Howdy! Buddy of mine is bringing over an elk roast—hindquarters—to throw on the smoker this Saturday. The meat from the rest of the animal is supposedly top-notch, so no need for fancy marinades like with the bear. What would y'all do? 225 until the center hits, what, 140?
I've had elk backstrap (tenderloin) once and it was great. DO NOT overcook it as it is quite lean. Rare or medium rare, 135°F tops. In general, I'd say FireMan is spot on with his "treat it like beef" recommendation. That said, I've no idea how a hind quarter may be different.
On second thought, it'll probably turn out bad; I'll take it off your hands AND reimburse you for shipping.
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Maybe it’s only me, but, I’ve got this thing about marinading meat for a length of time. I would dry brine it, then inject. Keep it simple, just me sayin. Save your marinade for an hour before. Do watch the over cookin thing Willy mentioned, otherwise it will be some thought eating.
Last edited by FireMan; November 16, 2017, 07:08 AM.
I did a forequarter a couple years ago used my rub but would probably just do 50/50 kosher salt and coarse black pepper.
The lower leg was like jerky and the upper meaty part was like nice steak.
Temp was 225 250 and unfortunately don't remember internal temp.
Unless the roast is a piece of blackstrap (loin), I would treat it like a piece of beef round. Makes awesome Baltimore pit beef &/or Italian beef sandwiches!!! Very tasty meat, but WAY too lean for typical low & slow BBQ! Other option would be to braise it like a classical pot roast. 😋
Ended up wrapping it in bacon for about 24 hours and smoking at 225 until it hit 125. Took about two hours—man those lean cuts cook fast! Delicious, though. The idea was for the bacon to both act like a dry brine and keep fat-basting the meat as it cooked. Basically treated it like a beef round roast as HorseDoctor says.
Here's my step-by-step:
- 3lb elk roast
- rub with garlic powder and black pepper
- basket-weave-wrap in 1lb of bacon
- tightly wrap in plastic wrap
- let sit 24 hours
- smoke at 225 until internal temp hits 125
- let rest 10 minutes
- slice across grain.
What I'd do differently
Not sure. I smoked this over applewood, and it had the flavor. But it wasn't too prevalent. The bacon definitely absorbed most of the smoke. I might, if I did this again, go a touch slower—maybe try to extend the cook time to get more smoke penetration? I know that most of the smoke flavor happens in the first hour, but still, could have used a bit more.
Not much smoke will penetrate the bacon... Might want to smoke a while first and then wrap with bacon or just baste with some bacon fat as you go? Does look like that would make an awesome sammich!!!
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