# Venison roast question



## whiskeydick (Aug 30, 2016)

My buddy just threw me a venison roast which I plan to obviously smoke. So I dug around on here and saw lots of conflicting advice. I saw cooking temps as low as 180 and as High as 280.

Another problem I have is that the roast is wide, long and thin, like a slab of pork spare ribs. Originally, I planned to cook it at 180-200 for 4 hours until it reached 135. But now Im conflicted that it would dry out in that time, and I should go at 220 for more like 2 hours then wrap it up in foil and drop the temp a little until it hits 135. What do you guys think? Ive never smoked game before, but I've grilled it and once it gets over done it's just leather.


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## mowin (Aug 31, 2016)

If it's that thin, I can't see it taking 4 hrs at 220* to reach 135.

My roasts are usually at least 2_3” thick. I smoke them @ 220* until a IT of 135*.  The only time I've foiled venison is when making ven pastrami.


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## akeisler (Aug 31, 2016)

See my thread about smoking a venison roast. It turned out awesome. I just checked it every so often til it was pull off the bone tender and it was awesome.


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## LanceR (Sep 1, 2016)

If you can find out what cut the roast is it would help us in giving advice.  The description you give means that it might be a neck roast and, if so,  lot would depend on the age and condition of the deer.  My experience has been that the neck meat from does 2-1/2 years and less or bucks 1-1/2 years and less is generally very tender but I hunt in pretty rich farmland and a deer that's working a lot harder for its meals may be a lot tougher. 

In any case, without seeing the cut my best guess would be that I would roll the slab and tie it into a roast and then smoke cook it. 

Personally, I'd shoot for a smoker temp of 200 degrees and be happy with less.  My experience has been that you don't need to worry about drying it out from time at low temperature as much as drying the outer parts at too high a temperature.  It I've got a roast I'll often quickly brown it in a screaming hot iron skillet before smoking or roasting it in order to add another layer of flavor.  Even in the oven I don't go much over 200 degrees if I've browned it.

We process a fair number of deer.  As we know how the deer are handled from the time they're down until they are in the freezer I'm not as concerned with bacteria as I might be otherwise.  Most venison cuts are rare at around 125 degrees internal and medium rare at about 130-135 degrees.  If you are at all unsure of how the critter was handled along the way you might want to go to the temperatures recommended by most cooperative extension folks of 145 for whole muscle meat and 160 for chopped or burger meat.

If you're within driving distance of me and want more venison to practice with shoot me a PM.  I've got two freezers with a lot of venison in them, there's a lot deer around and the season is coming up fast.  I'd be glad to give you some.

Lance


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## whiskeydick (Sep 17, 2016)

Ha ha. Thank you, but I'm over near Seattle. Appreciate the offer and tips, though. Very much.


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