Cured and Smoked Deer Ham

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Looks great, and it has inspired me to give it a try this year if I get a deer. I am also planning on a hog hunt in feb if I can connect I think I will be making some with those as well.
 
Ive got 3 doe and 1 buck a Friend helped me process them and told me to make sure when I'm doing this to be sure to get off all the silver skin i noticed you had it on the whole time ?was it tough to chew when you got to it a bite that had it in there ? i want to do my deer in my smokers when I'm ready for them !
 
Was it worth all the effort? I have a mule deer leg I'm thinking about doing this too. Was the taste greater than cutting it up into roasts, etc? Any info from your experience would be great, thanks! I was thinking about trying some prosciutto maybe.
 I didn't feel like it was a lot of work. The process is broken up over the period of a couple of weeks so the prep is really just twenty minutes here and twenty minutes there. I had a second cured deer ham that I didn't use so I just put it in the fridge for Christmas. I thought it really turned out well. With the ham we made a hash, a quiche, several sandwiches, and what I brought to work just up and disappeared. I saved the bacon and threw it into some veggie sides over the next week. So I felt like it was worth it and something that I will do probably every year as a special treat.

I have never worked with mule deer. I've been told that they can be difficult to prepare. I would be interested in hearing how yours turns out regardless of how you prepare it.

 I didn't cut the ham up into roast only because I had some other roasts and I was interested in doing an entire haunch and the haunch was small coming from a button buck. I think the same process could be used for roasts.
 
Ive got 3 doe and 1 buck a Friend helped me process them and told me to make sure when I'm doing this to be sure to get off all the silver skin i noticed you had it on the whole time ?was it tough to chew when you got to it a bite that had it in there ? i want to do my deer in my smokers when I'm ready for them !
 I tried to remove as much as possible. If you compair the pics with the rub vs the pics beforehand you can see that a large amount of the fat and the silver skin has been removed. I found it impossible to get everything off. When I got to the finished product I really didn't notice the fat and silver skin at all. Good luck. Thats a lot of deer meat!
 
After tenting it with aluminum foil I put it in there at 225 F until the internal temp reached 140. [color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]Deer is very lean and easily over cooked and dried out. I then and placed some towels over it to let it rest for about an hour to an hour and a half. I then carved it and discarded the glands and other extraneous connecting tissue. I was surprised at how much meat I got off this thing.[/color]

 

 

 

 

 

 
 Looks great, but I have a question.  Is an internal temp of 140 high enough?  I thought it needed to be 152-155.

Thanks
 
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 Looks great, but I have a question.  Is an internal temp of 140 high enough?  I thought it needed to be 152-155.

Thanks
 Deer is super lean so it is important not to over cook it. It is rare and medium rare at lower temps than beef. 140 turned out perfect for me. If you look around a little you will find a lot of folks recommend a done range of around 140 degrees for deer so you wont have to take my word for it if it sounds a little cooky.
 
Greetings all,

New to the site. Going to undertake a similar project of smoking an entire venison ham. My question. What's the purpose of brining the meat. I have smoked many fish, both whole and fillet and never brined them and they came out great.

Jeff
 
Greetings all,

New to the site. Going to undertake a similar project of smoking an entire venison ham. My question. What's the purpose of brining the meat. I have smoked many fish, both whole and fillet and never brined them and they came out great.

Jeff
The brine is for curing the meat, this transforms the meat into "ham". With out brining the meat you will simply have smoked venison, not venison ham.

At least that's my understanding of it.
 
This looks SWEET!  I have a friend who wants me to smoke a venison hind quarter.  I am going to suggest this to him!   WOW!  

drool.gif
 
Hey all,

So I did this venison project sticking pretty close to the OP's directions. It came out with a nice flavor except way too salty. I became limited in the time I could soak the meat in fresh water due to the birth of a new granddaughter. Is there anything I can do at this point to subdue the saltyness.

Jeff
 
Hi there, first post & this thread's the reason I registered...

I just wanted to say a massive thanks for this post.
I found it via the Googling & it turns out to be the BEST venison ham I've ever made.
I've never tried a wet cure before, my background is in prosciutto & parma style, dry cured hams.

I just finished my 8lb ham in the oven & I honestly giggled when I tasted it. Nearest thing you actual pork ham I've ever tried!

Thanks!
 
Thank you so much for all the information, everything looked awesome, . I took out my deer hind quarter yesterday and will trim and start today. Thanks so much.
 
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