Venison Ham (smoked)

[B-man715]

Finished up a few venny hams on Sunday

Injected and bathed in a brine for 5 days and then tossed in the smoker for the better part of a day. I also basted (sp?) with a brown sugar glaze after easing off the smoke. Used a few chunks of backstrap and bottom rounds. Pulled off at 157-160. One backstrap got away from me and almost hit 170 (turned out too dry, but still edible).

They are easy to do and turned out awesome! They get that cool rainbow sheen to the meat like roast beef.

I haven't done a batch for a couple years and forgot what I was missing

[eyeguy 54]

mmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

[DonBo]

Looks great. More details please. What did you inject them with and what did you use for the brine? What was the glaze?

[picksbigwagon]

Looks great. More details please. What did you inject them with and what did you use for the brine? What was the glaze?

Yeah, what he said!!!!!!

I am heading to Iowa for my deer season this weekend and hosting my wife's family for xmas. I would love to serve some Venison Ham to a bunch of people who "don't like" venison, of course they never try it either. I am already planning on smoking a boston butt for that day so a long smoke would be perfect, plus I have time the day before to do it as well. Do you serve it hot or cold?

[Gordie]

Quote:

Looks great. More details please. What did you inject them with and what did you use for the brine? What was the glaze?

Quote:

Yeah, what he said!!!!!!

Ditto and I did veni bacon so this year and now ham is next on the list.

[fishattacker]

As I was butchering my deer yesterday I was wondering if anybody has done this. Now I know and will give it a try myself. Looks good!

[Gordie]

B-Man PLEASE shed more light on this, I'm tried of drooling over your pictures.

[B-man715]

B-Man PLEASE shed more light on this, I'm tried of drooling over your pictures.

Sorry Gordie, it's a top secret family recipe passed on for 4 generations

Just kidding

This batch I cheated and used a ham kit refill from LEM that I got for Christmas last year. It works great and you can do it for around .50 cents a pound of finished (meat) product when you buy the refills (two pounds of cure and nets), not the kit (two pounds of cure, nets, and injector for $18-20).

The cure is close to $5 a pound from them in the refill pack, but you can get for well under a dollar a pound from a butcher.

I don't recall exactly how I mixed it from the butcher, but I believe it was just a pound of ham cure to a gallon of water. I also remember adding a couple cups of brown sugar to the mix to sweeten it up a bit.

Mix it up and inject the dump out of the meat. Then put the meat into the brine in a plastic Tupperware container in the fridge. Toss it into the fridge for 4-5 days rotating and shifting the meat around daily.

You can keep all of the meat submerged by putting a ceramic dinner plate on top of it all.

4-5 quarts of brine will do 8-10 pounds of meat.

At the end of 4-5 days pre-heat the smoker.

Next take the meat out of the fridge and rinse it with fresh water. I like to run warm water over the tub of meat in the sink and let it pre-heat/rinse it for 30-45 minutes.

Pull the chunks out and pat dry with paper towels, then toss into the smoker with low heat (160ish) with no smoke for an hour to dry them. Then start adding smoke and bump the heat up.

LEM says to smoke at 180 until you reach an internal temp of 160. This would probably take 2 days......... and be very smokey!

I run my smoker at 180 for a couple two/three hours with smoke, then bump the heat up even more to 210-220 without smoke and baste it until finished.

With the smoke off, mix a couple cups of brown sugar with either enough maple syrup or water to dissolve it into a runny paste. Then add a little seasoning of your choice.

I added a couple teaspoons of garlic powder and a couple teaspoons of sea salt with a dash of black pepper.

Baste the meat 2 times an hour and monitor your temps until you reach 157-160. If you smoke individual chunks like I did it will take less time than if you put a few chunks together in a net.

I hope this helps out fella's. If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

I used hickory this time, but I remember apple was pretty good too!

[B-man715]

Picksbigwagon asked "Do you serve it hot or cold?"

I eat the majority of it on cold sandwiches. It is also great just to munch on cold.

Warmed up it goes good with breakfast or in an omelet. Also great in a hot ham and cheese sandwich.

The piece that got away from me (170 degrees) was great to eat with crackers and cheese! A little change up from summer sausage

[DonBo]

Thanks for the info. Another smoking project for my bucket list.

