Best way to cook leg of venison on open fire?

[robin wood]

If you go for spit roast I can pass on some excellent second hand advice from a friend Mark Meltonville who has done many years experimental spit roasting in the kitchens at Hampton Court Palace. With the set up in posts 23 the heat is coming primarily from underneath heating the underside causing the juices to run straight out and not catchable. This is OK for something like a fat pig but for lean meat results in dryer tougher food than you could have had. The set up in post 26 whilst having side heat means that as one side heats and the juices run they are again lost or at best caught in a drip tray.

What they do at Hampton Court is set up a horizontal spit to the side of the fire (the fireplace has a large reflector behind to throw all the radiant heat forward) then you have someone constantly turning the spit. This is an important job and the speed is critical. What they do is turn at such a speed that the side facing the fire gets hot enough for the juices to run but never slowly enough so they run off. Turn upwards on the fireside and as the hot part goes up and over and down the other side it reabsorbs those juices. If you see juices dropping off you are going too slow. Perfect job for boys of all ages. Using this method it is astonishing how tender and juicy the meat becomes, utterly unlike anything possible in an oven. It is possible to roast all manner of joints that they had always considered braising or pot roasting cuts. For venison I would still pin on some streaky bacon but I have done this with a number of different cuts and birds and it works a treat.

 

[Man of Tanith]

think i am gonna go with how mesquite suggested to me
venison sealed in oil
veg spun in oil then venison added once more
thin gravy including bottle of red
turn every half hour
(in dutch oven)

 

[21st century pict]

Stab it all over and put juniper berries in the holes, basted with honey and bacon fat with apple juice, Slow smoked in a tipi over oak shavings and apple peel and serve with mead or cider.
Or boiled in cider for half an hour an hour then smoke dry and roasted. And serve with black pudding, bread and beer or cider.
The breakfast of champions .

 

[Sherwood]

spam reported,....

 

[AussieVic]

What they do at Hampton Court is set up a horizontal spit to the side of the fire (the fireplace has a large reflector behind to throw all the radiant heat forward) then you have someone constantly turning the spit. This is an important job and the speed is critical. What they do is turn at such a speed that the side facing the fire gets hot enough for the juices to run but never slowly enough so they run off. Turn upwards on the fireside and as the hot part goes up and over and down the other side it reabsorbs those juices. If you see juices dropping off you are going too slow. Perfect job for boys of all ages. Using this method it is astonishing how tender and juicy the meat becomes, utterly unlike anything possible in an oven. It is possible to roast all manner of joints that they had always considered braising or pot roasting cuts. For venison I would still pin on some streaky bacon but I have done this with a number of different cuts and birds and it works a treat.

Very interesting advice.

I've cooked many roasts in a camp oven, but wanted to try something a bit different, so
a couple of months back we took the electric spit attachment off a home BBQ and ran it off an inverter.
We had the vehicle near the camp site so we carried a (spare) battery in, and cooked a lamb roast.

We positioned the spit beside the fire, and added some foil to the ends where it was starting to overcook. Worked very well, with excellent results.

That started me looking for some alternative methods for roasting meat, but I didn't really like the idea of having to turn a spit for hours.

The tenchique that appealed the most was the South American Asado style cooking, by spreading a beast out on a frame, here are a few pictures as a FYI:
http://www.visittangobuenosaires.com/Asado-en.htm

Has anyone tried an asado style of cooking before (for beast like a sheep, goat or pig) ?

 

[knifefan]

I've done a couple now, at various meets and found that the best way is: Firstly, you need to brown/seal the haunch - I do this by pushing a sharpened stick through the haunch from ancle to hip (thick end at the top) and place suspended over the open fire, keeping a close eye not to burn!! This normally takes about 3/4 - 1hr depending on the fire. Once well browned, triple wrap in tin foil so its nice and secure. (at this time you can wrap in smoked back bacon or not - prior to wrapping in foil) Now scrape some embers from the up-wind side of the fire so you form a nice hot bed, lay the haunch onto the embers and rake more embers around the edges. Now all you need to do is turn on a regular basis and keep raking fresh embers out of the fire. An average haunch will be done in around two hrs depending on the fire and size of haunch. If you have wrapped tightly in foil, you will find it hard to over cook - which is a crime for vennison.

 

[Thenihilist]

Cover it in batter then deep fry it.