Best Of MN: Venison Dish

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- If you're not a hunter, venison can be tough to get your hands on considering it's pretty rare to find it in a restaurant.

But occasionally you can order it from the Craftsman restaurant in Minneapolis.

"I'm really trying to go for like a Midwestern feel here," head chef Ben Jacoby said.  "If you do like some red meat, and you've never tried some venison before, think of a steak that has a little bit darker color and just a touch of a different flavor."

Jacoby changes his menu seasonally. Lask week he had venison, this week it's elk.

"When it's fresh and good like that, you don't need to do much to it," Jacoby said. "A little salt, pepper and oil will go a long, long way, and then you'll taste a lot more subtleties of the meat."

And don't over cook it. Jacoby says one of the big reasons people say they don't like venison, is because they haven't had it cooked properly.

"Either cook it rare to medium rare, or cook it forever in a braise to keep those juices," he said. "Because it's always lean."

Tenderloins, for example, should only take a few minutes.