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I occasionally make corned venison. No problem with the brining step of my recipe, but the cooking step calls for 4 hours of very slow simmer and I am thinking of changing that.

The flavor and tenderness are fantastic, but the moisture loss is extreme. Being venison, there is no fat to mitigate the effects of moisture loss. My roasts are DRAMATICALLY smaller after the cooking process, and the meat is so dry it really needs to be slathered in something moist to be enjoyed while eating. And it is incredibly crumbly, nearly impossible to slice after chilled. I've used the same recipe for making corned beef and it came out fine - I'm assuming because of the fat.

OK that was a long setup now here is my question. How might I change the cooking process to stop much of that moisture loss? I'm thinking of trying shortening the cooking process to 2 1/2 hours as I've seen in some other recipes... but I am wondering about whether that will be long enough to achieve the same tenderness. I am wondering about maybe instead lowering the water temp below simmering, maybe to around 160, and sticking with the 4 hours. I'm also wondering if adding phosphate to the brine might help.

I don't do it often enough for it to be practical to experiment much with different variables. I'm hoping for some wise advice about how to manipulate the time and temp of the simmer stage to minimize the moisture loss of my venison roasts, while not compromising tenderness.

Help?

--Steve, St. Louis

Welcome, Steve.

Regrettably, I've never corned venison - hopefully someone who has will answer this soon.

Phil

Perhaps you can try the sous vide method to cook it? After brining it, if you have a vacuum sealer you can seal it up then toss it in 160 degree water for a few hours. I've done really lean steaks and duck breasts like this before. It's hard to keep the water at 160, but if you can do it then it should work. Maybe put a rack or something in the bottom of the pan to keep it from settling on the bottom. When it's done, let it rest so it'll reabsorb some of the liquid that might come out, or maybe even just toss it right in the fridge and let it chill first.

I've never tried it on venison, but I imagine it would be better than boiling it directly in the water. Usually with those lean cuts of venison I like to cook it as quick as possible to avoid moisture loss -- I did a venison tenderloin (not really a tenderloin, but I can't remember the name of the cut; the button, or something?) with a quick sear in a pan then wrapped in foil and tossed in a 400 deg oven for about 20 mins or so, and it came out really juicy.

EDIT: When I did this with steaks I used an ice chest and filled it with hot water from our tap, which comes out at 134 degrees. Just happens that's an ideal temperature for a medium-rare steak. All I had to do was just add more hot water whenever the temperature dropped a couple of degrees. I tried maintaining 134-140 on the stove top, but the lowest setting our gas stove can handle without just blowing out kept it around 160-170. Hopefully you can stay in that range!

The best way I have found to keep moose/venison roast tender and juicy is to not let the internal meat temp get above 142-145 deg F and let it cook at that temp for as long as possible, 6 to 12 hours. I use a cast iron Dutch oven and stick a digital meat thermometer in the meat under the lid. I do this a dozen times a year with moose roast and they turn out better than the best store bought prime rib.

VenisonWalla wrote:I occasionally make corned venison. No problem with the brining step of my recipe, but the cooking step calls for 4 hours of very slow simmer and I am thinking of changing that.

I cooked a haunch of cold smoked fallow on Friday. It was the rear muscle group so not a big bit of meat - about the size of a good big salami through. I simply wrapped it in foil and cooked for 12 hours at about 65C (150F). The temperature control on my oven is a bit flaky at that low a setting but it runs +- about 6C. Being cold smoked then air dried for 7 days it was not hugely moist to start with but the result is (though I say it myself as shouldn't) rather fine. I have a PID control made up for my Bradley smoker so I will probably use that for the front, larger "half" and give it 16 hours or so.

Just a thought.I know that most are agin addatives but you could read

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... 313a8b0c3a


Coming at it from another angle.
May give you some food for thought.

Jim