# First time Venison Pastrami.....



## KJNDIVER (Oct 9, 2022)

Got my new Auber controller in this week, did the wiring yesterday, and put it to work today. Gotta do new things occasionally.....put some venison roasts in a brine for 3 days using the pastrami kit from Sausage Maker and then smoked for 7 hours today to make some venison pastrami. Took longer than expected. First time, wasn't perfect,  should have brined another day or two...but its gonna make some mighty tasty reuben sammiches regardless....

So I mixed up the brine like the instructions, placed in the fridge and let it soak for 3.5 days. Took out today at noon and started seasoning up the hind quarter roasts (round and flat, not sure of proper names). Directions called for paprika, coriander, and black pepper....I added mustard seed, red pepper flakes, and some pickling spices. Got seasoned up and placed in the smoker at 125F to warmup and get some cold/warm smoke going with my smoke tube (only 2nd time using it). It started out great, lots of thick smoke (i put some chips in the tray to see if they would burn as well). Went an hour then bumped up to 170 for another hour, then bumped up to 225 to begin hour 3. The new Auber held temps rock steady the entire time, no more wild temp swings.  But after a while I was getting disappointed with the lack of bark on the outside. Also, I was checking the Internal Temp readout with a manual meat thermometer along the way, well, one of them needs to be checked for accuracy cuz there was about a 5-6 degree difference. After I bumped up the temp to 225 the IT rose quickly and I thought it wouldnt take long, but it seemed to hit a bit of a stall like a brisket and even cooled down a bit for some reason. At this point I started kicking the temp up again, first 250, then 275 and finished at 290 because it seemed to be taking forever to get to the recommended IT of 175 on the box (this may be difference between beef and venison). Along the way I thought that with the wood chip tray fully inserted that it couldnt breathe enough to get the smoke tube going good. So I pulled it out some and either that worked, or with the higher temps of the smoker the wood in the chip tray started smoking, because now there was some good smoke coming out. When I finally pulled them off when IT hit 176 on the probe (171 on the hand held) they had some decent bark on the outside, not great, but better than before.

Upon making the cut it was apparent that I should have let them sit in the brine another day or two (or remove the silver skin). I failed to remove the silver skin as I forgot because I put them in the brine early AM before I left for work on Thursday morning. Will learn which on the next try.  Can clearly see that the brine didnt penetrate completely with the "bulls eye" in the center of the cut. But never the less, I took out the slicer and sliced em up 5mm thick. I wanted to go thinner, but the cheap slicer I got didnt perform well when trying thinner.  But in any case I got em boxed up in custom packaging haha and they will make some nice sandwiches and just snacks as they are. They taste great, really like the flavor profile. Will be doing again, but too much stuff was new.  New controller, new recipe, new smoke tube.... was less than perfect....but as they say....that dog will hunt.  Just like sex, the fun is in the practicing.  haha


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## indaswamp (Oct 9, 2022)

Love venison pastrami! I've never seen that kit before. What directions were given for the cure time? Seems it could have cured a little longer as there is a grey center in the meat that is uncured.


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## indaswamp (Oct 9, 2022)

Scroll down at the link and there is a cure time estimator...
https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/nitritecuringcalculator.html

It is a good practice to add 20%...longer won't hurt.


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## SmokinAl (Oct 10, 2022)

Most of us go at least 2 weeks in a cure for pastrami, but I have never tried it with venison.
Al


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## KJNDIVER (Oct 10, 2022)

indaswamp said:


> What directions were given for the cure time? Seems it could have cured a little longer as there is a grey center in the meat that is uncured.


Yea, I noticed the bullseye gray center. Obviously wasnt brined long enough.  I used the directions on the box the kit came in.


SmokinAl said:


> Most of us go at least 2 weeks in a cure for pastrami, but I have never tried it with venison.


It was my first time for either venison or beef pastrami , will definitely soak it longer next time.


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## KJNDIVER (Oct 10, 2022)

Also, I guess those instructions are for beef and dont exactly translate well over to venison. Now that Im looking around on the net I see other recipes that call for a finishing temp of 145-150*F.  It wasnt bad when warm. But now that set up in fridge I can tell that I over cooked the snot out of it.  LOL.  Live and learn. Always next time. But still makes a nice sandwich.  Ill get it dialed in sooner or later.

Edit*:  Wish I would have found this sooner.....








