• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FORAGER | CHEF

Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

  • Home
  • About
  • Wild Mushrooms
    • Mushroom Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other Mushrooms
        • Lobster Mushrooms
        • Huitlacoche
        • Shrimp of the Woods
        • Truffles
        • Morels
        • Shaggy Mane
        • Hericium
        • Puffball
      • Polypores
        • Hen of the Woods
        • Dryad Saddle
        • Chicken of The Woods
        • Cauliflowers
        • Ischnoderma
        • Beefsteak
      • Chanterelles
        • Black Trumpet
        • Hedgehogs
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Honey Mushrooms
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Ramps and Onions
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
      • Spruce and Conifers
      • Pollen
      • Prickly Ash
      • Bergamot / Wild Oregano
      • Spicebush
      • Golpar / Cow Parsnip
      • Wild Carraway
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged Animals
      • Venison
      • Small Game
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal and Organ Meat Recipes
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • Field, Forest Feast (The Wild Harvest)
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts / Interviews
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

Smoked Venison Tasso Ham

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Smoked Venison Tasso Ham

A venison tasso recipe may not exactly be a traditional piece of charcuterie, but, if you like spicy smoked ham, you’ll love it. If you’re not familiar (it’s kind of an obscure ham) tasso is a smoked Creole ham that typically has a spicy rub of paprika and cayenne, among a bunch of other things.

Dry rubbed venison breast for tasso ham

When I made more traditional tasso at my first restaurant, I would always use what’s called the “eye” of the pork shoulder, a perfectly cylindrical piece of meat also used to make coppa ham.

Tasso is awesome made with pork shoulder, but nicely marbled cuts of any well used muscle from many animals can make a great version. All you really need to know is the basic spice rub (that you can tweak, as I often do) and a simple method. Also, if you like things like this, you also need to dry my venison bacon, and if you haven’t tried that, I would recommend you do that first before making this. 

Venison breast for bacon

Venison breast with some rib meat attached. You can trim it up more if you like.

Cuts of venison I use 

  • Breast 
  • Any and all rib meat 
  • Belly 
  • Flank 
  • Shoulder (as well as the meat around the “armpit” on the bone, or what I call the “saratoga”. 
  • Neck 

Basic method 

There’s more than one way to do this, but here’s my method. First, I rub the meat with a mix of curing salt, kosher salt, and maple sugar (although originally I was taught to brush the meat with honey) then I vacuum seal it.

After it’s seasoned and has rested for 2 days, I coat it with the spice rub, then smoke it low and slow at first for 1.5 hours, finishing it in the oven wrapped in parchment to allow it to gently steam until it’s fork-tender.

Smoked Venison Tasso Ham

 

Other meats can be cooked completely on the smoker, but venison is lean and can dry out a bit so I like to finish it in the oven. You can probably get away with only doing it on the smoker, and I have, but If you’ve never attempted something like this before I encourage you to use my dual-cooking method here to hedge your bet. 

How to use 

The finished ham is smoky, spicy, and rich. Typically I dice it into small cubes before cooking to remove some of the fat, as you would bacon. It’ll be delicious in your favorite creole recipe, tossed with some roasted potatoes, crisped up and added to gumbo or some fried greens.

Venison hams and other things using the breast and other fatty cuts I always serve hot, since some people, myself included, find cool venison fat a little too rich. 

What about the fat?

Most hunters I know of are terrified of venison fat. If you’re one of those people, don’t worry. Curing and smoking changes the structure of the fat a bit, but it’s also important to know how I cook with the finished ham.

After smoking and chilling to firm, the ham is cut into pieces and cooked crisp like you would bacon, although I’m more gentle on it during rendering as I don’t want it to become firm nuggets, which could be dry.

Brown it lightly, discard the fat, and add to a recipe in which the ham will be consumed warm. Soups and stews, especially Creole ones, are excellent places to use it. 

Smoked Venison Tasso Ham

Smoked Venison Tasso Ham
Print Recipe
No ratings yet

Venison Tasso Ham

Spicy smoked venison ham inspired by classic Creole tasso. The rub recipe will make enough for about 5 lbs of ham.
Prep Time16 mins
Cook Time3 hrs
Dry-brining time8 hrs
Course: Charcuterie
Cuisine: American, Creole
Keyword: Charcuterie, Tasso, Venison ham

Ingredients

Rub

  • 1 Tbsp. cayenne pepper
  • 2 Tbsp. sweet paprika
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 Tbsp. ground sage
  • 1.5 Tbsp. dried thyme
  • 1 Tbsp. fennel seeds
  • 1/2 Tbsp. ground white pepper
  • 1/2 Tbsp. cumin seed

Ham

  • 2.5 lbs venison breast rib meat, or neck, in whole pieces at least 8-16 oz each. You can also use a whole leg muscle, trimmed of sinew.
  • 2 % Kosher salt
  • ½ tsp Instacure no1
  • ¼ cup maple sugar or brown sugar you can also brush the meat with warm honey before applying the spice mix as another option

Instructions

Rub

  • Toast the fennel, white pepper and cumin in a dry pan until aromatic, then grind and mix with the other rub ingredients and reserve.

