Corned Venison

Holy smokes is this stuff good. Salty, succulent and perfectly spiced, it makes for the absolute best hash you’ll ever eat. I had never found myself to be a huge fan of the corned beef I’ve had in diners and out of a can, but this homemade corned venison is to die for. With just a little bit of effort and a few days in the refrigerator, this is about as easy as cured meat gets, and it is exponentially better than any other I’ve tried. There are two cooking methods below; choose the one that will work best for you and your desired outcome. The traditional cooking method yields a flaky, shreddable texture that works perfectly for corned venison hash or fritters. The sous vide method yields a firmer, more sliceable texture, best for sandwiches and dishes that involve layering, like a reuben or eggs benedict.

Corned Venison

As always, we use metric measurements and go by weight for our charcuterie recipes. We do this to make the recipes easy to scale and replicate exactly, batch after batch. If you’re thinking of getting into sausage or charcuterie making and don’t own a kitchen scale, please do yourself the favor of buying one. They’re inexpensive relative to the cash outlay of all the other equipment you’ll need to pick up, and will save you a lot of effort in terms of scaling recipes into imperial measurements (and potentially averting recipe failure).

Yield: About 3 lbs

Prep time: 6 days inactive, 2 hours active

Brine:

4 liters water

450 g salt

100 g sugar

25 g instacure #1

4 cloves garlic, smashed

20 g pickling spice (recipe below)

2 venison sirloin tips (approx 1500-2000g total)

Pickling Spice:

13 g mustard seed

12 g black peppercorn

12 g white peppercorn

5 g whole coriander

2 g allspice, ground

5.3 g mace, ground

2 cinnamon stick, crushed

24 bay leaves, crushed

13 g whole cloves

5 g ground ginger

Toast peppercorn, mustard seeds and coriander. Coarsely grind. Mix with remaining spices. You will have extra; this will store indefinitely in a jar.

Method:

Combine the brine ingredients and bring to a simmer. When dissolved, allow to cool completely and place venison in brine. Make sure it is submerged, using a ceramic plate to weigh it down if needed. Refrigerate for 5 days. Remove from brine, pat dry.

Now that the venison is cured, choose a cook method. The traditional cooking method is going to yield meat that flakes, perfect for a hash, while the sous vide method is better for slicing for sandwiches.

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Traditional Method: 

Place in dutch oven, cover with water, and add 20g pickling spice. Bring to a boil, then cover partially and reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook until fork tender, 3-5 hours. 

Cut cross grain to serve. Retain the cooking liquid to reheat if not serving immediately.

Sous Vide Method:

Prepare spice rub. This is enough rub for 4 medium sized sirloin tips. Save any extra for your next batch.

15 g coriander, ground

15 g black pepper, ground

5 g dill seed

5 g mustard seed, crushed

1 g mace, ground

2 g chili flake

Rub spice mix on venison, bag and place in sous vide preheated to 140F, cook for 36hours.