I know I’m late to the party but I’m jumping in on the lamb train. Years ago I traded some venison backstrap to my neighbor for a bone in rack of lamb.
First thing’s first. I do all my own processing to minimize the gamey-ness of the meat. But, deer are foul smelling beasts. The thought of cleaning one can almost be enough to keep me from shooting one. Almost.
That said, when I opened that vacuum pack of lamb, my first thought was something along the lines of “this may have been a bad idea.” But, I weren’t raised no quitter, so I trimmed the fat, gave the meat a nice dry rub (TexJoy BBQ seasoning), and put the loin on our smoker. I brought it up to an internal temp of 130, then wrapped it and let it rest for a bit. I sliced the meat and had a perfect med-rare. Called the wife in for a test and we killed that loin, standing over the cutting board in the kitchen. We had to reimagine dinner as our main had become the appetizer. Anyway, lamb chops are referred to in our house as “lamb-pops.”
My finicky kids will fight you for lamb pops.
Along those same lines, I do venison back strap similarly, with a couple of variations. 1, I wrap venison in bacon before putting it on the smoker. 2, I melt some finishing butter in a cast iron skillet and sear each side for 30 sec before slicing the meat. 3, the bacon gets crisped after smoking and is incorporated into a side- my wife makes a Brussels sprout dish that is amazing, and a crowd pleaser among the typically difficult to please rug rats.
We had another fam over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. Their kids are of the “only eats Kraft Mac and cheese” variety. Both had seconds of the venison and sprouts.
Lamb pops kick the shit out of venison- every day and 2x on Sunday. But, my kids will fight you for smoked back strap too.
And, deer stink.