Venison Hind Quarter

Be careful with it drying out. Venison is very lean.

Put some slits in it with bacon stuffed in or you'll dry it out.

I wonder how the ven would take to a brine?????

I did some back straps a while back. Injected them with some apple juice and bbq seasoning. Knowing how lean it is and not wanting it to dry out, a sprayed it more than usual. It worked out just fine.

YOu definatley need to worry about it drying out.... venison has O% fat so it needs some help in that dept. I have done a couple with fair results. Here's what I did Last time:

injected with a butter marinade such as Cajun Garlic butter or similar. Seasoned with Cajun seasoning (own blend) Wraped in fatback or fatty bacon completely cover the heavy parts of the meat and sparsly over the narrow, hold with toothpicks or string. Smoked at higher temp around 300 and foiled after an hour or so of heavy smoke...took out of foil to finish.
cook til no more than Medium otherwise it'll dry out.
The last one I did was pretty tender (relative, it ain't a pork butt) and pretty tasty,but it got to about 180* after resting ,and was a little dry. Although injecting helped alot!!
Maybe try the brining thing as suggested...It works wonders on infamously dry turkey breasts !!
If the thought of eating less than well done venison grosses you out....Well... I'm out of suggestions.

Okay I can't stand it anymore, I've been holding back because it it so easy to dry out a hind quarter....4 out of 5 responses mention "drying out" and the 5th one mentions backstrap, which I fry anyway. So...here is what I would do. Grind that sucker, mix the venison with ground pork butt with a ratio of 60%/40%. Mix up some sausage and make fatties. Smoke them to 160°, slice (calling them medallions if you want) and serve as the main meat. They will be wonderful.

I've done this with a Sicilian-Italian recipe. It has wine instead of water and also fresh grated parmesan cheese. Very elegant with venison.

shrinkens peck? what the fark is that? that only happens to me in cold water Sounds like a Seinfeld thing, LOL

To use a phrase from "The Waterboy": YOU CAN DO IT!!:-D

Just use some cover - like bacon - and roast it instead of slow cooking. Use the cooker and smoke, but hotter. The bone shouldn't be an issue. I've pot-roasted venison shoulder with the bone in and it was great - of course it was an itty bitty Texas hill country deer (sorry guys!):-D and so cooked up pretty quickly.

Muzzlebrake said:

yeah well I have 15 lbs of hot italian sausage, 5 sweet and 5 keilbasa coming so have lotsa fatties
also having shinkenspeck made from other hind 1/4
rubbing and grillin the backstraps, high and dry, medium rare
was thinking I would do something different for a change and came up with this idea

Click to expand...

Uh...in that case, watch it .... it's easy to dry out.


Seriously, here is my best shot at Plan B:

Rub that boy down with oil and apply your favorite rub or at least salt, pepper and garlic salt. Spearing with garlic is always good too. Then mix up the following dip. Yes, dip. Just go with it. If you want to call it a mop that's okay too.

Game Dip

1 – Beer
½ cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup apple juice
1/3 cup canola oil
1 diced onion
3 cloves of garlic – minced
1 tablespoon Wooster
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne

Heat until dissolved, reserve some in a separate container for dipping at the table. Now you see why I call it a dip.

Toss that boy in your cooker around 225° or so with a gentle smoke. Turn every 30 minutes, painting on some dip with each flip. If you are washing off too much rub, add more. When you feel it is a little more than halfway done, re-rub and wrap in foil. Return to the cooker. Check internal temp every half hour until it is where you want it. Remove, drain off the liquid from the foil to make an au jus, wrap in a towel and rest for at least 30 minutes while you make the sauce. If you want to do anything fancy like making a red wine sauce, go for it. Serving some expensive wild rice on the side never hurts either.

whatever you do let us know how it turns out! I have a hind quarter in my freezer that I want to do whole in my smoker, just havn't had the time to cook it yet. I do deer roasts in the smoker all the time. I smother with yellow mustard and then coat with rub, criss cross some bacon over the top and smoke to 165. They usualy turn out great.

If you look at the "flatter" side of the hind quarter you should be able to see the FEMORAL ARTERY..if you can inject your brine and flavoring solution dirctly into the artery, this will completely utilize the entire network of veins within the meat thus getting the solution to the entire hind quarter..this is how Hog hinds are cured before they are smoked and is the only sure way to keep the meat nearest the bone from "Souring" ...ask your butcher for some pork fat and then lay these pieces on top of the meat while it cooks as well..should turn out decent. I never slow cook venison, we love it very rare, all my hinds are turned into cutlets and steaks..Wi-Doe

Muzzle, I've had good results injecting with butter/garlic juice, seasoning with non-sugar rub (like butt rub), wrapping with bacon, then smoking (I use oak) at 225-250 until 140*. Wrap with foil (like a pork butt), and let it rest in a cooler for about an hour. Slice and serve. Should be kind of pink, any more and its prone to be tough.
If you bone the hindquarter out, marinate in 1 part mustard, 2 parts brown sugar, 1 part soy sauce, 1 part olive oil, minced garlic,4 parts lemon juice, salt and pepper. Start out direct heat on the grill, then move to indirect heat to finish rare. About 20-30 mins according to size. I live in Florida, so my venison is probably a good bit smaller than NY state. use your best judgement, but don't overcook it.
Hope this helps

Freaking Thirdeye never ceases to amaze me. I am the grasshopper and he is my master....

