Do you grind up your venison shanks? Feed them to the dog? Wonder what could ever make them taste good? No more. Smoked venison shanks (and lots of other smoked deer parts) are a great thing to keep around. The basic idea is this: right after I butcher an animal, I’ll take different parts that benefit from slow cooking like shanks, chunks of shoulder, or bones, and toss them in a plastic bucket filled with ham brine outside (I’m in Minnesota and Wisconsin, so our falls our very cool). After four or five days, everything goes in the smoker for a couple hours, then I vacuum seal and freeze it all.
Shanks can be tender, and delicious, just don’t eat them whole
Some of you might be thinking: “Sure Alan, you eat all the boot-leather tough deer meat you want–but it’s not for me”. Trust me here, after a cure, smoke, and a slow braise, you won’t recognize the end product. The cure is the really special part. The sugar and salts in the cure denature the meat in a way, the same way it does ham and corned beef, turning it from boot leather tough, to delicious, rich, gelatinous gold. There will be a little picking apart and removing of tendons, etc, after it’s braised and cooked, but no more than something like a chuck roast. Also, know that I’m not going to eat the whole shank here glazed like a Renaissance festival turkey leg–it’s for cooking wet, in broth, soup, stew, etc, and afterwords I’m always going to be dicing or slicing it up. Got it?
Smoked venison shanks (or any shank) are an investment that pays dividends.
It may sound like extra work, during butchery time, and it is, but it’s easier doing large amounts of stuff like that in batches than one at a time, and it saves me from having to fire up the smoker in the winter. Whenever I want a big bowl of smokey broth, a pot of beans, or whatever else, all I have to do is reach in the freezer and pull out one of my smoked golden nuggets. If you want to see an example of how I use the shanks specifically, see my smoked venison shank ramen.
Smoked venison shank ramen–one example of a great soup you could make with your shanks.
Smoked Venison Shanks
Ingredients
- 1-2 venison shanks either hind or foreshanks
For the brine
- 3 quarts water
- 260 grams salt roughly 1 cup + 2 tablespoons
- 1 oz pink curing salt sodium nitrite
- 3 Tablespoons pickling spice
- 2 cups dark brown sugar
- 1 large yellow onion sliced
- 3 dried bay leaves
- 1 bulb garlic halved horizontally
Instructions
- Combine the ingredients for the brine and bring to a simmer in a stock pot. After the mix boils, chill completely, then immerse the venison shanks in the brine and weight it down in a large plastic container.
- If no containers are large enough to hold the ham, a stock pot will work. Keep theshanks in the brine for 3 days, then remove.
- To cook, smoked the shank at 225 Fahrenheit or so for 3 hours, then cool and refrigerate or freeze for later.
This looks great! Got a couple of shanks in the freezer that ill be trying this weekend, what internal temperature would you be aiming for during the smoking?
Not internal temperature, you’re cooking the shanks until the meat moves freely and they’re tender. But, these aren’t something that I’ll just eat right off the bone, I prefer to smoke the shanks and simmer in liquid to help make sure nothing dries out, afterwords, remove the shanks, pick the meat (or chill and dice it) then reheat and eat.
What do you base your quantity of pink curing salt on? I’m giving this a shot but with a couple deer roasts instead of shanks. Do I need to adjust the curing salt? I haven’t used pink curing salt before and don’t want to over do it.
Also, do you have a conversion from pink curing salt to Mortons tender quick?
Thank you.
It’s based on tried and true recipes I used to serve to the public at my restaurants. Many of us used to use Charcuterie by Michael Rhulman as a guide for pink salt in cures, but I usually decrease the amount a bit. This should be a pared down version of the cure I use to make ham. Most of it gets dissolved in water, and thats a good way to consume less of it, if you’re worried about that. It’s a good, all purpose brine cure.
Thank you for the quick response. Got another question for you. What if I leave the curing salt out completely? The hams I’m making will be consumed the day I smoke them.
You sure can, but, remember that curing salt is part of the reason ham, jerky, and any meat that’s pink after it’s cooked tastes as good as it does. FWIW, celery salt and other “substitutes” are the exact same compounds, they just occur naturally. I had a line cook who used to make brisket with celery juice. If you do omit the pinky, don’t expect to have the same sort of wow factor, but it will still be ok.
Ok. Thank you for the assistance and advice. I’ll comment on here on how it went.
The hams turned out fantastic and had a great flavor. Everyone enjoyed them, including a couple people who don’t care for venison. I smoked them to an internal temp of 180 using hickory. I will be using this again.
Great. The brine trick for game will serve you well.