Venison Tasso Ham

Tasso ham is one of those ingredients that when I have it on hand, I want to put it in everything. Smoky, fatty, spicy pork is a fantastic addition to just about any dish- greens, soups, beans, anything really. It’s a Cajun invention, seasoned with a punch of assertive spices and hot smoked. 

Because we don’t have a feral pig problem where we hunt in Virginia, we figured we’d try to make some tasso with what we do have plenty of- whitetail deer. I shot a yearling doe earlier in the season with the intention of keeping the hams intact for a couple of projects, this tasso being one of them. You could of course use a bigger ham, but since we weren’t sure how this was going to turn out, we were hesitant to experiment on a whole ham from a larger animal.

The process is pretty straight forward- cure the meat, rub it down with spices and smoke the hell out of it. The result has all the characteristics of tasso that we love except for the fattiness. We shaved some up for a charcuterie board and everyone that tried it loved it. It’ll make a great addition to the aforementioned greens, beans, soups, etc. Next year, we might have to do one from a late season doe that has fattened up for the winter to see if we can gain some of the fattiness that we miss from pork. 

The recipe for this cure is done by weight- for example, you will need 2.5 grams of salt for every 100 grams of venison you are trying to cure. Curing meat is generally a very safe and easy process, but it is critical that you use the correct amount and type of curing agents to avoid recipe failure or the potential for food poisoning. Measuring by weight, rather than volume, allows you to easily scale the amount of cure up or down depending on the weight of the meat you are curing. A little bit of math will save you a bunch of heartache down the road. Please note as well the use of instacure #1- there is a difference between instacure #1 & #2, as well as between sel rose, tender quick, etc. There is no substituting instacure #1 in this recipe. You can purchase it cheaply online, and having it in your pantry will open up a whole world of curing recipes to you.

Venison Tasso Ham

Prep time: 30 minutes active, several days inactive

Yield: Varies

Cure:

2.5% salt by weight

2.5% sugar by weight

.25% insta cure #1 by weight

Spice Rub:

3 tbsp marjoram

3 tbsp allspice

3 tbsp white pepper

1 ½ tbsp cayenne

Method:

Combine salt, sugar, and instacure. Rub ham with cure and refrigerate. The length of time the ham will need to cure in your refrigerator will depend on the thickness of the ham. Give it two days per inch of thickness.

When the ham has cured, rinse off the cure and pat dry. Rub the ham with the spice mix. We made a small ham, so we did not need to make a lot of spice rub. Feel free to scale up the spice rub recipe if you are doing a large ham or several small ones.

Next, you will smoke the ham. Start with a cold smoke and gradually increase the temperature until internal temperature of the ham reaches 150F. 

Alternatively, you can cold smoke the ham for 6-8 hours, vac seal and sous vide at 150F for 4-6 hours. Cool in an Ice bath when the ham is done cooking. This method gives you much more control over the temperature, preventing overcooking.