Venison Pastrami

[fritz]

I have a question.

I am making venison bacon and needed a little more venison to make a 25# batch. A friend said he would give me a boned hind quarter....perfect. Well he ended up giving me 2 hind quarters. Well the bacon is on the smoker and I still have the 2nd hind and think I will make some pastrami with it.

I plan to do all the normal stuff to make it (corn, rub with pastrami spice and smoke) however I have never done this with venison.

The question: Should I corn the whole ham then tie the whole thing back together and them smoke? or should I take the ham apart, corn and smoke smaller pieces?

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks for your input,
Fritz

 

[richtee]

Hmmm I dunno if venison would make a good pastrami... pretty dry. But if I was gonna try it I'd guess I'd bone it out as to keep it together as much as possible and wrap, then corn/brine. Altho, I suppose if you seperate it, it will brine faster, but the smaller chunks would be complete before the larger ones.

 

[richtee]

Hey..maybe wrap with some beef fat inside?

 

[fritz]

Right Rich....I was thinking about doing something with beef fat, never thought about it on the inside.

 

[fritz]

Maybe I could do some beef fat plugs?

 

[richtee]

Ahhh larding... sure. Can use a boning/filet knife...narrow blade.. and tuck some right thru it :{) Nice!!

 

[fritz]

That's it....Larding. I know I read about that somewhere. Just maybe?

 

[richtee]

My opinion..that's your best bet... tie it and lard it :{). Oh..and send me a slice er two ;{)

 

[fritz]

I also think I would smoke this at a higher temp...say 300*. It's already tender.