Venison/Elk.... not sure what to do with it.

[jirodriguez]

OK... so here is the weekend plan. I am smoking two chuckies and a pack of chicken leg quarters for me and my family. Smoker will be running at 225° with hickory.
My soon to be brother-in-law has asked me to toss some venison (might be elk... not sure) that he has on as well. He will not be there, and I don't want to ruin his meat. I do know venison is very lean and I don't want to overcook it. I am not even sure what cuts he gave me, all wrapped in white paper - looks like some steaks maby and a very small roast?

My thought was to rub them with some EVOO and a pepper, herb, roasted garlic spice rub I have. Then smoking them till the internal temp hits 140-145, pull wrap in foil, and place in cooler to rest for an hour. Then vacuum bag them.

Any pointers, tips, advice.... snide remarks?

 

[fire it up]

Can't help you on how to prepare/package it but I'm getting ready for this one.
You're probably going to get all kinds of advice from the multitude of folks on here who smoke venison on a regular basis.

 

[txbbqman]

Here is my .02 cents worth

If it is Venison, and you were at my house, the steaks would be done Chicken Fried and the roast on the smoker

The roast:

First I would cut small slits all over the roast and insert Jalapeno Pepper pieces into the slits.

Second, Rub the entire roast with my rub, which is just Jeff's rub with a few small mods for venison

Third, I would wrap that bad boy in Bacon, because, yes venison is very lean and well to be honest everything is better with bacon

Then put it on the pit and smoke until your desired doneness(may not be a word) and enjoy

 

[meat hunter]

If it were me, I would take the steaks and cook them on the grill using good rub on them. The roast however, I would take and either use a rub of your liking or a simple rub of 2 tbls cracked black pepper, 1 1/2 tsp each of garlic and onion powder. Rubbed in good, set on smoker with a few strips of bacon. Smoke at 225-240 until an internal temp of 140-145. Have foil and some HOT beef broth on standby. Place roasts in foil right away followed up by a enough HOT beef broth to just cover the bottom. Around 2-3 tablespoons. Wrap tightly in the foil and let it rest for 30 minutes, keeping the whole thing wrapped in towels or something so it will not cool down.

Thats my story and Im sticking to it.

 

[tasunkawitko]

tex and meat hunter have given some very good advice - i don't have much to add to it!

here's a link to a method i came up with for some deer tenderloins i did back when i was young and dumb (last summer). i'd never smoked anything like that before, so it was a bit of a learning experience, but things turned out very well and quite tasty indeed. this shouldl also work very well for the roast you mentioned:

http://www.baitshopboyz.com/forum/fo....asp?TID=14935

and here are some pix of the finished product, which i decided to shred for some very good sandwiches:

 

[fire it up]

shame you didn't know ahead of time, could have turned it into venison pastrami.
There at least 2 members on here curing some right now.

 

[the iceman]

I like the way this man thinks.

 

[jirodriguez]

Cool... thanks for all the good tips. Will hopefully post something on Sunday with some Qview.

 

[lownslow]

For me venison and elk should only be cooked until they are med-rare at the most. They are just so lean, tender and flavorful that I can't bear to do them any other way.

Here is what I would do:
Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper and wrap in plastic for about 24 hours. The salt does what a brine does but doesn't make it spongey.

Pat dry (surface moisture makes it steam not sear) Rub some bacon fat on it all then grill or fry. Let the steaks rest for 10 min. then slice cross grain. If you don't like rare meat then here is the trick, take the slices and throw in a hot pan with butter until they just loose the pink then remove and splash with a little hot sauce like Tom's or Cholula and a dash of Worcesteshire. You won't believe how amazing this is.

The roast should be smoked at about 250 until you reach 130 internal then take off and rest for about 20 min then treat like the steaks.

Thats what I do with game anyway. I just think that over 130 with game is a sin. Enjoy!

 

[cppbrian]

I like my meat rare, but I was wondering if there were any health concerns with wild game having the meat being rare or medium rare? Will certain parasites not be killed in the cooking? I have heard of doing a deep freeze for game to kill the unwanted buggers, but I haven't seen anything concrete about it. I would like to know, because I'd love to have rare game, So I'd like to see how to make it safe to do. I have a .30-06 that I got to take a deer or elk with, but haven't had the opportunity to go after one yet (university year round kinda kills chances for things like that)
Thanks. And I hope that the original poster has a great smoke and I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

[dank]

I like to take tenderloins and marinate them in a mixture of soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, & garlic overnight. Then I make a crab stuffing (that was originally for mushrooms but can be used with anything, can even be made into crabcakes). I butterfly the whole tenderloin and stuff it with the crabmeat, then tie it back up, pepper lightly and wrap in bacon. I smoke mine at about 200-220 until they are at about 135 and then take them off and foil them for about 30 mins, i personally wouldnt let them go past 140. They come out great and its kind of my play on surf and turf. Sorry i dont have any pics of venison tenderloins, but I did a whole beef tenderloin stuffed with about 2 lbs. of the crab stuffing for thanksgiving and took a lot of pics. I just need to play with q-view and get them up.

 

[coffee_junkie]

I never have any concern with parasites, I usually pull the tenderloins and smoke them the day I kill the animal, that said I have heard that all wild game should be frozen first before processing to kill any parasites that may exist. If you over cook wild game it will turn out pretty bad. I cook my ducks and geese to med/rare to rare, they always turn out great.

 

[bluefrog]

Freezing at 30 below for 30 days is recomended to kill any paracites etc. on wild hogs or bear, but venison and elk are not usually a problem. I like my beef and venison taken out of the frig. and carried slowly through a hot kitchen.

Scott

 

[cppbrian]

Thank you Scott and Coffee_junkie for that info.

 

[meat hunter]

I would not worry at all about any parasites from wild game. It is the safest and healthiest meat you can consume. As long as the animal was healthy, and exhibiting no signs of sickness or disease, your good to go. I would be more concerned about eating the meat that is sold in the stores. The amount of antibiotics and hormones that are pumped into them is unreal, not to mention the living conditions that most of them are subjected to is unreal. If you have the opportunity to eat some wild game, Elk, low and medium rare. You can't go wrong.

 

[alx]

Right on todd.Like the saying goes-if you are eating all storebought you dont need no anti-its all in your meal...sad but very true-look at the resistance folk are building up....ORGANIC if you can....

 

[wvtommy]

 

[wvtommy]

The USDA recommends freezing game meat for 60 days to kill any parasites that the meat may have. I personally don't worry about it and we always eat the deer tenderloin within hours of the harvest and have never had any ill effects.