. I have one of these handy (but somewhat scary-looking) gadgets shown to the right. It's a Nor Pro Grip-Ez Professional Meat Tenderizer. You can buy them online or at some of the big kitchen stores at the mall. When you push it down on the meat, all of those nail-looking things go into the meat. This helps break down some of the connective tissues and any tough muscle tissues, making the meat tender. There are other types of tenderizers that work similarly, using "nails" or blades to puncture the meat. I do not use the hammer-type tenderizers unless the recipe calls for the meat to be beaten down to a wafer-thin slice.
If I'm cooking a roast whole, I'll use the tenderizer on all sides to make sure I've tenderized the whole thing all the way through. If I'm cooking steaks, I'll usually cut them a little thicker than I want, because using the tenderizer will smash them down a little bit. If I'm cooking the meat in small chunks or cubes, I'll first cut the meat into steaks, tenderize them, then cut into the chunks or cubes.
Now, the meat is ready to be seasoned or marinated. There are lots and lots of marinades available. Lately, I've been using the Allegro marinades which come in a lot of different flavors, including original, hickory smoke (my favorite), raspberry chipotle, teriyaki, etc. You can make your own marinades using olive oil, liquid smoke, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, cajun seasoning, etc. Be creative and experiment. In general, your marinade should have oil (because venison is so lean), acid (like the vinegar - don't use too much) to help further tenderize the meat, and seasonings for flavor. Go online and see what others are using. You can even use regular ol' Italian salad dressing. And you don't have to marinade venison overnight! A couple of hours is more than enough. All those little holes you poked in the meat when you were tenderizing it, became little channels for the marinade to seep into.
Before getting into specific recipes, I want to say something about cooking the venison - venison is NOT beef; don't cook it like beef! One of the most common mistakes is overcooking. You want to shoot more towards the rare side of medium rare. Don't shoot for the well done side of done. Overcooking venison makes it tough and nasty-tasting. If you want your venison to taste like liver and turn people off from eating it, skip all of the above steps and cook it until it's well done. However, if you want to impress people and hear them say things like, "MMMmmmmm....mmmmthis..mmmrrr..is...mmmmmmreallly..mmmmGulp...GOOD!", then properly prepare the meat, soak it, tenderize it, flavor it, and cook it like venison.
Ok, NOW I'm getting hungry!
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