Venison hams

[reloader28]

I didnt want to hijack a thread here, so we'll make a new one.

We've been thinking of trying to smoke venison hams, but are looking for a tried and true recipie. Dad had some when he was younger and said it was really good, but didnt know the ingredients.
I have a few sausage making and smoker recipie books, but have never tasted it myself.

So lets hear your good deer ham recipies.

[SciFiJim]

I don't have a recipe. I will watch the thread for a good one.

[Artful]

combination of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efWFHhnqY6U

and

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/129141/cured-and-smoked-deer-ham


Well, it’s hunting season again here in Missouri and this fall weather is just about perfect for sitting outside with an adult beverage watching the smoker. So I’m going to give venison a try on the old Brinkman Pitmaster in celebration.

I’ve been following POPS for a while and have recreated his curing a ham process a few times with excellent success so I thought it would be interesting to give deer haunch a try. Venison is a notoriously difficult meat to work with and its leanness and tendency toward gamey-ness make it a difficult meat for smoking. It can be hard to find resources for curing and smoking a deer ham on the web and frankly it seems as though it just is not done very frequently here in the US. Some of you may disagree and do this all the time. Any tips you’d like to through in are appreciated. I think I will document my attempt here and see how it goes. I am going to combine several processes gleaned from other members of this site and other sources on the web. I will attempt to source and give credit as I go. It will also make it easier for others to tailor the process to their own specific needs as I have done here.

I am starting with two hind haunches (fresh uncured bone in hams)of a white tail button buck (male yearling). I have decided not to remove the lymph nodes located in the hind legs because of the size of the deer and the level of invasiveness in removing them. If you live in an area affected by chronic wasting disease you will not only need to remove the lymph nodes but also fully de-bone the ham. Check your local/state department of conservation or natural resources to determine if you need to follow those steps. Here is a link for further reading http://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/zoonoses/cwd.htm

For the curing process I have used POPS' post. This has worked well for me with hog hams and I’m hoping that it will turn out well for venison. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/89979/from-hog-leg-to-easter-ham
Pops does an excellent job of detailing the pumping/injecting process necessary in keeping the ham from souring and I will not re-hash it.
Below is Pops’ cure and injection recipe. Simple, quick, and effective.

Brine is:
1 gal. cold water
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp. DQ Cure (or any #1 cure, but not Tenderquick with salt added)

Once injected, put into 5 gal. bucket and cover completely with brine (took 2 3/4 gallons to do so) until ham is floating, then hold down with a gallon ziploc bag half full of water.

I use a clear Rubbermaid container from Wally World. I just put it in the beer fridge in the garage where it won’t bother the wife.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/content/type/61/id/174324/width/350/height/700/flags/LL
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/content/type/61/id/174325/width/350/height/700/flags/LL
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/content/type/61/id/174326/width/350/height/700/flags/LL
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/content/type/61/id/174327/width/350/height/700/flags/LL
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/content/type/61/id/174328/width/350/height/700/flags/LL

[reloader28]

Very cool.
That's exactly what I was looking for.

[jroc]

reloader28 - Just a suggestion and not trying to say any one way is right or wrong, I like to debone my hind quarters before I cure them. You can get spoilage around the bone quite easily if you don't get cure injected all around the bone. If its deboned you don't end up with any piece of meats that is more than a couple inches thick which allows better penetration of the cure. Then I put them in a cloth stockinette and liberally rub them down with a basic Canadian Steak seasoning after they are cured and let them hang in a cool place for about 2 days allowing the cure to equalize. When I smoke them and again this is only my own procedure, I cold smoke them 2 or 3 times for 4 or 5 hours a day. It has to be cool outside because I leave them hang in the smokhouse this whole time. My fire pot is about 5 feet from my smoker so it loses most of the heat from the fire. I try not to let the temp get above 50 degrees in the smoker while I'm cold smoking. After the 2 or 3 days of cold smoking I smoke cook them at 200-220 degrees until the internal temperature of the ham gets to 160-165 degrees.Also the formulation that artful posted is real close to what I use except I use about 1 ½ cups pure maple syrup in place of the sugar and brown sugar. Again I'm not saying anything other than this is how I do mine.

[w5pv]

This is the same method we use for pork hams, bacon just about everything that we cure and smoke.The salt will carry the seasons evenly through out the meat.ON bigger hams we have used a injector to be sure that we got the seaon to the bone.

