If there is any truth to the stereotypes that gay men craft the prettiest hors d’oeuvres and lesbians whip up the best ranch dressing, then it’s probably safe to allege that straight guys hold the secret to cooking venison.

With just a third of the calories of beef and a fraction of the fat, you would think that this “other red meat” would appear in restaurants frequented by GLBT diners — or at least start flying off the grills at those G-string summer pool parties. Yet if you begin scouting for answers on where to buy it or how to eat it, you’ll most likely end up conferring with a friend who subscribes to Hunter’s Horn magazine.

According to the Maine Deer and Elk Farmers Association, venison consumption in the U.S. has more than tripled over the past 10 years. But who in our community is eating it? Judging from an informal poll I conducted within my wide circle of foodie associates, not too many.

“Nauseating,” said one friend. “Too tough and gamy,” says another. And when I asked a meat-eating lesbian couple whom I know well, their reply was, “We’re lucky if we can get our friends to eat bacon! Venison is definitely a meat that is limited to those willing to carry a gun and retrieve it.”

So to the straight sector of society I turned, where my friend Chris Liles of Bay Ho just happened to be yanking out of his freezer a few filets from a deer that he “harvested” from the last hunting season.

“Why is venison basically a straight man’s meat?” I asked.

“I don’t think many gay people are hunters, which is the most common way to get it,” he replied. “To my knowledge, I’ve never eaten venison in the company of gays, although I plan to introduce it to a lesbian couple that I’ll be having over soon.”

Lucky for them that Liles eats venison about three times a week, which means that he’s familiar with its versatility. His larder includes 33 pounds of breakfast sausage, filets and ground meat, all of which were processed with the help of a butcher at Bisher’s Quality Meats in Ramona.

Ground venison is typically mixed with about five percent cow fat, which Liles says helps hold it together when making tacos or spaghetti sauce. “The ground meat is what really sparked my interest in venison after I had eaten it in the form of a burger,” he recalls. “I don’t think it tastes gamy or gives off a smell that is any different from beef. It just depends how you cook it.”

Liles is also particularly fond of cooking venison in a Crock Pot for Irish stew, or barbecuing the filets on his backyard grill. But he warns that “you have to marinate the steaks first — even the top sirloin cuts — because they are low in fat, and start out as thin and chewy.”

Another rule of thumb is to cook the filets medium rare. “Well-done is not acceptable because the meat quickly dries out, but it’s okay to fully cook the ground meat because of the added beef fat in it.”

If you can’t fathom the thought of brandishing a rifle in the woods with your straight-guy friends, yet want to sample what the American Heart Association has endorsed as a “heart-healthy red meat,” there are a few places locally that sell venison year-round.

The boys at Bisher’s, for example, offer additional advice for cooking the steaks, chops, racks and medallions they sell from their Ramona and Poway stores. Call them at (760) 789-1488 or (858) 513-0509. And at Siesel’s Old Fashion Meats, at (619) 275-1234 in Bay Park, a variety of venison sausages also feeds the demand that could potentially surface within the GLBT community if someone ever decides to present it in the shape of a tower surrounded with a nice port wine reduction.