Smoked venison roast

[speedgoat]

Hi guys, this is my first post but I've had a lot of help from everybody here already.  I learned how to make some fantastic smoked cheese, deer jerky that blew my mind, and some killer smoked salmon, so thank you all for that.;D  Tonight I tried my first Venison roast and it turned out o.k. but I have a couple of questions.  I marinated in the fridge with a can of pilsner beer, hot sauce, kraft bbq sauce, montreal spice, powdered garlic, coarse black pepper and hot pepper flakes for a few days.  I smoked using 1.5 pucks of apple, (I did cheese first and the apple was going already) and about 5 pucks of mesquite.  Heat was about 225F outside was about -18C, slider was cranked and vent was about 1/3 open and I had it on for 3.5 hrs.  It wasn't quite cooked so I put it on the gas grill for about an hour at 250F.  I hoped the smoke would pull through into the meat more but it seemed to be mostly in the outside skin and I over cooked it a touch  >:((just a hint of color in the middle) but it's quite dry.  Next time I might try the bacon trick, but is there anything else I can try? ???  I didn't totally fail, I just thought it would have been a little better.  What about injecting? What to inject?  I'll try a beef roast next time to compare.

[Gizmo]

Thankfully the mind blowing wasn't severe enough that it kept you from posting.  Welcome to your first offical post.  I have never had the opportunity to work with venison.  There are so many here that have the I almost hate to post a suggestion without having tried it, but in general there are a few ways of helping to retain or generate moisture in meat.  You mentioned having it marinated, you may also want to try to inject and you can also wrap in foil after the smoke to finish the process to reach your desired internal temperature. 
Please everyone else, bail me out here, I am over my head, out of my comfort zone, talking out my ....
Did I mention welcome?   ;D
Enjoy

[coyote]

If you're gonna finish it on the grill or in the oven , give this a try- Put it in a foil pan

add some beef stock - cut up some potatos , carrotts , celry and some onions and throw them around the roast. Tent over with foil...2 hrs at 300 the next 5 to 7
at 225 ( depends on size of roast )

Cold smoke a few hrs to start...........You could also finish in your BS (hot smoke)

to really jazz up those spuds 8)
                                                        Love that high speed beef,
                                                                                 Coyote

[Habanero Smoker]

I can't help you with the dryness. I have'nt smoke/cooked any game meat in a long time.

I do have a suggestion about the smoke flavor. When the surface of the meat is wet, you will get less smoke penetration and adhesion. This would be especially true with thicker the cuts of meat. You can try using paper towels to pat the outside of the meat dry, then use a rub with the same spices. Or instead of letting sit on the counter for 1 - 1.5 hours you can place it in a preheated BS at 100°F - 130°F for about an hour to dry the surface before you apple the smoke.

[Wildcat]

Welcome.  I have never personally smoked venison, but my uncle has.  I do not know how he prepared the beast, but he used a large home made wood smoker and managed to smoke low and slow.  He would smoke the beast for about 3 hours then wrap the beast in foil and continued to cook in the smoker until he reached the internal temp he wanted.  I do not know all the fine details, but it always turned out moist and tender.

[winemakers]

venison has a penchant for being extremely lean, so much so that I gave up on unassisted roasts awhile ago.  'Larding' helps, that is, insert strips of fat into the roast, classically done with a larding needle, and I'm sure we all have one of those in the cupboard.  One can cut slits into the roast and insert bacon throughout the beast with some success, but a significant pain into posterior.

I have had some success with injecting with butter/flavor combo's, than 'drapin' with bacon'.  Lately, I cut the roasts into steak thicknessessesses......, and marinate/cook those thinner critter sized beauties in any number of ways.

Anyway you slice it, the challenge for me is to keep the fat content up during cooking.

good luck

mld

[speedgoat]

Thanks for all of the replies.  I think next time I may try a dry rub on it to keep the surface drier to absorb the smoke better, and try putting some bacon on the top rack.  If I finish on the grill again the beef stock and vegtables sound good.  I have to put an injector on my shopping list too, I can think of many other uses for it than just venison roasts.  If I don't care for it after that, steaks might be the best idea, or better yet, I'll strip 'em all and jerk 'em. ;D

Thanks again.