Ingredients:

  • 1 whole hindquarter

Stuffing: (combine in bowl)

  • 1 package of ground sage sausage
  • 1 package of regular ground sausage
  • 6-8 celery stalks
  • 1 green onion
  • 1 cup chopped mushrooms
  • 1-2 tblsp minced garlic
  • Salt
  • pepper

Marinade:

  • 48 oz. light beer
  • 1 bottle Worcestershire sauce
  • juice of 1 lemon

Marinate deer meat in a large pan for at least 24 hours in a refrigerator. Make sure meat reaches room temperature before cooking.

Prepare the meat:

Remove as much of the fascia as possible. Fascia is the cellophane- like, almost clear covering on the muscle tissue. If not removed, the meat will be tough to eat. With a knife, slice the sides of the larger muscles lengthwise along the hindquarter. Make large enough pockets to pack as much stuffing as possible. To offer even more stuffing room, individual muscles can easily be separated along the tendons.

Smoking:

After stuffing, place hindquarter in the smoker. Make sure your smoker maintains a temperature between 250 and 300 degrees. During the first hour of cooking, leave the meat unwrapped and use only charcoal for heat.

After the first hour, wrap the meat in aluminum foil. Use your choice of smoking wood to maintain a good temperature. Let the meat smoke for six to eight hours, depending on how rare you like your venison. The sausage will cook first and keep the meat moist.

If you are careful to catch the drippings, an excellent gravy can be made to pour over the meat. It also goes well on sandwich bread with roast beef, or you can go Greek style by serving it as a gyro. Another idea is to shred the meat and simmer it in barbecue sauce for sandwiches.