I have cooked Backstrap different ways in the past and have had rave reviews on it fried. However, I loved smoked roast, so I decided to try a backstrap. Now, when I recently joined here, in the roll call room, I was told repeatedly to use the search bar. Well, all that did was confuse me even more. Yes Brine, no Brine, yes marinate , dont marinate, yes use rub, dont use rub, you get the drift. Even threads that say dont smoke or cover in bacon. I love bacon for breakfast, but not a fan of it on my back strap. So I put my own recipe together and just took a shot in the dark. Never made a brine, but again took some ideas on here and threw something together. So I started with my 2 strips of backstrap seen in the pic below. Soaked it over night in water to bleed it out. Took it out next day and just patted it a little to dry it. Made a brine of 2 quarts of water with 4 tablespoons of salt ( didnt have Kosher), 4 tablespoons of brown sugar, 3 bay leaves and a teaspoon of thyme, and some worstheshire. After boiling brine and letting it cool I soaked the back strap in it overnight (12 hours).
After, I removed it, patted it dry then made a rub with ground Black pepper, Garlic powder, onion powder, Tony C, and some light thyme.
Rubbed it down then placed in my Bradley smoker with Hickory briquettes. I placed some sausage directly over the backstrap so any drippings would fall on the backstrap. I had smoke generator on but no heat for a hour. Then turned heat on to 205 and waitied 2 hours, the last hour had no smoke. After 2 hours. internal temp was at 150 and I pulled it out. It looked and smelled absolutly great. Wrapped in aluminal foil because my fresh Venison sausage I also smoked wasnt quite ready. About 15 minutes later, everything ready.
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Sliced the backstrap up and just could not believe how tender it was, unbelievable after you read all the comments in the forums about it drying out.The taste was absolutly great. Again, I was honestly surprised by how much flavor it had. Didnt need a knife, you could pick it up and just bite a piece off. I let my father try it, who has had venison about every way you can think of, and he thought it was outstanding.. So now I'm looking forward to hunting season even more so I can smoke more back strap!!
After, I removed it, patted it dry then made a rub with ground Black pepper, Garlic powder, onion powder, Tony C, and some light thyme.
Rubbed it down then placed in my Bradley smoker with Hickory briquettes. I placed some sausage directly over the backstrap so any drippings would fall on the backstrap. I had smoke generator on but no heat for a hour. Then turned heat on to 205 and waitied 2 hours, the last hour had no smoke. After 2 hours. internal temp was at 150 and I pulled it out. It looked and smelled absolutly great. Wrapped in aluminal foil because my fresh Venison sausage I also smoked wasnt quite ready. About 15 minutes later, everything ready.
View media item 247490
Sliced the backstrap up and just could not believe how tender it was, unbelievable after you read all the comments in the forums about it drying out.The taste was absolutly great. Again, I was honestly surprised by how much flavor it had. Didnt need a knife, you could pick it up and just bite a piece off. I let my father try it, who has had venison about every way you can think of, and he thought it was outstanding.. So now I'm looking forward to hunting season even more so I can smoke more back strap!!
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