Bacon Wrapped Tenderloin

Hubby hunts to spend time with his friends, to spend time in the great outdoors and because I like venison.  He will eat it, but it has to be properly prepared - i.e., it shouldn't taste like venison.  At least  not TOO gamy.  To that end, we make bologna, breakfast sausage, snack sticks and canned venison.  Canning masks the gamy flavor enough that he thought it was roast beef.  That just lets the tenderloin, roasts and steaks that I keep to cook otherwise.  Thanks to my friend Sheila, I have learned that soaking the venison in buttermilk helps remove some of the gamy flavor.  Now, to the recipe.  Hubby was so excited by this recipe - he really liked it.  He even asked if I made it with beef or with venison.  Truth be told, it doesn't matter which you use, but this time I used venison.

  10 Ounce Soy Sauce                                                                1 - 2 Lb Tenderloin

  3/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar                                                      2 Tbl Red Hot

  3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar                                                      1/2 Lb Bacon

Mix the soy sauce and sugars, pour over the tenderloin.  Marinade at least 3 hours.  Remove from marinade, DO NOT discard marinade.

Wrap the tenderloin in bacon and hold with toothpicks.  Bake at 350 degrees until meat registers 5 - 10 degrees below done (done is 140 for medium venison, 145 for medium beef).  Baste with reserved marinade while baking.  When meat reaches the 5 - 10 degrees below done, remove it from the oven to a hot cast iron or other heavy skillet and finish it in that pan so the outside is crisp.  

If you don't have a cast iron pan, use the heaviest pan you have.  If you don't like crisp bacon, you can skip this step.