Should I tie the meat up?

[Nitty]

I shot a young doe this past winter and at that time smoked a whole hind quarter on the bone. One of the best things I’ve ever cooked. Brined it.

I kept the other hind quarter whole but cut it off the bone for in the freezer. Currently have it in the brine for smoking tomorrow for my mother in laws birthday. My issue is the meat is shaped very inconsistently because of what it is and I cut it off the bone. Should I roll it up and tie it with butchers string to have a nice consistent shape or should I let it all “gangly” with some spots much thicker than others?

 

[pineywoods]

Personally I would either separate into multiple pieces about the same size OR as you are thinking about roll it to try to make it a uniform size and tie it that way with butcher twine

 

[chopsaw]

Just think about final IT if you roll and tie . I don't cook whole muscle venison , so not sure what internal temp you take it to . All my deer harvests go to sausage or jerky . So if you roll and tie the safe IT temp should be 165 . Might be to much for deer meat ? Anything that was exposed as surface , but is now inside should be cooked to the higher temp .
If you trim it to like size hunks you won't have to worry about that .

 

[Buckeyedude]

Your going to run into a connective tissue and silver skin issue with it, but Im sure you got through that last time with the first quarter you did. This one brined also Im assuming?(which is great!) If it were me, I would tie it up, but with some diced onion, some diced apple and some chopped up smoked bacon strips in the center. I would have a hard time letting the IT get past 140. But I like to chase my beef and venison around the yard a little bit before eating it! Could always wrap it with some bacon too ( which would be killer and really help the meat on the outside from drying out on you some!) Good luck and post up what you decide to do!

 

[Nitty]

Trimmed most of the outside, as much silver skin as I could. Brined and injected with salt, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar for 24 hours. Local butcher didn't have lard so I attempted to put thin layer of stick butter on entire outside and then seasoned both sides and tied it. The butter did not work/stick near as well as the lard did. Smoked at 250 for 4 hours (since I forgot to set my alarm and this was for lunch) to a temp of 165. I had placed the 2 pieces at different spots in the smoker in hopes they would complete around the same time and fortunately they did. Turned out awesome. Again, very tasty and juicy like the first time. This deer was only 7 months old (oops) so I'll be interested in doing this with a mature deer to see if it is also as tender. If it is, every hind quarter will be getting this treatment going forward.

 

[smokerjim]

Looks good

 

[JLeonard]

Looks mighty fine to me!

Jim

 

[Buckeyedude]

NICE!

 

[pineywoods]

Looks good, Draping some bacon over the top of the meat works well for helping to keep it moist and the bacon ain't bad after either