Smoked Venison Leg

[Altjaeger]

My daughter and her family are about to move to northern West Virginia and will be here this weekend to say goodbye. Also joining us will be my Dad, my younger son and half a dozen assorted grandkids.

I have the hindquarters from an orphaned fawn I shot last fall and plan to smoke both at about 200 degrees. My plan is to loosely follow the process that Alan McDaniel has posted here before.

I plan to give them a good rub and then pin about 1/2 a lbs of bacon around each before smoking about 2 hours. After 2 hours I plan to wrap them individually n foil and cook 6-8 more hours, then unwrap and strip the bacon away before smoking a few more minutes to even the coloring.

Any comments or suggestions? Any comments on the idea of injecting them a day in advance with marinade to allow it to disperse evenly? I will listen to all and maybe even heed a few!:D

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

That one must have been posted before the crash. I would inject with marinade of choice and Cajun Butter or even olive oil. Sometimes I do it over the course of a couple of days and I keep re-injecting the fluid that leaks out of the ham. Good luck the only advice I would add for deer is to not let it dry out. It will dry out even if wrapped in foil. 200 degrees is a good heat and will kepp that from happening. Use a meat thermometer and wrap it when internal temp is 165. It should be good.

Alan

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Yes, the time on the post is correct. #2 son had brake trouble and I just got back from a run to San Antonio to help him out. Left at 7:30, had a Blowout half way, changed out the master cylinder and got the brakes working good enough for him to follow me back to Goliad We got back at about 1:30. I'm getting too old for this $#!&.

Alan

[Bill Gunn]

Hey Dad,
I'll be in San Antonio next week, good to know I can give you a call if I have trouble :D

That smoked Venison sounds very good !!

[Altjaeger]

Yes, the time on the post is correct... I'm getting too old for this $#!&.

Alan


:D:D:DYa, makes you wonder if their worth it sometimes!

I remembered your old post and thats hy I asked. I am setting them out to thaw this morning. You say wrap at 165 degrees. Do you have a target tempature to call them done?

Bill, I sent yu PM.

[Twanger]

We usually smoke them for a couple of hours draped in bacon, and then wrap them up as-is in foil and smoke for another couple of hours.

[Renegade]

Thanks, Now I'm hungry!

Just a couple thoughts from my own limited experience with smoking. I've only ever hot smoked chicken, everything else was cold smoked. I use a Smokey Mountain charcoal smoker and find that it will hold a constant temp of 140-150 without much effort or babysitting. That's at the high end of the cold smoking temp range from what I've read. I usually smoke meats that I'm going to cook soon afterwards for at least 3 hours.
My concern was that if you wrap the meat prior to smoking, it may not allow as much penetration into the venison. Maybe that's not an issue but it was the first thing that came to mind. I do like to use a good quality smoked bacon on it when I go to cook it. And of course onions, lots of onions!
I also believe that when any meat reaches an internal temp. of 160 it is considered done.

[Altjaeger]

My normal routine with something like a beef brisket is to smoke it a couple of hours to get that flavor to it after covering it with a good rub and then wrap it tight. After that it either goes back on the smoker or in the oven at 200 degrees for 6-8 hours. Basically I invision something similar except for the injections and bacon.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

On venison, I call 165 done.

Alan

[SeniorCoot]

I'd forget the bacon and don't think you need quite as much time( I did 8 today for sat party) I use a rub(my own) and inject with my jerky marinade- then smoke cook for 2-3 hrs- wrap in foil and continue for 2 hrs more- let it sit for 30 min and slice thin- great-

[Altjaeger]

I just mixed 12 oz of a mesquite marinade with about 6 os of olive oil and divided it between the two hams injecting until it ran out. I will check and inject them more tomorrow and Friday as needed and cook them Saturday. The chips are soaking and should be very smokey by Saturday.

[SeniorCoot]

Enjoy--I will be up at 4am on Sat to finish off BBQue briskets for lunch @ 11am.

[Altjaeger]

Enjoy--I will be up at 4am on Sat to finish off BBQue briskets for lunch @ 11am.

Enjoy all that company!!!

I will sleep a bit later. I am sure we will be up late Friday night visiting. We'll do pizza for lunch and eat these hams Saturday night so I guess start them about mid to late morning.

Sunday lunch I will do lasagne.

[dave-t.]