						Venison Pastrami Recipe - Petersen's Hunting
					

In this episode of "Fare Game," David Draper shows you how to make your own venison pastrami at home.




					www.petersenshunting.com


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## TNJAKE (Oct 10, 2022)

Nice job. Here's my last. Maybe something in it can help out





						Venison Pastrami
					

Howdy fellas and non fellas. First time dry curing anything. @chopsaw thanks for the help in pointing me in the right direction.  Started off with a couple small venison roasts Trimmed up and applied cure #1, kosher salt, brown sugar. Put them under a light vac seal and into the fridge for 7...




					www.smokingmeatforums.com


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## RoHa (Oct 20, 2022)

KJNDIVER said:


> Got my new Auber controller in this week, did the wiring yesterday, and put it to work today. Gotta do new things occasionally.....put some venison roasts in a brine for 3 days using the pastrami kit from Sausage Maker and then smoked for 7 hours today to make some venison pastrami. Took longer than expected. First time, wasn't perfect,  should have brined another day or two...but its gonna make some mighty tasty reuben sammiches regardless....
> 
> So I mixed up the brine like the instructions, placed in the fridge and let it soak for 3.5 days. Took out today at noon and started seasoning up the hind quarter roasts (round and flat, not sure of proper names). Directions called for paprika, coriander, and black pepper....I added mustard seed, red pepper flakes, and some pickling spices. Got seasoned up and placed in the smoker at 125F to warmup and get some cold/warm smoke going with my smoke tube (only 2nd time using it). It started out great, lots of thick smoke (i put some chips in the tray to see if they would burn as well). Went an hour then bumped up to 170 for another hour, then bumped up to 225 to begin hour 3. The new Auber held temps rock steady the entire time, no more wild temp swings.  But after a while I was getting disappointed with the lack of bark on the outside. Also, I was checking the Internal Temp readout with a manual meat thermometer along the way, well, one of them needs to be checked for accuracy cuz there was about a 5-6 degree difference. After I bumped up the temp to 225 the IT rose quickly and I thought it wouldnt take long, but it seemed to hit a bit of a stall like a brisket and even cooled down a bit for some reason. At this point I started kicking the temp up again, first 250, then 275 and finished at 290 because it seemed to be taking forever to get to the recommended IT of 175 on the box (this may be difference between beef and venison). Along the way I thought that with the wood chip tray fully inserted that it couldnt breathe enough to get the smoke tube going good. So I pulled it out some and either that worked, or with the higher temps of the smoker the wood in the chip tray started smoking, because now there was some good smoke coming out. When I finally pulled them off when IT hit 176 on the probe (171 on the hand held) they had some decent bark on the outside, not great, but better than before.
> 
> ...




Nice smoke ring, my mouth started watering just looking at those pictures. 
I'd add some extra pepper flakes though, love when it's extra spicy :D


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## Schwarzwald Metzger (Oct 20, 2022)

RoHa said:


> Nice smoke ring, my mouth started watering just looking at those pictures


In my dry cure venison pastrami, I figured 2 days per lbs.  This venison roast was 2 lbs 7 ozs..... So I went 5 days.


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## Schwarzwald Metzger (Oct 20, 2022)

KJNDIVER said:


