I smoked(for the first time) a couple pork roasts in my new electric smoker 2 weeks ago. It went very well and the pulled pork is delicious.  

Now I want to try some venison.  It is shoulder and hind-quarter cuts, about 5-7 pounds or so.
I will be making 1/2 of this into jerky, but want to experiment a bit with smoking the rest of this venison.

Any special tips or tricks to this?  I'm guessing the final inside temp should be a bit lower than the 195* that I got the pork up to.
I don't want a particularly spicy rub, not sure what to use for that.

BUMP


I ended up just slicing all I had thawed up for jerky, but I have more in the freezer that I'd like to try to smoke.


Any suggestions???

I could be wrong, but I don't think there is enough fat in venison to smoke it. It will probably be too dry. I have always used the crock pot. Add some beef stock to keep it moist, and a little liquid smoke for flavor (and some potatoes and carrots).

I've smoked a few deer shoulders. Wrap it with the cheapest, fattiest, bacon you can find to help keep it moist.
I used mustard and black pepper for a rub. Just smoke it low and slow...

http://www.smoking-meat.com/faq-how-to-smoke-venison-ham.html

Thanks!!  I'll give that a try.

If it gets too dry, tell 'em its "jerky"...

I regularly smoke brisket, venison, sausages, wild pig and store bought pig.  

90% of the smoke flavor develops in the first 2-3 hours depending on size so that is all I generally smoke for.  Can you turn out a superior cut of meat by smoking for the full length of time, yes but not by very much.  Nobody I have ever served to has questioned or guessed that I only smoke for a few hours.  I am guessing that it would take a very discerning taster to tell the difference.  Its not worth the trouble and the probability of screwing it up goes up, especially when dealing with game, the longer you smoke something.

Every BBQ place I have eat at has dried out the brisket.  This of course is entirely my opinion but I prefer my cuts to be juicy rather than dry.  They turn out great pork but when it comes to beef its too dry.  So the only way I generally get brisket from a joint is chopped with lots of sauce.  

I use lump charcoal and wood chips, so your mileage may vary depending on how you smoke.  I dunno.

My recommendation is to smoke a venison roast/hindquarter without violating it with bacon.  Each to his own but I prefer non bacon flavored venison.  Season the meat with your choice of spices but avoid any herbs and or sugar.  Smoke the hindquarter for 2-3 hours, I generally do 2 on game.  Put it in a roasting pan and add the herbs/sugar, cover tightly with foil and plop into oven at 190-200 for 8 - 12 hours depending on size, a small cut may be done in 6.  So you just have to be your own judge on that, and a thermo helps.  Remove the meat and use foil covering to wrap the meat tightly and sit out on counter for 30 mins.  Run juice from pan through a grease separator, add juice to a pot and make your gravy/au jou.

I discard most grease but always pour off any brisket grease into a ice cube tray and freeze it, then ziploc the cubes in a bag.  I add them to things I need to provide a smoky flavor to such as beans or baked beans.  It is really nice as a clam chowder starter instead of bacon.

Also to separate grease you can put it in a plastic container and put it in the fridge for a few hours and just spoon the solidified grease off the top.

I have only screwed up once doing this and its because I forgot to pull a hindquarter out of the oven on time and it cooked for 12 hours instead of the 9 i was looking for, it was still only slightly dry.

Good advice so far. You gotta keep venison moist. Using bacon is one way, keeping a pan of liquid like applejuice on the heat helps too.



Most people have never heard of it, but they make 'larding needles' that are used to insert pork fat (called lardons or lardoons) into meat that is very lean or has little flavor. These work well for poking some fatback into venison roasts. They're pretty cheap....like ten bucks.