Smokin venison

Thats what I do with shoulders.

when i smoke a shoulder i smoke it at about 150 for 3 or 4 hours then put it in the oven at about 250 till the gets so tender it about falls apart. Ive found just smoking them that the meat is not near as tender. Same goes for a brisket. One other thing i do is when the meat is cooked and i take it out of the smoker or oven i wrap it in a towel and let it cool for about an hour. this brings the juices deaper into the meat.

Wonderful way to do venison.....I like to "brine" it first (mixture 1 cup sugar, 1 cup salt, 1 gallon water), let it set for 24-48 hours then smoke and slice.

I go the opposite way...I'd wrap it in foil, throw it in a 225 degree oven and go to work, come home and lay it out in the smoker, open the foil and set the heat low and go to bed...Next morning, enjoy.

Venison is so dry, most of mine gets ground and the rest is crock potted. I have some recipes I'm thinkin' of trying, though, in my cook books for roast. I usually make stew meat, too, and sometimes I jerk some. I have quite a bit of sausage stuffed and have a sausage I'm going to smoke while I grind and stuff some wild hog sausage in the garage. I also have some wild pork ribs out from a fatty hog I trapped, going to grill that to go with the smoked sausage tonight. Mmmm, lookin' forward to supper. Just lit the charcoal, so it'll be a while.

We inject and brine good lean well trimmed roasts for a couple days then smoke/cook for about 9 hrs and cool. When sliced thin it makes great dried venison for sandwiches and is cured. If you've never had dried beef then you won't know what I'm talking about.

mmmm......wish I could find dried beef here!!! I'm gonna have to try that sometime!!!

I stuff it with slivers of garlic. When you think you've put in way too much garlic, you've got about the right amount. I smoke it at a pretty low temp and slice it as thin as I can when it's cold.

I smoke shoulders and rumps sometimes. I have an electric smoker with a water pan. The venison comes out nice and juicy as long as you don't overcook it too much. It is very good. I like to marinate in onions, garlic, and olive oil, then rub with a ground up mixture of mustard seed, chile powder, a little chipotle, and peppercorns. It gets salt when served. I serve shredded or sliced. It is great for sandwiches.

Anyone lay bacon over it, or cut it crossways and layer it with bacon for juice content?

I need serious help with my venison roasts. I can't ever seem to get them tender, even in a crock pot. I just got a Bradley smoker and have been thinking about experimenting.

I have some elk from a hunt this fall. Do you think I could smoke the elk in a similar way?

I've done pork shoulders, and the research I've done says to bring those all the way up to 180-185 internal temperature, which I'm guessing is way too high for venison.

So if I do the smoke for a few hours then transfer to the oven, how long do you generally leave it in for at 250? What internal temperature do you bring it to?

Rembrandt, that meat looks amazing. How long and what temp do you smoke at?

tikka-guy said:

Rembrandt, that meat looks amazing. How long and what temp do you smoke at?

Click to expand...

225 degrees for 3-4 hours

I like to bring venison up to 145-150 internal temp.

I occasionally cut two slices lengthwise down the loin, marinate a day, and put in thick strips of good smoked bacon, then wrap the outside with bacon, truss it, and smoke at 240 with applewood til 135-140 internal, let sit for 10 minutes, and slice. Ymmv.

Two pounds sliced bacon for a whole saddle. Xmas dinner is for 16. I'll invite more if the rock lock doesnt misfire again.

I smoke several pieces every year along with around 150 lbs. of summer sausage, vacuum sealed & froze it is ready to eat as soon as it is thawed, or you can heat it up for a hot meal..

First, folks remember that y'all are cooking the meat with smoke. There is a difference between that and "cold smoking" like you would do for dry bacon or a dry cured ham, which is a process of several says at about 90 degrees.

There are some factors to tenderness when dealing with venison.

First, if the animal was chased, i.e. it was wounded, and you jumped it up when tracking, the adrenalin "dump" tends to make the meat tough. Second, the age of the animal; older tends to be tougher, so folks going for that once in a lifetime trophy rack should not expect good eatin' (imho). Third, diet. If the deer at any age have to roam far, and the forage isn't that good, then they will be lean and tough, but if they have lots of food, and don't need to go far to get it, they tend to have more fat, and be tender. Fourth, venison tends to be more tender when cooked rare.

To "fix" the lack of tenderness, you can..., age the meat, but this needs to be done under a controlled environment for it to actually work. Some folks who "age" their meat are really rolling the dice between actually having no effect, to spoiling the meat. The other answers may be found in how you prepare the meat.

You can break down the fibers in the muscle tissue with meat tenderizer, or some marinades, but that often does not help with a big roast, as they are often too thick.

Now many many decades ago, beef wasn't grain fed at any time before butchering. This was true in Europe even in the 20th century. So by our standards that beef would be tasty..., but tough..., due to the low amount of fat in the meat. This is what is going on with the venison for many of y'all, and what some folks are attempting to do when they add bacon or other fat to the outside of a roast..., adding fat. The problem is sometimes the meat is sooo lean the fat added just isn't enough, or the roast is so big, you really can't add fat from the outside. Brines injected to the interior of the roast, must contain something like a meat tenderizer such as Papain or other ensyme to break down the meat fibers, or it must contain a fat or oil like olive oil, or it won't work.

So back in the day, to prepare a large, lean roast, even when it was to be served "rare" or "medium rare", they used a technique called Larding. A specific cut of pork fat, that was resilient, was injedted into the roast to add the fat. Most of the fat came out during the roasting, but enough of it permeated the meat, and kept it moist and tender. Now this isn't rendered "lard", but is fat from near the skin, sometimes called "fatback" but without any meat.

So when all else fails, you might want to try larding, and you can find the tool here:

Lehman's Larding Needle

Try this. You may have to hunt around a bit for a butcher with the right type of fat to cut into strips, but this was a tried and true method for correcting dry, tough meat.

LD

I smoke the backstraps. After aging, I cut the backstaps into lengths about 7 inches long. Then roll them in Montreal Steak Seasoning and wrap in saran wrap. After a day or two they are vacuum packed. Before smoking I soak in the same mixture I use for smoked pork butt, as I usually do one of those at the same time. I smoke for 1.5 hours using apple wood, then wrap in foil with a splash of apple juice or orange juice and toss into a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. I have a Brinkmann electric smoker with no heat control.

Ah.. picture of the roast I described above...

isn't venison hard to light?

If tenderness is a problem then a pressure cooker is the answer. Brown it in the bottom with just a little oil then Chop up an onion and toss in a couple of beef bullion cubes with enough water that it won't run dry. Give it 30-40 minutes of steam time in the pressure cooker. The result is venison so tender and tasty people will think it's beef.

As far as smoking goes, I have one of those Luhr Jensen units that really works best for cold smoking. I generally give meats a pan full of chips then finish them with a different heat source.

So I brined an elk roast in 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup salt, and 2 qt water for 24 hours. I gave it 3 hours of smoke and 4.5 hours total cooking time at 200-225. Brought the meat to 140 and loosely wrapped in foil for about 15 minutes. It's a perfect medium rare, and absolutely delicious. I'm going to pick up some horseradish tomorrow and make a kick-ass sandwich.

Thanks for the help everyone. I knew I wanted to try smoking an elk roast, but had no idea how to even approach it. It turned out great!

I mainly smoke the different sausages we make, but I need to smoke a roast this next season; those pics look tasty!!! I've also had good results with apple wood but a few chips of oak here and there to deepen the smoke flavor. A little hint... watch craigslist for the guys who trim their fruit trees and need someone to haul off the limbs.