Fred Heydorn from Burlington, NJ asked: On your show this week, you cooked a stuffed back strap. You said 280 degrees, but never how long. So my question is: how long did you cook it?
Thanks for the question Fred,
The length of cooking time really depends on how thick the meat is that you have wrapped around your stuffing. If you're working with a thin back strap you may only need 60-90 minutes. Also remember that preparing your wild game on the medium to medium rare side never hurts either. If you want to get technical, you can always use a thermometer to measure the internal temperature. 156°F is going to be well done, and around 140°F will give you that medium texture with a little pink in the middle.
I recently went on a hunting trip for Wild Boar and was successful in harvesting 3 good size animals. My question is: How long per pound should I bake the hams in the oven?
Christopher,
Wild Boar is one of my favorite wild game meats so I'm very glad you asked! I have embedded a video from my Butcher Block segment below. In the video, you will see how we prepare an elk roast using the new CanCooker. I realize you are preparing this roast in an oven, but the segment I would like you to see is the seasoning application. The method that we use to cut the roast and get the seasoning deep inside that large muscle is very important. When you simply rub the seasoning on the outside surface of the meat you will get very little seasoning penetration, but by deboning the roast and placing the seasoning deep inside the meat you will get a spectacular flavor out of your Wild Hog Roast!
Try it out - I know you will enjoy it! And as far as cooking time is concerned, my theory on all wild game meat is: "Low and Slow." Cook at a low temperature, 250-300F and the size of the roast will determine the cooking time. If you use a Reynolds oven bag as we do in several of our Butcher Block Segments, it will hold the natural juices in and give you a moist and tender product. I cook all my roasts until they fall & shred apart. The length of time will be determined by the size of the roast, but if you use an oven bag inside your smoker or oven, you will have no issues with the meat drying out on you, so you can cook it about as long as you want.
Try the CanCooker on wild game meats as well! You will love the way it cooks with steam and keeps the meat nice and moist! You can check it out on my Hunter's Butcher Shop site: TheHuntersButcherShop.com/Cancooker.
Is there a way to get a diagram of deer and hog cuts? My kids both started hunting this year and we are trying to process our own. We'd like to try getting roasts and such. It's just been steaks and burger. Haven't tried on a hog but planning. Thanks!
If you have more than one hunter in the house, you're going to need it. The diagrams will cost more than the DVD and the DVD contains over 3 hours of step by step instructional information to help you with everything from field dressing to skinning, caping, proper aging of the carcass, quartering & de-boning, and the majority of the DVD is spent defining all the cuts available from each primary muscle in the animal. This is very helpful for beginner to advanced processors. The game processing library with all the titles is also a great value with all the information you will ever need!
