Double Deer Roasts - 3 lbs ea. Any Ideas on how to smoke these things?


 
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David Verba

TVWBB Fan
I've been smoking just about every other weekend since I got my smoker back in September, often times smoking at least a couple pork butts since I have thing hot and they are cheap. Well obviously I end up with quite a bit, thus family gets much of it. My brother-in-law gave me two Deer Roasts he wanted me to try and smoke to make "pulled deer" (possible) Anyway, I made some rub that I think will be good. But how in the world am I going to get these things tender enough? I have the mechanical tenderizer, but I imagine some kind of brine would also be needed. Also, what temps do you guys think I should cook at? How long do you think it will take? Not really in the mood to pull a 12-16 hour smoke on something I'm almost positive will not turn out well....

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks!
 
You'll need significant braising time. You can smoke an hour or two at ~250 then place in a pot or foil pan with lots of aromatics and liquid to come at least halfway up the sides of the meat, along with a knob of butter. Cover and continue cooking till the meat is tender enough to be shredded with a fork, several hours. (It'll get there but can take some time.)
 
david,
whatever you do, don't think the results will be anything similar to pork as most deer meat slabs have almost no fat on it. I would use take Kruger's advice but maybe skip the smoker part all together and simply put it in your convection oven instead using a small foil pouch with wood chips ?
 
I just read on another forum someone who smoked a venison shoulder. They slit it in several places and inserted garlic cloves into the slits. Then they covered with bacon and smoked. Im an avid hunter and have been terrified to try a venison roast as well because the only thing I can imagine would be DRY. IF you were to smoke it I would definitely add some sort of fat (bacon) while smoking.
 
I have smoked many venison roasts. I don't usually try to get them to pull part though do to, as others mentioned, they are so lean. I have tried to smoke one until it fell apart but it did dry out a bit. I persoanlly would smoke it until it is med-rare at most. If you want it to pull apart, from my experience at least, the best way I have found is to put it in a slow cooker overnight. Even with this it is still somewhat dry.
 
That's why one adds some fat, in this case I'm suggesting butter. Braising it in the WSM is the virtually the same as using a slow-cooker. The process is a bit shorter because the temp is a bit higher.

See here for another suggestion.
 
Some lessons learned from the post Kevin linked to above, that i am going to do different next time, would be to use as small of a braising container that you can get away with and watch your pit temps. I used my smallest dutch oven, fearing punctured foil and my temps climbed up to 350 at one point.

It still came out great and i learned a couple of thing that you can learn from. Hope this helps.

Paul
 
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