Venison Bacon

[lancerh]

Thanks to my 13 year old sons first buck last fall, I decided to try some venison bacon. I started with about 50% deer and 50% pork shoulder grinding each twice, once on a coarse grind, then fine.

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• lancerh
• Feb 18, 2013

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• lancerh
• Feb 18, 2013

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• lancerh
• Feb 18, 2013

I mixed the venison and pork and mixed in a packaged cure I ordered online. I added water and formed loaf patties and let the meat cure for about 10 days. After 10 days it was into the smoker with apple wood and then ready for slicing, packaging, and eating!

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• lancerh
• Feb 18, 2013

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• lancerh
• Feb 18, 2013

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• lancerh
• Feb 18, 2013

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• lancerh
• Feb 18, 2013

 

[pgsmoker64]

Never seen anything like it!!

How did it taste?

 

[so ms smoker]

  Sounds interesting. Did you have to freeze the loaf to slice it properly? I bet the taste was great though!

  Mike

 

[brewandsmoke]

Where did you find the cure pack? Looks awesome and I would love to try this!

 

[woodcutter]

Good idea!

 

[lancerh]

So some of the bacon was venison/pork mix and I had some pork shoulder left so I made bacon out of the rest of that. The remaining shoulder was not ground and I think you could tell which is which from the pictures. I used Hi Mountain Buckboard bacon cure that I ordered online. The loaves held together well and I did not need to freeze before slicing. When I ground the meat I added water to make it pretty gummy and I think that is what prevented it from crumbling when I sliced it. Also I borrowed a meat slicer from a friend to slice the bacon, it would have been more difficult with a knife.

I thought the flavor was good and my wife commented she like it better than store bought bacon since it was not as salty. I forgot to mention prior to smoking I also rubbed the bacon with brown sugar and pepper. This was my first ever attempt at bacon and when this is gone (which won't be long) I was going to find a local butcher that sells pork belly and make some bacon from that. Then I hope this fall my son bags another buck!

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Very interesting, and good looking! I haven't seen bacon made this way. Might be interesting to try with ground turkey and /or chicken.

 

[vtmecheng]

Anything venison peaks my interest so I have a few questions about the process.

Can you describe how the loaf patties were made? How did you squish them together so it all stays nice and tight?

What wood did you use and how long did you smoke it for?

What was the temp in your smoker?

Did you have to put them on a mat or something? I would think the loaf would start to fall through the smoker grates some without additional support (kind of like cheese does).

Thanks for the help.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Okay so I have a question and hopefully one of the members with lots of cure knowledge can chime in. Most of the recipes I have seen for ground meats (like sausage) call for less time for curing. I know that you followed the directions for the HI Mountain mix, but it is specifically for whole muscle meat. Is ten days with this mix OK on ground meat as applied or would it be better to try something like this curing more along the lines of sausage? When I first saw this I thought it would be a great way to try and make bacon from ground turkey or chicken thighs. Now I'm questioning the curing method? Any Input?

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Okay so I have a question and hopefully one of the members with lots of cure knowledge can chime in. Most of the recipes I have seen for ground meats (like sausage) call for less time for curing. I know that you followed the directions for the HI Mountain mix, but it is specifically for whole muscle meat. Is ten days with this mix OK on ground meat as applied or would it be better to try something like this curing more along the lines of sausage? When I first saw this I thought it would be a great way to try and make bacon from ground turkey or chicken thighs. Now I'm questioning the curing method? Any Input?

Treat it just like cured, smoked and cooked sausage.
Short cure time.

~Martin

 

[lancerh]

For the loaf patties I put them into plastic storage containers and pat them down as firm as I could. I smoked them using apple wood pretty much following the directions according to Hi Mountain cure mix:

Heat smoker to 150 degrees for 45 min without smoke. Increase temp to 200 deg. and start smoke. Smoke until internal temperature of meat reaches 140 deg. Turn off heatand leave bacon in smoker for 1 hour to cool down.

I just placed them on the smoker rack and they held together fine. I did have to pound them out of the containers before I smoked. Next time I will use some sort of non stick spray so the loaves will come out easier. The meat was actually pretty solid and held up well under heat.

I am not sure about curing time so I just followed the directions on the cure mix and cured for about two weeks. The first weekend (about a week) I was out of town so I could not have smoked on a shorter cure, plus our fridge went super cold so the meat partially froze so I wanted to cure a little longer since the extreme cold slows down curing process.

 

[chix-boy]

Nice looking bacon the picture of bacon in the pan sweet.  I use bread pans and line them with saran wrap leaving enough so you can cover the top. Stack the bread pans on top of each other for weight.

 

[zahlgren]

Love Deer Bacon!

 

[farmnbum]

Never heard of Venison Bacon before. Once cooked did it hold together fine, being ground meat? 

Sound's like a good use of those little trimmings that might otherwise go into sausage.

 

[vtmecheng]

Never heard of Venison Bacon before. Once cooked did it hold together fine, being ground meat? 

Sound's like a good use of those little trimmings that might otherwise go into sausage.

Don't forget burgers and tacos!  We take all the little trimmings of meat, grind them up with some pork, and package ready to go.  Taco night happens every two weeks in my house, my 19 month old loves them.

 

[bordercollie]

That looks delicious! :)  bc

 

[stilllearning]

 I did have to pound them out of the containers before I smoked. Next time I will use some sort of non stick spray so the loaves will come out easier.

Sounds like something that is worth trying.  Here is an idea, next time you try this, line the pan you are going to use with some plastic wrap that is long enough to over lap the pan on all sides. Then add the meat and proceed as before. The "loaf" can then be lifted out with the plastic wrap, removed and no need for spray additive, plus it will probably work much better than the spray.