anyone ever smoke a whole deer shoulder?

[diamondg]

I have several shoulders and hams and I'm too lazy to thaw and debone them so was thinking about smoking them whole.

Any tips? With deer meat being so lean how do you keep it moist? Tender?

 

[daveomak]

Smoke the shoulder on a high heat....  250 or higher....  the surface of the meat will seal in the moisture....   cook to an IT of 135 and hold at that temp for at least 1 hour... wrapped in foil and towels.....   Do not insert the sanitized, calibrated therm until 2 hours into the smoke for food safety reasons...  you don't want to inject surface bacteria into the meat....

You can liberally rub the outside with any spices/herbs you like.... You can rub the meat surface with veg. oil, yellow mustard, bacon fat, or mayonnaise to hold the spices in place......  I have done white tail shoulders and they are AWESOME !!

Dave