CORNBREAD MAFIA said:

Muzzle, I've had good results injecting with butter/garlic juice, seasoning with non-sugar rub (like butt rub), wrapping with bacon, then smoking (I use oak) at 225-250 until 140*. Wrap with foil (like a pork butt), and let it rest in a cooler for about an hour. Slice and serve. Should be kind of pink, any more and its prone to be tough.
If you bone the hindquarter out, marinate in 1 part mustard, 2 parts brown sugar, 1 part soy sauce, 1 part olive oil, minced garlic,4 parts lemon juice, salt and pepper. Start out direct heat on the grill, then move to indirect heat to finish rare. About 20-30 mins according to size. I live in Florida, so my venison is probably a good bit smaller than NY state. use your best judgement, but don't overcook it.
Hope this helps

Click to expand...

Outstanding advice and welcome from out of the woods. They grow deer down there in FL? Guess them gators have to eat something after eating all the chickens. :wink:

OK, so how did the hind quarters turn out? I'm doing one Friday, so any additional thoughts and advise would be greatly appreciated.

corn it!! make wonderful pastrami

Almost everyone around here soaks their deer in a salt water solution before butchering. If you are that worried about it drying out ...... get some pork skin from the butcher and wrap it. They can cut a huge piece from the belly.

Worst case scenario... you have to buy the belly and cure some bacon.

I have cooked a lot of venison over the years and my two favorite ways of cooking a deer hindquarter are these two methods. One involves making pastrami. Here is the link to the recipe I use:

http://www.randyq.addr.com/recipes/pastrami.htm

When butchering the hindquarter, look for the largest muscle on the leg and cut it out separately. This muscle resembles a nerf football. Next cut around the leg bone and remove the rest of the meat intact. Lay the big piece out flat and cut it into two flat pieces. Trim the two pieces so they resemble a brisket flat and have uniform thickness.

Follow Randy's recipe. I use about one ounce of the cure solution per pound of meat. As Randy's instructions state, let the roasts cure for five days. Cook the meat at 250ºF until it hits and internal temperature between 160º-165º. Once it hits this temperature, remove the meat from the smoker, wrap it in foil and put some Rick's Sinful Marinade or beef broth in the foil before sealing. After the meat has cooled down, pour out the juice from the foil packet and refrigerate until completely cool. After the meat is completely cooled off, slice it against the grain, as thin as you can. Before you have sliced too much of the roast, try some of the pastrami, you may find the remaining rub to be too strong in flavor. If this is the case, just wash it off real good under cold water.

Here is the recipe for Rick's Sinful Marinade:

12 oz. can of beer
½ cup cider vinegar
½ Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons barbeque sauce
1 tablespoon of beef base
1 tablespoon rub
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon MSG

The second recipe is the one I use for marinating backstrap or injecting hind quarters. If I am using this solution for an injection, I omit the vegetable oil. Also if I am using this for an injection, I will mix the ingredients the day before so the flavors meld. I then strain the solution so the needle will not clog when you are injecting. I use about one fluid ounce per pound of meat. I inject no more than four hours before cooking time. Any longer than four hours will turn the meat mushy before it even cooks. After injecting, I use a 50/50 combination of brisket rub and Montreal Steak Seasoning on the exterior of the meat.

Venison is best served no hotter than medium rare. Anything cooked over 155ºF will tend to be tough and dry. I prefer a finish temperature of 145ºF or lower. Cook the backstrap or hindquarter @ 250ºF until it hits an internal temperature of 145ºF. If you are just cooking backstrap, you can kick the heat up some. The last ten pound hindquarter I cooked took about 30 minutes per pound @250ºF to reach an internal temperature of 145ºF. I know 145ºF seems contrary to the finish temperature for the pastrami recipe, but pastrami is supposed to be somewhat dry.

Once the meat hits 145ºF, I wrap the hindquarter in foil and add some Rick's Sinful Marinade inside the foil and let the meat rest for 30 minutes before slicing. You can substitute beef broth instead of the RSM.

Here is the injection recipe for the venison. I will also mention that this works good on lamb. Q'Sis first posted this recipe on the BBQ Forum.

From a thin paperback booklet, called, "The Barbecue & Smoker Cookbook, from the Kitchens of Southern Living"

Magnificent Marinade:

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 T. dry mustard
1 T. coarsely ground pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley

Finally, I will end with this note. Some people advise covering venison with bacon to help keep the interior of the meat moist. In my not so humble opinion, this is a BBQ myth. The rendering of the bacon may help keep the exterior of the meat moist, but it does not help the interior stay moist. All the bacon does is form a barrier between the venison and smoke you are trying to expose it to.

Lager,

Juggy