What to do with some wild game?

[spiroxlii]

A neighbor of mine recently gave me two shoulders. One is from a deer. The other is from a wild hog. I'm not entirely sure what to do with them.

I'm not a stranger to curing and cooking meats, but so far I've only got experience with commercially raised animals. This will be my first time preparing wild game. I've cured and smoked my own bacon from commercial pork belly before, so with the pig shoulder, I thought about the possibility of making ham. I have built my own cold smoking rig, and I could set up a hot smoker on short notice, but I do not have access to a temperature and humidity controlled smokehouse.

As far as the deer goes... I've never dealt with venison before, so I'm open to suggestions.

I know you guys probably have a lot of great stewing and grilling recipes for the deer, and I'd love to hear them, but I'm REALLY interested in hearing about curing/smoking (cold smoking if possible) for the pork. Like I said, I can do the brining part and the smoking part, but most of the ham recipes I've looked up on the internet also require extensive climate-controlled aging.

 

[spiroxlii]

I've read some more, and it turns out that most recipes say that meat that's going to be cured shouldn't be frozen first. This meat is frozen solid, so maybe I won't do any curing with it after all.

Sausage maybe...

 

[dirty dave]

If anything does not sound good to you get a meat grinder cut the good meat of the bone cut out all the white sinew that is not fat like a hog or beef and will give it a bad taste.If you cant get a grinder call a butcher shop bring him a bowl or three of your chunked meat and he should grind it cheap.most of the work has already been done.use it for chilli or mexican dishes or ad a little fat to it and you have a healthy hamburger dinner.

 

[AStone]

If it were me, I'd cook the venison immediately,
with garlic and chile, add potatoes & beans,
and eat it tomorrow with winter greens.

I'd smoke the hog and eat it next week w/
vinegar/tomato/brown sugar sauce,
beans, extra slaw, buns and beer.

Next to the sauce, the beer is
the most important part.

But that's just me,
having grown up
in Meomphis.

 

[Rottweiler]

+1 to what Nematocyst said

 

[wolfe28]

L.L.Bean Cookbook

That is a great book to have for anyone who likes to cook and has access to game meat.
D

 

[RCL]

That venison shoulder is just begging to be thrown in the crockpot with a package or two of onion soup mix.........

 

[TAB]

Jerky for the deer...

the hog will make great susage, but your going to have to add some fat( pork belly works great)

 

[cobrian45]

All good suggestions. I've made sausage with my family for a couple of decades now and I'll tell you that you won't get more than a few pounds of meat off of one deer shoulder. If you were making pan sausage, you could de-bone both shoulders and mix them with seasoning and grind it for pan. You won't have enough for smoke ring sausage. I like all of the suggestions here. Just so you know, the best thing is to debone and clean the deer shoulder (all white gets cut off) and you can grind it for chili or cube it and use it for stew. Jerky is a good idea, too, but again you will get just a few useable strips out of it and a lot of smaller pieces. Long liquid cooking preps are ok if you want to cook the whole shoulder. I rarely do this. The pork shoulder might benefit from a long smoke as in on a pit. Say 225 to 275 F on a smoker for quite a few hours until the meat starts pulling away from the bone. Then you can make pulled pork or my favorite, sit down to a whole shoulder and eat it off the bone.

 

[Deer Hunter]

Make jerky out of the deer.

Sausage out of the hog.

 

[spiroxlii]

or my favorite, sit down to a whole shoulder and eat it off the bone.

You, sir, are my hero.

 

[cobrian45]

I am embarrassed for myself, but I cannot tell a lie. I have done this. And it was good.

 

[wabbles]

Remove any fat. Marinate the shoulder for 24 hours in a marinade of your choice that has some kind of acid in it (vinager). Roast it at 325 degress until the internal temp is 135 (please not more!) Let it rest and slice it into 1/4 inch slices. Serve with roasted vegtables. Make the marinade into a gravey and enjoy. The marinade will remove any over gamey flavor. Serving at the 135 degrees temp will keep the meat moist and tender.

 

[dogrunner]

Ditto on removing ANY fat from that venison....it's sour and will give the meat an unpleasant taste.

I smoke my venison in an off-set upright comercially made smoker and have pretty good results. Nothing fancy about the prep other than I marinate in an acid base marinade. (Coke or apple juice work very well). I spike the exterior of the meat with a good bacon after giving it a light rub down with a good grade of olive oil and salt and pepper it. Mostly I tend to use Lowrys seasoned salt and freshly ground pepper. Time depends on the weight of the meat you're processing, but generally a ham from a medium sized deer takes me about eight to ten hours.

Forgot to mention that my smoker utilizes a water pan which I fill to the brim with a mix of 50/50 water and a red wine.