#MeatMonday: Easy Smoked Deer Roasts

Posted By: Jesse Williams

Have you heard of #meatlessmonday? It's a popular hashtag on social media these days, used for advertising dinner recipes that don't include any meat. It has popped up in my news feed a lot lately and I can only assume it has something to do with the rising cost of meat as a protein these days. While we are cattle producers and certainly enjoy a cost reduction on our home grown beef, I cringe every single time I reach for a different meat source at the grocery store. And because I am SO cheap, I try to avoid buying meat at all costs. To get us through the winter, my hubs does a lot of game hunting, allowing us a great variety of protein sources for our diet, without breaking the bank!

Over the month of January Clay and I will be posting some of our favorite winter wild game recipes each Monday using the hashtag #MeatMonday. So get your crock pots warm and your smokers ready, because there are tried, true & old fashioned wild game recipes coming your way!

Smoked Deer Roasts

Of course this starts back in November, in our area, when you can hunt for mule and white-tailed deer with appropriate licenses within a certain season. Clay was drawn for and shot both a white tailed buck and a mule doe this year.

Because of our nice chilly Alberta winters, we are able to skin and hang our deer in an un-heated shop  until we are ready to butcher. The carcass stays frozen and is protected from scavengers. To make processing easier, we usually wait for 2-3 friends or relatives to shoot their deer, before we all butcher the animals together. Many hands make for light work, and that way we can share all of the deer between families.

We typically divide our meat into two categories; back straps are saved for deer roasts and the rest of the animal is ground for sausage (click here for our Big Game Sausage Recipe). I am sure you could get a lot fancier with your cuts if you wished, but this suits are families just fine.

Once off the carcass, the back straps are simply cut into family sized roasts, which in our case, are quite small, seeing how there are only two of us! From there, they go straight into the smoker. Our roasts are typically smoked for 4 hours. They are essentially cold cooked by the time they are taken out, but we really like the smokey flavor and the tenderness it lends.

After smoking we package the roasts for the freezer, wrapping them in freezer paper and tape. Don't forget to label them with the date!

Oven Baking

Preheat the oven to 400F.

First, sear the roast in s frying pan, heated on high. This will keep the roast full of moisture and even more tender after cooking in the oven.

You can add any spices, rubs or sauces that you like, but we honest don't add a thing. The natural flavor of the deer with the smoke is all you need.

After a quick searing, place the roast in a greased pan (we use a loaf pan because roasts are cut small for just the two of us). Throw it in the oven for about an hour or until cooked (this will vary depending on the size of the roast). It is literally that easy.

Take out, let rest for a few minutes and then slice into medallions. Enjoy!

Barbeque

More often than not we cook our deer roast on the Barbeque. It's quicker and easier (because that's the hub's domain!) and involved less dishes.

Thaw your deer roast and throw it directly on the Barbeque rack on high heat for 40 minutes to an hour and voila! The outside will be crispy but the inside will still be tender and juicy! We also find that more of the smokey flavor shines through with the Barbeque rather than the oven, but it's all about your preferences. Sometimes we do add some Barbeque sauce to add an extra kick.