Senior Coot, I slice my smoked meat as thin as possible with a sharp fillet knife. Turns out great even if you have a tough piece of meat, after it is sliced thin and cross grain, it is tender.

[SeniorCoot]

I cut my brisket cross grain but not too thin it's tender after about 12 hrs in cooker--

[Altjaeger]

I injected another 15 oz last night,. I figure I have right at a liter of marinade split between the hams and am brushng them ocassionally too. I am almost afraid I may have overdone it and displayed my obsessive/compulsive side.:)

[Renegade]

Tell me a bit about your cooking method. I usually do any venison to be cooked for a long time in a roosting pan, with the meat sitting about 2/3rds in a liquid of some type. I have yet to get it "melt in your mouth, finger licken', just like the ol' camp cook used to make". So I'm looking for ways of improvement. I do up most of my venison as steak cuts and cook them hot and fast. The long and slow cuts I have yet to get down pact.

One thing I like to do and maybe some of you have tried is to put a couple steaks in a vacuum bag, add some KC Masterpiece Steakhouse marinade, then seal it. Let it set for a day before freezing. It's ready for the grill or skillet then once thawed. Great flavor. I do something similar with fajita strips and picante sauce / spices that works well too.

[Altjaeger]

All the company is gone. Time to sit down and evaluate. First I am dissapointed and blame it on myself as a relative neophyte to injection.. My previous experience has been cautious use with domestic turkey. I injected about 16-18 oz of marinade per hindquarter which proved too much resulting in meat flavored excessively of the marinade and a bit more like boiled than smoked in texture. I lost about 3-4 oz in leakage before I ever put them on the smoker.

The smoker is an electric smoker without heat controls and I suspect in the 100 debree sun was near 250 degrees rather than the target 200 degree. After 2 hours I wrapped each in foil and stuck a meat thermometer in one through the foil. It was about 140 then. Ordinarily I would let a beef brisket go for 4 hours or so more. When I checked it 2 hours later it was showing 180 degrees or 20 degrees higher than what Alan recommended. I pulled the top one out and juices poured (POURED) out of the packaged, like 6-8 ounces of watery liquid. Then I stood the other on end after opening the bottom and a good 6-8 ounces of watery liquid poured from it.

The marinade used was Hill Country Mesquite (Hill Country is the store brand of a Texas grocery chain) that we enjoy marinating backstrap and beef in. Perhaps I need to go to a marinade specifically for injection. At the least the marinade needs cutting by 1/3 to 1/2. An alternative might be to pierce the meat well and marinade 48 to 72 hours without injecion.

Saturday about half of the expected group was unable to be there so one has been left in foil and wrapped n freezer paper before frozen for future use. The other was saved by liberal applications of BBQ sauce The left overs will likely see more usage as BBQ on Hamburger buns than any other way.

[Altjaeger]

Renegade, I will start a seperate thread on how to cook venison. The method on this experiment (for me) is outlined in this thread.:)

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

One thing I always do is sear the outside well on all sides. One thing I have learned is that when the internal temp is 165 I let it stay for ten Fifteen min longer and pull it. I may let it rest in an ice chest for an hour or so after that but the longer it stays on the fire the drier it gets. In stews and carne Guisada it will get more tender with longer cooking. When grilling or smoking, the meat is as tender as it's going to get and at 165 it's cooked.

I'm sure better cooks can do more but that has been my experience.

Alan

[Altjaeger]

It was certainly tender and moist!:)

I just went way too crazy on the injection process.

[SeniorCoot]

AS I said above-I use a jerky marinade(mine0 for my deer gobbler/horse shoe roasts--I inject at time of cooking with maybe 4-6 oz i guess. then i put some veg lio & dry rub(mine) on out side and cook in a Brinkmann elec smoker/cooker with water pan. I cook it with mesquite or apple wood chips until around 140 -150F (2 hrs or so) Then I dbl wrap in foil and cook 2 hrs more till temp is 160- remove rom cooker and let it rest 30 min or so and it's ready- from my notes this also works for elk top/ bottom rnds.
I did some for Christmas and throughout the year for game eaters and non folks- all really liked it--esp the young nieces.

[Altjaeger]

I also use the Brinkman electric smoker. Several years ago the original heating element burned out. A replacement was easily found and ordered on line. I am likely to do a whole ham again if I shoot a small deer such as this one.

I am heading to the store to buy a new lawn sprinkler in a minute and will pick up hamburger buns also for BBQ sandwiches. :)