Christmas venison update

[Thorbq]

I hope this will help all of you with questions.

I started with a 6lb boneless venison roast. Brined in 2 gallons of water with 2 cups of kosher salt, 2 cups of brown sugar, 3 10" long sprigs of fresh rosemary and 3 6" long sprigs of fresh sage for 48 hours.

Removed the roast from the brine, dried and butterflied along the line that was used to remove the bone. Made a paste of: 1 cup kosher salt, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 tbs black pepper, 4 garlic cloves, 4 tbs fresh rosemary, 12 juniper berries and 4 tbs fresh sage leaves. Mixed all of this in the food processor with enough olive oil to make a thick paste.

Coated the inside of the roast with the paste, rolled the roast up, coated the outside of the roast with the paste, wrapped in cheap bacon and cheese cloth. I saturated the cheese cloth with more olive oil then let sit for about an hour and come up to room temp while I got the smoker going.

In the smoker I used charcoal, alder and maple.

Placed roast on 250 degree smoker, after 1 hour I basted it with black truffel infused butter hourly 3X. when roast hit 135 inside (about 3.5 hours) I removed the cheese cloth and bacon to get some color on the outside of the meat. I crisped up the bacon after removal right over the smoke inlet for about 15 minuets and made bacon crumbles for the salad.I removed it when it hit 145 internal temp Wrapped tightly in foil and it sat for about 1 hour and 15 minuets (longer than I wanted but the other cook was running behind in the kitchen).

Upon carving the roast was medium well done, a little more than I wanted, it definately rested too long, but it was still very moist inside and my inlaws who have been hunting for over 50 years exclaimed it was the best they ever had.

Being a North West meal I tried to use local flavors as much as possable.

Next time I will prep the roast the day before and take it off at 140 and let it finish cooking during the rest period. Besides that I would change nothing.

It sounds complicated written out but it was actually fairly simple overall. Besides I got to hang out outside and drink good beer while everyone else raced around the kitchen.

Cheers
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If we are not supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

[msp1128]

good beer is always a good thing!