The holidays are a special time of year for everyone, but for hunters, it happens to fall at a particularly good time. Many of us will have just completed a couple months of steady hunting away from our families, and the holiday season gives us a couple days to unwind and spend some quality time with loved ones.

If our preparation and hard work met a little luck somewhere out in the bush, we now have a freezer full of some of the best organic meat around. So one night this holiday season, why not treat the family to some of the good game cuts you worked so hard to bring home? While this butter roasted venison with gin and juniper blueberry sauce is simple, it will impress and satisfy everyone's taste buds this winter.

There are a couple of reasons the gin and juniper blueberry sauce is perfect for your venison roast. For starters, it’s a simple-to-make sauce that you can hold hot leading up to dinner. And although it might sound out of the ordinary, it pairs perfect with venison. Juniper berries give gin it’s distinctive flavor and work well with dark wild game, giving your venison an exotic flavor. Finally, juniper grows in abundance in deer and elk ranges, so combining the two is a natural fit.
This specific recipe uses deer backstrap, but it can easily be adapted to use elk backstrap or any other venison roast. If you’re preparing a big roast that requires more cooking time, transfer the cast iron pan directly to the oven after flipping and roast at 325° F. When the middle of the roast is 10-15°F below where you want it, pull it from the oven and continue with the butter basting steps over the stovetop.
In addition to the roast, we have included a recipe for roasted yams with sage, but this venison recipe will work with any of the standard holiday table fare. Enjoy!