[reloader28]

That's interesting news. I'll keep that in mind.
I don't have a cold smoker, but have been thinking of building one.
I've never heard of smoking 2 or 3 short times before though. Why do you do that?

[Artful]

I don't have a cold smoker, but have been thinking of building one.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Cardboard-Cold-Smoker/
http://www.nickdawson.net/blog/diy-trash-can-cold-smoker/
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/smoked-salmon-recipe/altons-smoked-salmon.html
http://convictushome.blogspot.com/2012/10/alton-brown-diy-smoker-with-upgrades.html

[Lloyd Smale]

A second for deboning the hind quarter or shoulder first. I also cut the shank off and use that meat for burger.

[jroc]

reloader28 Smoking like that just gives it a deeper smoke flavor. Back in the day when hams and bacon were all salt cured and smoked they would be hung in the smokehouse and a small fire would be built and it would smolder then left to go out. This would go on every day for a week or so. I think the main reason this was done like this was because there were other things to be done around the farm and they didn't have time to tend the fire all day. Keep in mind slaughtering was done in the fall of the year to let Mother Nature help keep things cool as there was no refrigeration back then. After a period of smoking the meat was aged a little bit before it was used. Bacon only a few days Hams much longer. Some hams were aged for a year or longer. I have also heard that in order to develop that nutty flavor of a good Country Ham they had to age for quite a period of time at approximately 70 degrees. Not that I would do a venison ham like this though. Personally I don't have the patience to leave food around that long.

[Lloyd Smale]

One thing id recomend is you dont get carried away with the curing. Alot of the recipes i tried were WAY to salty. Some so much so that theyd about take your breath away. Many of the curing recomendations are old school from back when that ham sat out without refridgeration for weeks. I dont know of anyone anymore that doesnt stick the leftovers in the fridge. If your injecting your meat as you should be after injecting it throughly i put it in a large bowl with my salt cure mix and let it sit for only 24 hours. Then take it out and rince it well and put your sugar and seasoning on it and let it sit like that dry for another 24 hours. then smoke. For venison sized mucle groups this is plenty of time for it to cure. Especialy since nobody is putting it on the counter for days and anyone these days that smokes without a meat thermometer is crazy anyway. I love irocs method of smoking but to be honest i just dont have the paitients for that. 12 hours in the smoker at 120 degrees and then slowly bring it up 20 degrees at a time till your at a safe temp. Shut the smoker off open the door and bring the temp back down to 120 and let the meat cool with the smoker overnight. thats allways worked for me. Bottom line though is i have no doubt irocs method is better if you have the time.

[selmerfan]

I'll toss another idea into the mix. I use a basic dry cure for bacon and cured venison.
5 lbs. Morton Tenderquick
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 c. black pepper
2 Tbsp Garlic powder
2 Tbsp Onion powder

Mix together thoroughly and apply liberally to your meat. For bellies, about 1/3 or 2/3 c. will do half a pork belly - 4-5 lbs. Put in food safe plastic bag, turn over every 12 hours (I don't know if this really makes a difference, but it's what I do). Cure for 72 hours, cold water rinse for 45 minutes to equalize salt level, smoke for 6 hours at 175-200 degrees. I like apple or hickory. For deer, I ALWAYS debone the hindquarter - for small deer - yearlings or fawns - I'll cure the entire hindquarter and hot smoke as a whole piece. For mature deer, separate into the three major muscle sections, rub liberally with cure. In any case, with venison, it's like the creation - let it work for 6 days, but smoke on the seventh day. :) Again, cold water rinse for 45-60 minutes. If you're interested in making pastrami, this recipe and method works great - just apply the spice and pepper crust before smoking. Hot smoke at 250 for 6-8 hours or until internal temp reaches 130-140 F. Like Lloyd said, let the meat cool down in the smoker overnight to get the smoke flavor set really well. We slice the venison thin and use it just like dried beef - cream cheese and pickles, sandwich meat, chipped beef on toast, amazing grilled cheese sandwiches, appetizer spread with cheese and crackers. The only person I've ever had try it that didn't like it is my wife - but she dislikes all things smoked except bacon in certain applications.

[MaryB]

When I have cold smoked I took a piece of flex dryer vent from the smoke stack of my Traeger to a cardboard box with small vents in the top. Make a smoke diffuser on the bottom to spread the smoke and cool it more by making a cardboard baffle. Never gets warm enough to be a fire hazard. Can run the flex vent through a cooler of ice if it is still to warm.