No need to brine or marinate. Use a good rub on your venison. Smoke it at 225-240 degrees and bring to an internal temp of 160. Go out and get yourself some marichino cherries and empty the juice out of it. Mix an equal about of water with it. You can also use grenadine syrup mixed with equal amounts of water. Use that as your mop/spray and apply to the meat every 30-60 minutes until your internal temp reads 160 degrees. Remove venison from the smoker and wrap in foil then in several towels and let sit for at least an hour, 2-3 if you can keep it warm. I use an old picnic cooler with an old down pillow on the bottom then the meat I just smoked then another pillow on top of that. Keeps meat hot for HOURS.
Here is a good rub to try.
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup sugar in the raw
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 T granulated garlic
2 T granulated onion
2 T paprika
1 T chili powder
2 T black pepper
1T ground thyme
1 T ground cumin
1t ground nutmeg
2t cayenne pepper
I would not worry about CWD,(chronic wasting disease) unless the shot was thru the spine and into the meat, and even then, I would not be overly concerned. CWD had more hype behind it due largely in part to the animal rights groups in an attempt to hinder hunting and venison processors. In fact, animal rights groups convinced our Department of natural resources to empty 10 of thousands of pounds of vension off the food shelves that were donated by hunters for the hungry. CWD has been around since the dawn of time and if you look at whats injected into store bought beef, CWD would seem like the next best thing to buying organic LOL.
