VENISON TOMAHAWK STEAK SKIN
VENISON TOMAHAWK STEAK FULL

As you can notice the amount of meat on the one end is quite a bit less than the other end.

VENISON TOMAHAWK STEAK FULL

Now you should have a full rack of ribs with the backstrap attached. If you don’t have a fine-toothed meat saw, you can also use a tomahawk. Cut the very top of each rib, being careful not to saw into the meat. This is a bit tricky to get started, but once you’re in a rib or two it becomes easier and easier. As you saw, use your other hand to pull the rack of ribs away from the spine. The easiest way to achieve this is to cut from the inside of the body cavity. Next use your meat saw to begin cutting the top of the ribs at the point where they join the spine. The first cut is right against the line of the spine. Just cut straight down beside the vertebrae until you feel the top of the rib bones and slice the length of the backstrap. Be careful not to leave any meat against the backbone, and don’t follow down around the rib like you would when taking out the backstrap. The next cut will be right along the vertebrae line the entire depth of the backstrap. 5-6 inches seems to be about proportionate. So simply decided how much rib you want to keep and saw them at that length with a fine-toothed meat saw. I like to leave about 5-6” which still gives it a nice presentation and seems about proportionate to the size of the venison steak. If you only leave an inch or two that would sometimes be called a “caveman steak” or bone-in-rib-steak. If you “French” or clean the entire bone, that would be considered the classic presentation.

The first decision will be how much rib bone we want to leave on the steak. There are varying opinions on hanging and aging the meat, so I won’t be the final judge on what you decided to do regarding that, I’ll simply say that you want the carcass dry and clean and the silver-skin removed.

VENISON TOMAHAWK STEAK SKIN

Carefully field dress and skin the deer as soon as possible to reduce unwanted flavors. As with any meat processing, what is done to the carcass immediately after the kill is vitally important. The first thing to know is that a tomahawk steak is very simply a cross-section of the “backstrap” or loin of the deer, with a portion of the rib bone still attached. The following is a short photo presentation of the process that I use to turn a dead deer into a succulent and classy feast that may very well change your life forever! The reception of that first one was so overwhelmingly positive that it actually affected my visual perception of the world! From that moment on every deer that I saw was simply a rack of tomahawk steaks with legs! I was instantly obsessed and immediately began learning the steps to extract them on my own. Hesitant to mess things up, the first time I flopped a tomahawk steak on my grill it came from my favorite local butcher. Whatever you want to call it, I’ve been fascinated with trying them for myself ever since I first saw them cropping up on my Instagram feed. In beef it’s known as a bone-in-ribeye or “cowboy steak”, in deer it’s often called a “tomahawk steak” or “whitetail lollipop”.

With the rise of social media, many of us have likely seen the presentation of a beautiful tomahawk steak. However, the satisfaction I’ve derived from carefully curating the transformation from field to plate has led me to dive ever deeper into the process, and in so doing I’ve gained a new and deeper appreciation for each step along the way. The thought of picking up a couple of boxes of professionally butchered and wrapped meat has always been appealing to me, so learning to do it myself has been a slow process. I’ve always been a little timid when it comes to processing my own meat.

Venison tomahawk steak