Deer Season

Deer hunting was successful this year.

I have one buck mule deer and one white tail doe in the freezer. (photos of the buck)

Have been processing the meat. 

I like to trim the backstraps, cut some steaks and leave a couple whole hunks for cooking over the campfire.

I cut the steaks thick, then butterfly them open...

The backstrap steaks and a couple of backstrap roasts..

Then I start processing roasts, cubing some and leaving a few whole..

Some of the roasts, backstrap steaks and cubed meat...
I will use the cubed meat for burger, sausage, stews, canning etc.. 

Wrapped and packaged for the freezer...

more roasts and cubed meat...

Saved the shoulders whole for slow roasting over a fire...

wrapped in plastic then bagged for the freezer...

As soon as this last cold front came through, I made a pot of venison stew and let it simmer on low all day. It smelled SO good.

tasted pretty good too....

I'm really thankful for the meat and will enjoy it all year. 

Hope everyone else had a safe and successful season!

Pork Pastrami and Canadian Peameal Bacon

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  I made it through the week, ate too much turkey and have two deer to show for deer season. Really happy with the venison, it will help keep me fed this winter. 

I'm not really sure what to call this dish. I used my favorite pastrami recipe to cure a hunk of pork leg, (homegrown hampshire), then smoked it on the drum. It's tasty stuff, almost a cross between ham, pastrami and corned beef.



Some of the pork leg (uncured, green ham) cut into 5 pound sections. They are easier for me to handle, also have more of a chance of eating the smaller pieces compared to a full leg ham.

 Cured the corned pork/pastrami for 8 days...
 5 tablespoons Tender Quick
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1 teaspoon ground bay leaves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
this is for 5 pounds of meat. 

 Wrap and cure in the fridge..

Also started the Canadian peameal bacon in a pickle cure...
To the tenderquick water brine (on side of TQ container) I add
about 1 TBS of each...
juniper berries
whole black pepper corns
2 bay leaves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp whole cloves

Also let this cure for 8 days in the fridge..

When the corned pork was cured, I rinsed well with cool water.
Before smoking, rub the meat with a mixture of allspice, garlic, crushed bay leaves, crushed juniper berries, onion powder, black pepper and mustard seeds.... I use about a tsp of each, and 2 cloves of the garlic minced. You can add more if needed.

Into the drum at 275F with some small potatoes...

I removed the potatoes when tender (about one hour) and added beef stock to the pork pastrami to let it steam until tender.

made a skillet of hot bacon dressing for the tatoes...

The pork pastrami with hot bacon dressed potatoes...

Back to the Canadian Peameal bacon.

After curing the peameal bacon in the pickle brine for 8 days, I slice, roll in cornmeal and fry til golden. (you can smoke if desired but most peameal bacon is not)
Peameal can be used instead of cornmeal but cornmeal is what I have on hand.

Made a batch of biscuits...

The Canadian peameal bacon, fried egg, grits and a biscuit with home made corn cob jelly...  It was pretty tasty. :)

Next day was a fried Canadian bacon, egg, biscuit sammich. :)

Really happy with the way the bacon and pastrami came out. The biscuits weren't  half bad too. :)


Hope everyone had a good deer season this year. Rifle season is still going on here but the weather has turned bad. I'm happy with what I have so I won't be going back out.
Keep safe and thanks for stopping by! :)