Ive never smoked one but I have cooked a whole deer before in a hog cooker. I cook several hogs a year but I do it a little different then most. I fill the hogs with crout and potatoes, season them heavily inside and out and then wrap them in a lot of foil. I have a basket that goes into my cooker and I put it over high heat. I turn it every half hour and it usually cooks for about 10 hours. Comes out great every time. This is basically what I did with the deer. I laid a layer of foil on a table and covered the foil with bacon. I then seasoned the small doe (about 100 pounds). I laid it on the foil and then wrapped it (the deer was wrapped in bacon) and I cooked it at about 375 degrees. It was about 5 years ago when I did this and I don't rememeber how long it took. I am thinking about 6 hour but I am not real sure. It turned out delicious. It was an experiment that worked out very well. I figured it would have a gamey taste but it did not at all.
The last couple of years I have been smoking the loins and backstrap out of my deer and they are awesome this way.
It's more about good preparation than aging, but if it's cool outside you could always let it hang and even season it as it sits outside I'm a fan of brown sugar as a base for slow-cooking rubs (ESPECIALLY on pork!), with whatever you want in it; cayenne pepper, pepper, garlic and onion powder, salt, pre-made rubs........whatever you think looks good from your cabinet. I've never cooked a whole large animal at one time, but can like the foil idea as I use it on a smaller scale.
I hope you're having more than a few friends over!
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sounds like you are talking about cooking a whole deer?
aint gonna happen....alot of the meat will be overcooked, and just a small amount will be cooked just right.( deep inside the ham,(rear legs))
fer instance...on a smoker..at 200-225f....ya cook them back straps fer about 5-10 minutes per side....where a whole leg will go about 20-30 minutes a side.. deer will look raw when its done..but will be done...if ya cook it til its brown in the center, its way over cooked...225f is to deer....as 350f is to beef
if you are getting the internal temp over 140-145 degrees f...your overcooking it...use a thermometer.
it will look rare, but it will be done at 140ish
my advise, cut it up, cook it right, put it back together...ya still get the look, but its cooked right.
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sounds like you are talking about cooking a whole deer?
aint gonna happen....alot of the meat will be overcooked, and just a small amount will be cooked just right.( deep inside the ham,(rear legs))
fer instance...on a smoker..at 200-225f....ya cook them back straps fer about 5-10 minutes per side....where a whole leg will go about 20-30 minutes a side.. deer will look raw when its done..but will be done...if ya cook it til its brown in the center, its way over cooked...225f is to deer....as 350f is to beef
if you are getting the internal temp over 140-145 degrees f...your overcooking it...use a thermometer.
it will look rare, but it will be done at 140ish
my advise, cut it up, cook it right, put it back together...ya still get the look, but its cooked right.
People cook whole animals all the time. Cooking a whole deer is not much different then doing a whole hog. Except you have a little more room for error on the whole deer. If you get some of the meat that is a little rare it is ok, on the pork you don't want that. I have cooked close to a hundred hogs in my life and they are done all the way through and there is little to no meat that is "over cooked". That is the reason I use foil like I mentioned, we usually wrap one hog with about 4 big rolls of foil. This keeps the outside from burning while the deeper parts get done.
People cook whole animals all the time. Cooking a whole deer is not much different then doing a whole hog. Except you have a little more room for error on the whole deer. If you get some of the meat that is a little rare it is ok, on the pork you don't want that. I have cooked close to a hundred hogs in my life and they are done all the way through and there is little to no meat that is "over cooked". That is the reason I use foil like I mentioned, we usually wrap one hog with about 4 big rolls of foil. This keeps the outside from burning while the deeper parts get done.
to each their own, hawg aint deer. i have tried time and time again..if ya like some over cooked and some not done, do it!!
btw..if yer tryin to tell me ya cook a hog whole, and a lil bit of it is rare, i feel fer the people who eat your grinds. and if yer tryin to tell me your back straps aint over cooked, especially wrapped in foil, and your ham is done, i aint gonna believe anything ya say after that.
maybe before you give advise, ya ought to cook a whole deer 1st..jmo
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if u wanna try the best ever smoked deer, try slow smoking the whole neck with bone in. takes a while but it'll make u "slap your momma away from the table" its so good
has anyone ever smoked venison the whole thing
I'm a fan of brown sugar as a base for slow-cooking rubs (ESPECIALLY on pork!), with whatever you want in it; cayenne pepper, pepper, garlic and onion powder, salt, pre-made rubs........whatever you think looks good from your cabinet. I've never cooked a whole large animal at one time, but can like the foil idea as I use it on a smaller scale.
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