Great Venison Cooking

Posts Tagged ‘Smoking Venison’

For several years, Rick has wanted to smoke an entire deer on a spit. The problem? We don’t have a fire pit with a spit. Is that enough to deter my hunter? Heck no.

Our neighbors have one of those portable backyard fire pits. It’s small, but Rick figured a very small deer would fit over it. So, this summer he got a Spring buck that dressed out at 26 pounds and put it in the freezer until he could figure out how to make a spit for the fire pit. For the record, a whole deer—even a small one—takes up a lot of room in the freezer.

Alas, Rick was foiled on the spit. He just couldn’t find a non-commercial grade rotisserie that would hold more than 12 pounds, and a commercial rotisserie was not in our 2010 budget. So, he opted for option 2: to build a grill over the fire pit and slow roast/smoke the venison. Enter Home Depot where 1 grate, 4 steel rods, and a few bolts later, we had a grill for the fire pit. Better yet, we had a glorious early fall weekend day approaching. The BBQ was on!

If you’ve ever seen the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” specifically the scene with the lamb grilling in the front yard, then you can visualize the roast. We too were in the front yard. But we invited the neighbors, so it was okay.

In the end, this adventure in grilling was worth every minute. It was one of the best roasts we have ever made. Absolutely amazing. So, if you’re feeling up to the challenge, this is what we did…

To say Rick is obsessed with smoking our venison is an understatement. He spends hours figuring out just the right way to use our gas grill to get the exact perfect smoked roast. Someday we’ll invest in a real smoker, but for now we use the grill. And we use it a lot because smoked meat is so delicious! The indirect heat keeps the venison from drying out while it slow cooks. And slow cooking is the key to flavorful venison roasts. And if you use hickory chips, even in a gas grill you’ll get that smoky flavor that warms your belly and makes you wish it was autumn.

Here’s how you use the gas grill to smoke venison: you need a gas grill with two or more individually controlled burners and you need a temperature gauge mounted in the lid…preferably marked in degrees. If your grill doesn’t have one, pick one up at any store that sells grill parts; it’s important that you know what the temperature inside the grill is. Ideally, your grill will be able to maintain a constant temperature of 225°. (Ours doesn’t so we have to watch the meat carefully.)

Turn on the left or back burner and heat the grill to 225°. Place hickory chips or other smoking wood in a bread pan and cover with water. Place the pan over the heated burner.

The key to smoking is indirect heat, so once the grill starts smoking, put the meat on the burner that is off. Smoke until meat is cooked through. Sausages take about 1 hour, a 2-lb roast takes about 3 hours. Use your meat thermometer to monitor the internal temperature.

We smoked a roast for Easter lunch, and it was heavenly! Rick made a sandwich and I made a salad.