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Venison French dip sandwich with melted cheese and a small bowl of au jus

Venison French Dip

Spencer Neuharth is the director of web content at MeatEater, producer of Wired to Hunt, and founder of Rut Fresh. His writing has been featured in over a dozen magazines, including Field & Stream, Petersen's Hunting, and Men's Journal. His work is a reflection of his roots as a whitetail hunter and training as a biologist.
  • Course

    Small Bites

  • Serves

    4
Chef’s notes

For getting canned meat to the dinner table, one of my favorite creations is French dips. They’re super easy to make, and totally beat the alternative of using sliced deli meat or shredded roasts that take hours to achieve the tenderness of canned venison. It’s an oddly American food, too, with no French origin that’s traceable.

Instead, there are two Los Angeles based restaurants that claim to be the founder of French dips. Both of their stories date back to the early 1900s, with one insisting that the sandwich was created for a customer who had complained of stale bread, while the other asserts that the dip was invented for a favorite patron who had sore gums.

However it came to be, I salute the chef that first made this wonderful dish, and thank the ungulate that provides it. If the process of canning meat if foreign to you, grab a copy ofThe MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook.

Ingredients

  • 1 qt. of canned venison
  • 2 cups of low sodium beef broth
  • 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 onions
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • Sub rolls
  • Sliced cheese

Preparation

  1. In a Dutch oven, pour in entire jar of canned venison (including liquid). Cut up onions in large chunks, so that they can easily be removed from the Dutch oven later. I only cut my onions two times each. Add onions, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce and minced garlic to Dutch oven.

  2. On a low setting, heat the meat for as long as you please and shred before serving. I’ve done it from 30 minutes to 3 hours. Since the meat is already cooked, you can leave this in the Dutch oven for any amount of time.

  3. When ready to serve, remove the onions and toss. Strain the meat from the liquid, and keep the liquid as your au jus dipping sauce. Spoon a little bit of liquid back into the pot with meat to give it some moisture.

  4. On a sub roll, add meat and cheese before placing in the oven at 350 degrees for 4 minutes. Serve next to a cup of au jus.

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Venison French Dip

Recipe by:Spencer Neuharth
Venison French dip sandwich with melted cheese and a small bowl of au jus
  • Course

    Small Bites

  • Serves

    4
Chef’s notes

For getting canned meat to the dinner table, one of my favorite creations is French dips. They’re super easy to make, and totally beat the alternative of using sliced deli meat or shredded roasts that take hours to achieve the tenderness of canned venison. It’s an oddly American food, too, with no French origin that’s traceable.

Instead, there are two Los Angeles based restaurants that claim to be the founder of French dips. Both of their stories date back to the early 1900s, with one insisting that the sandwich was created for a customer who had complained of stale bread, while the other asserts that the dip was invented for a favorite patron who had sore gums.

However it came to be, I salute the chef that first made this wonderful dish, and thank the ungulate that provides it. If the process of canning meat if foreign to you, grab a copy ofThe MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook.

Ingredients

  • 1 qt. of canned venison
  • 2 cups of low sodium beef broth
  • 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 onions
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • Sub rolls
  • Sliced cheese

Preparation

  1. In a Dutch oven, pour in entire jar of canned venison (including liquid). Cut up onions in large chunks, so that they can easily be removed from the Dutch oven later. I only cut my onions two times each. Add onions, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce and minced garlic to Dutch oven.

  2. On a low setting, heat the meat for as long as you please and shred before serving. I’ve done it from 30 minutes to 3 hours. Since the meat is already cooked, you can leave this in the Dutch oven for any amount of time.

  3. When ready to serve, remove the onions and toss. Strain the meat from the liquid, and keep the liquid as your au jus dipping sauce. Spoon a little bit of liquid back into the pot with meat to give it some moisture.

  4. On a sub roll, add meat and cheese before placing in the oven at 350 degrees for 4 minutes. Serve next to a cup of au jus.