Andy Rowland
New member
I made some venison pastrami following this recipe: http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/hunting/2011/01/recipe-venison-pastrami and it turned out really well. I butterflied two backstraps because I was worried about the thickness preventing cure penetration. After 5 days curing, I rinsed and soaked for a day. I cut them in half lengthwise and tied them together to make them as uniform as possible. I smoked indirect on my 22" kettle and then wrapped in foil with a little beef stock before going in the oven.
It was taking a long time to come up to temp on the kettle. I took them off before they got to 140. I wrapped them and put them in the oven and when I checked the temp an hour later they were already way over my intended temp of 155. I opened the foil so they could cool and then wrapped them up and put them in the fridge to slice the next day. In the future I will make sure I have time to smoke it all the way without the oven and I will probably use the WSM to control temps better. I had intended to smoke on a Sunday, but the meat was too salty after a few hour soak so I soaked for a whole day. This resulted in trying to smoke it after work in the rain on a Monday.
It did come out a little tough, but luckily my friend has a meat slicer allowing me to slice them thin. I reheated in the liquid reserved from the foil and the taste was incredible.
Here is a pic of them after the smoke and before the oven as well as a pic of finished slices.
http://imgur.com/a/FuKBu
It was taking a long time to come up to temp on the kettle. I took them off before they got to 140. I wrapped them and put them in the oven and when I checked the temp an hour later they were already way over my intended temp of 155. I opened the foil so they could cool and then wrapped them up and put them in the fridge to slice the next day. In the future I will make sure I have time to smoke it all the way without the oven and I will probably use the WSM to control temps better. I had intended to smoke on a Sunday, but the meat was too salty after a few hour soak so I soaked for a whole day. This resulted in trying to smoke it after work in the rain on a Monday.
It did come out a little tough, but luckily my friend has a meat slicer allowing me to slice them thin. I reheated in the liquid reserved from the foil and the taste was incredible.
Here is a pic of them after the smoke and before the oven as well as a pic of finished slices.
http://imgur.com/a/FuKBu