> Got my new Auber controller in this week, did the wiring yesterday, and put it to work today. Gotta do new things occasionally.....put some venison roasts in a brine for 3 days using the pastrami kit from Sausage Maker and then smoked for 7 hours today to make some venison pastrami. Took longer than expected. First time, wasn't perfect,  should have brined another day or two...but its gonna make some mighty tasty reuben sammiches regardless....
> 
> So I mixed up the brine like the instructions, placed in the fridge and let it soak for 3.5 days. Took out today at noon and started seasoning up the hind quarter roasts (round and flat, not sure of proper names). Directions called for paprika, coriander, and black pepper....I added mustard seed, red pepper flakes, and some pickling spices. Got seasoned up and placed in the smoker at 125F to warmup and get some cold/warm smoke going with my smoke tube (only 2nd time using it). It started out great, lots of thick smoke (i put some chips in the tray to see if they would burn as well). Went an hour then bumped up to 170 for another hour, then bumped up to 225 to begin hour 3. The new Auber held temps rock steady the entire time, no more wild temp swings.  But after a while I was getting disappointed with the lack of bark on the outside. Also, I was checking the Internal Temp readout with a manual meat thermometer along the way, well, one of them needs to be checked for accuracy cuz there was about a 5-6 degree difference. After I bumped up the temp to 225 the IT rose quickly and I thought it wouldnt take long, but it seemed to hit a bit of a stall like a brisket and even cooled down a bit for some reason. At this point I started kicking the temp up again, first 250, then 275 and finished at 290 because it seemed to be taking forever to get to the recommended IT of 175 on the box (this may be difference between beef and venison). Along the way I thought that with the wood chip tray fully inserted that it couldnt breathe enough to get the smoke tube going good. So I pulled it out some and either that worked, or with the higher temps of the smoker the wood in the chip tray started smoking, because now there was some good smoke coming out. When I finally pulled them off when IT hit 176 on the probe (171 on the hand held) they had some decent bark on the outside, not great, but better than before.
> 
> Upon making the cut it was apparent that I should have let them sit in the brine another day or two (or remove the silver skin). I failed to remove the silver skin as I forgot because I put them in the brine early AM before I left for work on Thursday morning. Will learn which on the next try.  Can clearly see that the brine didnt penetrate completely with the "bulls eye" in the center of the cut. But never the less, I took out the slicer and sliced em up 5mm thick. I wanted to go thinner, but the cheap slicer I got didnt perform well when trying thinner.  But in any case I got em boxed up in custom packaging haha and they will make some nice sandwiches and just snacks as they are. They taste great, really like the flavor profile. Will be doing again, but too much stuff was new.  New controller, new recipe, new smoke tube.... was less than perfect....but as they say....that dog will hunt.  Just like sex, the fun is in the practicing.  haha


It looks really good bro.


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## Brokenhandle (Oct 20, 2022)

Looks good from here, glad you still get some good eating out of it! The biggest difference between beef and venison is the amount of marbling, or amount of fat it has in it. Venison has almost no fat.

Ryan


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## KJNDIVER (Oct 20, 2022)

Schwarzwald Metzger said:


> It looks really good bro.


Thanks.  Like I said, first try. The taste is really good, just think I over cooked it a bit. What Ive been doing is this... since I over cooked it, and there could be a finishing step that I missed with the steaming.... Ive been taking a few slices...placing them on a plate with some wet paper towels underneath and on top...then place in the microwave for 30 secs or so...  the slices get heated up while steaming...get moisturized and tender and are perfect for placing on my sandwich at this point. Not perfect...but dang good. Will do better next time. Now I need to get in the woods and get another deer to try it out on...


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## Buckeyedude (Oct 24, 2022)

Nice!  I haven't done venison this way yet, but I do like corning some goose boobies to help clean out the freezer though!  I guess my thinking is I can make so much with the venison, but sometimes you gotta put a little  more effort into "helping" with the goose meat and flavor.  Keep it coming!


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## BC Buck (Dec 26, 2022)

I had that problem with not being cured all the way through and controlling salt content. Look up daveomak post on injectable curing. He works off meat weight so easy to control salt content and because its injectable can have any thickness meat ready for smoker in couple days and perfect every time.

Buck, morning... Sorry you had to throw the roast out because of salt.....
I experienced the same thing years ago... I overcame that problem by weighing stuff....
The recipe to use is.... (weigh stuff in grams.. Pounds and Ounces is a witch to convert)
Weigh the meat.... Weigh the water at 1/2 the weight of the meat...
Total those 2 weights and add 1.75% salt (X 0.0175), 2% sugar (X0.020), and 0.25% cure#1 (X0.0025).. Dissolve those well in the water and inject all the brine the meat will hold and submerge the meat in the rest of the brine/cure and refer for a week or 2....
Your results will be consistent and no more throwing away meat.... And the numbers are in line with the FDA and FSIS....
As an example....
A 4# roast (X 454) hunk of meat weighs ~1800 grams... Water at ~900 grams = ~ 2700 grms...
2700 X 0.0175 = 47 grams salt
2700 X 0.02 = 54 grams sugar
2700 X 0.0025 = ~6.75 grams cure#1
Dissolve the above in the 900 grams of water..
If you injected 1/2 the brine/cure, that salt would only be ~1.3%, sugar ~1.5% and the cure#1 would be ~120 Ppm nitrite.... Continuing the soak in the remaining brine will elevate those numbers to ~2%, ~2% and 156 Ppm nitrite respectively....
The salt difference between 1.75% and 2% is due to the cure#1 having 0.25% salt...
All will be good....

Using this method, a 2-2.5 gallon zip bag will hold all the stuff... There will not be enough liquid to submerge the meat in a bucket... Turn the bag every couple days... Have the bag in a plastic tub in the event it breaks...

Dave


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