[delcecchi]

I posted a couple recipes from the "mile end deli cookbook" that sounded good. One was for "smoked meat" montreal style. Other was corned beef, as I recall. I bet they would work well with venison.

OK, found where I posted them.

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2917744/Mile_End_Deli#Post2917744

[Alagnak]

I usually use all of my HQ roasts for whole muscle jerky but I might have to grab a couple for a brine n smoke after the pics. They look so good I can taste it :-)

[Gordie]

Thank You, thank you, thank you, and your family secret is safe with us

[picksbigwagon]

what is LEM????? I have a couple roasts and a loin to smoke before xmas........Is there a local store in the metro I could get the Ham kit from? Anyone? Bueller?

[picksbigwagon]

never mind, I found it......ordering two refill kits....

[picksbigwagon]

B-Man,

I get my kit tomorrow, and will start brining tomorrow evening. About how long did it take to hit the 160 mark? I am smoking a pork but for xmas day, starting it xmas eve of course, are we talking 45 minutes a pound or 1 hour+ a pound? I believe the pork will take about 10-12 hours at 205.......Yes, I am serving smoked Rudolph ham for xmas, to my wife's family who all claim they can't stand the taste of venison, but have no problem devouring the venison sticks and twice smoked ring bologna

[B-man715]

PBW,

I can't really give ya a perfect answer. All depends on how thick the pieces are and if you smoke separate chunks or pile a few into a net. Also depends on how close to the heat element the meat is.

But it should cook at a similar rate as your pork if the size is close. Wish I could help you more.

Let us know how it turns out Love to see some pics!

[picksbigwagon]

I promise, this won't be the final question B-Man, but, do I need to put the meat in the netting? I have a 2 pound pork loin, 2 venison loins and a small ball tip venison roast to smoke, do they all have to be in a baggie?

[B-man715]

No. I don't use the nets. Just lay the meat out on the racks

[picksbigwagon]

awesome!!!!

[Selmer]

A MUCH less expensive option for the same result is as follows. This is our basic dry cure for meat recipe:

5 lb. Morton Tenderquick

2 c. brown sugar

2 T garlic powder (1 T for bacon)

2 T onion powder (1 T for bacon)

½ c. black pepper (1/4 c for bacon)

Combine and mix thoroughly. Use for dry rubbing meat to cure for smoking. Keeps almost indefinitely.

For slab bacon, thoroughly rub cure into meat, leaving some on the outside after a good rubbing. Cure in sealed Ziplocs for 50-72 hours (depending on the thickness of the belly), turning over the bags morning, noon, and night. Thinner cuts need less cure than thick cuts, 60 hours is usually about perfect, thicker bellies go 68-72 hours, especially if the belly comes from an heirloom hog with thick bellies. Rinse and soak in clear water for 30 minutes. Dust with brown sugar before smoking and smoke on low heat (200, give or take 20 degrees) for 3-6 hours.

For cured venison, split roasts into sections no more than 3 inches thick. Rub thoroughly, leaving some cure on the outside. Seal in Ziploc, allow to cure for 6 days, turning twice per day. Rinse and soak in cold water for 45 minutes. Smoke on 7th day with hardwood for 4-6 hours at 225 degrees to cook to rare/medium rare. I’ve used hickory, apple, plum, and cherry with good results. Curing longer doesn’t hurt anything, just rinse well.

I haven't used a glaze on the venison, but after seeing those pics, I'm going to next time I do the venison! We slice it thin on an old commercial slicer and package for cold meat sandwiches. The in-laws use it for the dried beef/cream cheese/dill pickle appetizers.

[picksbigwagon]

TTT cause I am not looking for this again!

[picksbigwagon]

Okay, fired up the smoker and tried this again today with a thermometer that worked. I used the brown sugar glaze but added some chili garlic powder to it, just a kiss of heat.

On the smoker:

Cooling on the counter for now, slicing tomorrow:

Used mesquite pellets since that is what I have right now.......Deer season for me next weekend in Iowa, if this batch turns out great, I will have a lot more to do this winter

[picksbigwagon]

Sliced mine cold the next morning, one loin and two roasts. Had to supplement my breakfast.heading to Iowa to replenish my venison stock this weekend, taking down samples, I am sure I will have a few more to do this winter season