“Roastbeef Style” Fallow Deer

I am sure that many people heard about the classic English roast beef recipe, that nice piece of beef cooked medium or medium/rare, and then usually served cold and thin sliced.

But I saw on some hunters groups that it was possible to do it also with game meat, so since I had at home a nice piece of fallow deer (a muscle of the thigh), today I decided to try, and it was a good idea 🙂

Let’s see.

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

1,0-1,2 kg of muscle from the leg (I think it is called sirloin tip in English, but I am not sure), I used fallow deer but also other animals of the deer family are perfect too
60 g coarse salt
10 g fresh sage
10 g fresh rosemary
extra virgin olive oil

Remove the meat from the fridge 1 hour in advance. Preheat the oven at 220 °C. Tie the meat with kitchen twine, then season the meat with a little bit of salt (not much, we’ll add it later too) and a thin layer of oil.
In a robot add the coarse salt, the sage and the rosemary (just the leaves), and reduce it to a mixture.
Heat a cast-iron pan, and when it’s hot brown the meat on all the sides. Few minutes is enough, just the time to make a nice crust.
After that, take an oven tray, place a grid inside and place the browned meat on it. On the top spread the mixture of coarse salt and herbs (you can add to the mixture a small spoon of water, to make it wet).
Place the meat in the oven at 220 °C, fan assisted mode, for the first 10-12 minutes, then reduce the temperature at 180 °C and bake for other 15 minutes, about. Switch off the oven when you reach a temperature at the core of the meat of 54-55 °C (but it can vary depending on taste).
Cover well the meat with an aluminium foil, and let it rest in the oven (leave the door open) for at least 50-60 minutes. Or even more, as we said it can be eaten cold too.
After the resting time, remove the salt/herbs rub from the meat, and cut thin slices.
I served it with new potatoes first boiled, then cut in half and cooked in butter. And I also prepared a citronette with the juice of a lemon, a spoon of mustard and 30-40 ml of extra virgin olive oil. But it was great also just to add on the meat few drops of a good quality balsamic condiment.