Smoking elk roast?

[elkyinzer]

Rokslide, I have a question about smoking an elk roast. I guess this could go in the cooking in the wild section but that one doesn't get as much action.

We're doing a "friendsgiving" in a couple weeks and I agreed to smoke one of my 8-10 pound boneless roasts from the hindquarter (I believe its the bottom round - the big flat muscle with the long grains on top outside portion of the rump?). Dimensions are about 12"L x 8'W x 4"H.

I'm pretty seasoned at doing much smaller deer roasts but wondering about some firsthand experience with a roast this large, because I want to nail it and I have a narrow time window to hit with the turkeys and other food.

Here are my questions:

Any reliable time and temp calculations (shooting for internal temp of 135 degrees)
Should I bacon wrap?
Should I smoke uncovered, or start uncovered then transfer to foil?
How long can it rest (insulated), erring on the side of finishing early?
Should I brine, if so, wet or dry? This is something I have been pondering doing to a deer roast and have not tried yet aside from corning.

I'll be sure to update with picture of the cooking process on the day of. Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[Eagle]

You'll definitely want to smoke it uncovered so you get a smoke ring on the meat and the added flavor. I would inject it rather than brining. As for the internal temp, 125-135 should be fine as it's likely to continue to increase on past that point after you take it off and wrap it. With that, I wouldn't wrap it until it reaches the 125-135 range and I'd let it rest for a minimum of an hour while wrapped. Keep a water bath in your smoker and it should turn out great. Use a good dry rub on the outside and whatever kind of injection you'd like and I'm sure it'll taste great.

 

[Whisky]

Here is how I would do it.

Season meat
Heat smoker to 225
Trow in meat, uncovered
When the meat reaches IT of 110 pull it and transfer to really hot grill to sear it off both sides.
When meat reaches IT of 125 pull it, cover in foil and rest for 30 minutes

I would not brine elk.

 

[InIt2Live]

Here is how I would and do, do it.

Rub it down with salt, wrap it up and let it sit for 12-24 hours. (Dry brine, about 1/2tsp of coarse salt per pound)
Make a dry rub (without salt) and rub it down, let it sit for another 12-24 hours.
Smoke it at 225-230 degrees
Time is a varying thing, but a decent rule for a roast is 30min per inch in diameter.
Cook it to 130-135, I usually shoot for 130 and then rest it for only about 10 minutes, it will likely reach around 135 in that time. Sometimes I take it off at 130 and then sear the outside on a super hot grill, just to brown it for flavor.

This method has always been good to me, even with prime rib and other beef, moose and caribou roasts.

Don't forget the beer!

 

[JG358]

I coat mine with olive oil, apply a rub, hit it with the jaccard then toss it back in the fridge for a couple hours. Toss in a 225* smoker with heavy oak smoke until the IT hits 125-130ish, pull, foil and let it rest for 10-15


No need to brine or inject IMO. No need to foil it. I wouldnt plan on a long rest period like you would with a brisket. I'll look through my logs when I get home and see what my average cook times for a large roast have been.

 

[JG358]

Looks like my bigger roasts go 5-5.5 hours on average.

 

[elkyinzer]

Looks like my bigger roasts go 5-5.5 hours on average.

You would be correct, it was right at 6 lbs frozen, will probably be down to close to 5.5 by the time it loses some blood. Overestimated a couple pounds. Thawing in my fridge until Friday morning at which point I am going to try a dry brine. Cannot wait for Saturday.

 

[elkyinzer]

Well, I said I would update this but unfortunately I did not take any post-cooking pictures. I made the amateur mistake of cooking it past my intended temperature, but the result was still pretty good and may have even appealed more to some people less comfortable with eating medium rare game meat.


I dry brined the roast as mentioned, coating the 6 lb roast with 10 grams of kosher salt, then refrigerating for 24 hours. Then I coated it in a dry rub, mostly rosemary, garlic and sage and it was ready to go.

Here it is before it went into the smoker.



This friendsgiving event, and the borrowed smoker, was at a college friends’ house in the endless suburbs of Philadelphia. I was staying at a different friend’s house a half hour away. Saturday morning, we drove over and got the turkeys started, and instructed my friend to throw the elk roast on at 1:30-2:00 PM, as we went back to where we were staying to watch PSU lose to Michigan. The (electric) smoker would be set to 225. In my haste and fog from the previous night I forgot to take my meat thermometer over so they could check on the temp of the elk roast, and they did not have one.

At 4:15, we made it back and my stomach sorta dropped as I immediately checked the thermometer and got an unexpected reading of 150 degrees throughout, so I pulled it, wrapped it in foil, threw it in a Ziploc, and wrapped it in my down jacket to stay insulated. I was not expecting it to be done at that point so my calculations were off or the smoker’s temp was not accurate, but either way I will be more careful next time.

At 6:30 I checked the temp – still 120 degrees, so we sliced it up and ate without any additional heating. I was amazed my down jacket kept it insulated that well for 2 hours, a real testament to the abilities of the material.

At a finishing temp of 150 degrees plus some additional post-cooking increase, it was well done and just barely pink throughout, but luckily not gray beyond 1/8 inch from the surface. I was shooting for a finishing temp of 130 degrees, then some additional browning on the outside over a high-heat grill, so being the perfectionist I am, I was bummed out that I missed my mark. I didn’t want to risk overcooking it anymore, so I skipped browning the exterior, which made ‘the skin’ pretty dull tasting. I definitely want to stop it where I can brown the outside next time and maybe even use a more robust rub with more sugar content.

Despite my self-criticism, everyone still loved it and it all was eaten.

I did not do a side by side test of course, but I believe the dry brining did greatly aid the moisture content and tenderness of the meat despite being a tad overcooked. I also made a Cumberland sauce for which I found the recipe on Hank Shaw’s website. That stuff was awesome and could have made cardboard taste ok. And yes, tons of beer, and wine, and spiced rum cider were consumed. I love the Thanksgiving season, it is such an awesome expression of the joys of the harvest, and still relatively non-commercialized to boot.

 

[InIt2Live]

Awesome that everyone still ate it! There's nothing wrong wi being overly critical of yourself, it only drives you to do better. I have yet to cook anything and just say "yum, at came out great", I always find what I could have done better.

Sounds like a good time all around though, except losing the game! (Sorry, I married a Michigander)