Cure the meat

  • Season the venison with salt, sugar and instacure, mix well, then vacuum seal and allow to rest for 48 hours.

Smoking and finishing in the oven

  • Remove the meat from the smoker, pat dry, then lightly coat with the spice mix and smoke at 250F for 1.5 hours. Remove the meat from the smoker, warp tightly in parchment, and bake at 250 F for another 1.5 hours or until fork-tender. If you use a whole muscle from the leg, smoke it until it hits an internal temperature of 150F (you will not need to transfer it to the oven).

Related

Previous Post: « Black Trumpet Mushroom Potato Puree
Next Post: Parasol Mushroom Caps Stuffed with Wild Rice »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

James Beard Award Winner

beard award

Subscribe (It’s free)

Forager Chef

Forager Chef

Footer

Instagram

foragerchef

FORAGER | CHEF®
🍄🌱🍖
Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

Alan Bergo
Milkweed buds are the second-best edible part of t Milkweed buds are the second-best edible part of the plant, besides the pods in my opinion. They need to be cooked to be edible. 

I only pick from common milkweed in areas where there’s very large colonies. 

I leave some buds to flower on each plant, I also avoid any tops that have insects or monarch caterpillars. Plenty of food to go around. 

#milkweedisafoodplant #foraging #milkweedbuds #asclepiassyriaca
HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mul HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mulberry trees and both got a bunch of fruit knocked down by the storms and wind. 

If anyone in West WI or around the Twin Cities knows of some trees, (ideally on private property but beggars can’t be choosers) that I could climb and shake with a tarp underneath, shoot me a DM and let’s pick some! 🤙😄

TIA

#throwadogabone #mansquirrel #beattlefruit #mulberries #shakintrees
Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of t Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of the more interesting things I’ve eaten. 

These are an ancient wild food traditionally harvested in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and the Salentine Peninsula, as well as Greece and Crete. I’ve seen at least 6-7 different names for them. 

A couple different species are eaten, but Leopoldia comosa is probably the one I see mentioned the most. They also grow wild in North America. 

The bulbs are toxic raw, but edible after an extended boil. Traditionally they’re preserved in vinegar and oil, pickled, or preserves in other methods using acid and served as antipasti. (Two versions in pic 3). 

They’re one of the most heavily documented traditional wild foods I’ve seen. There’s a few shots of book excerpts here.

The Oxford companion to Italian Food says you can eat them raw-don’t do that. 

Even after pickling, the bulbs are aggressively extremely bitter. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s grown on me. 

#traditionalfoods #vampagioli #lampascione #cucinapovera #lampascioni #leopoldiacomosa #foraging
Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke sallet and didn’t do too well (I’m at the tip of its range). I did see some feral horseradish though which I don’t see very often. 

Just like wild parsnip, this is the exact same plant you see in the store and garden-just escaped. 

During the growing season the leaves can be good when young. 

They have an aggressive taste bitter enough to scare your loved ones. Excellent in a blend of greens cooked until extra soft, preferably with bacon or similar. 

For reference, you don’t harvest the root while the plant is growing as they’ll be soft and unappealing-do that in the spring or fall. This is essentially the same as when people tell you to harvest in months that have an R in them. 

#amoraciarusticana #foraging #horseradishleaves #horseradish #bittergreens
In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo del carrubo” (carob tree mushroom) as it’s one of the common tree hosts there. 

My favorite, and really the only traditional recipe I’ve found for them so far is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce with hot chile and capers, served with grilled bread. 

Here I add herbs too: fresh leaves of bee balm that are perfect for harvesting right now and have a flavor similar to oregano and thyme. 

Makes a really good side dish or app, especially if you shower it with a handful of pecorino before scooping it up with the bread. 

#chickenofthewoods #fungodelcarrubo #allthemushroomtags #traditionalfoods #beebalm
First of the year 😁. White-pored chicken of t First of the year 😁. 

White-pored chicken of the woods (Laetiporus cincinnatus) are my favorite chicken. 

Superior bug resistance, slightly better flavor + texture. They also stay tender longer compared to their more common yellow-pored cousins. Not a single bug in this guy. 

#treemeat #ifoundfood #foraging #laetiporuscincinnatus #chickenofthewoods
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Privacy

  • Privacy Policy

Affiliate Disclosure

 I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchases help keep this website free and help with the many costs involved with this site as it has continued to grow over the years. 

Copyright © 2022 ·