? for the at home chefs

[A&N_Hunter]

Last night my wife and I had a venison roast with mashed taters and peas. I put the roast in a slow cooker and settled on a package of Campbells slow cooker sauces (Tavern Style Pot Roast). Following the direction, the roast was in the slow cooker on low for 7 hours. The sauce, taters and peas where delicious, but the roast was dry as toast..I could not believe how dry it was for slow cooking in a sauce for 7 hours...

 

So my question to the home chefs...When slow cooking a roast.. how long is your cook time for a juicy pull apart roast???

[Rusty]

Try cutting the meat up before cooking, almost like cooking a stew, and add some fat/oil before cooking.   

[outdoorslife]

Only time ive used the slow cooker and the roast is for bbq pulled venison. With that its definitely not dry at all. Now that I think about it, we have used stew meat also for some stew/soups and that doesnt come out dry either. Each is usually on low for approx 8 hours also. Sorry I dont have a definitive answer to your ???

 

Was the roast covered with sauce/water or exposed? That may have something to do with it..

[A&N_Hunter]

The roast was smothered in sauce and not exposed..

 

Ive made stew before which came out fine.. I am wondering if since it is a larger cut without any real fat content to keep it "juicy"

[outdoorslife]

The roast was smothered in sauce and not exposed..

 

Ive made stew before which came out fine.. I am wondering if since it is a larger cut without any real fat content to keep it "juicy"

I think Rustys recommendation would be a cure for this

[BowhunterNJ]

Yeah sounds like the moisture couldn't penetrate the meat enough, even in that amount of time.   Normally I cut meats up into smaller chucks when slow cooking.  Stew pieces are much smaller and don't need much time to get a good soak through.  A big ol' roast might require some opening up to get enough moisture in there.  Wonder if adding some punctures to it would help give some channels to get moisture in to the center better.  

[not on the rug]

The method I use for making beef roasts (eye round roasts in particular) is this:

 

Preheat oven to 500

Season roast

Place in a roasting pan.  

Reduce heat to 475 and roast for 7 minutes per pound

Shut the oven off and leave the meat in the oven for 2 hours.  Do not open the door.  

The meat will be a perfect medium rare every single time

 

I've never done this for venison before, but i'm imagining it would work just fine.  Some experimentation may be required.  It may take 5 minutes per pound, 6 minutes per pound, etc.  

 

Remember:

Rare is internal of 125 degrees

Medium Rare is 130-135 degrees

Medium is 135-140

Medium Well is 140-150

Well is 155

 

So...Venison does best Rare/Medium Rare or even Medium.  After that, it gets nasty, dry, stringy, etc.  

[Njkoren]

What cut did you use? I could see the sirloin tip roast being very dry.

[Nanuk]

Smaller pieces would have definitley absorbed the liquid quicker , could have tried injecting it also but venison with no intermuscular fat is dense chunk of meat . If left in a solid form it will boil from the outside in making it very tough . I normally don't do roasts but If I did, I would try browning the outside in a pan getting a nice crust or char before putting in an oven to cook to internal temp of 120-125 and allow it to rest for 10 mins so juices flow throughout the roast. Shouldn't take more then a 1 -3/4 in a conventional oven.

 

Sorry if I got off topic . Use the slow cooker for smaller less desirable cuts where heavily marinatation is necessary .

Edited October 18, 2016 by Nanuk

[Haskell_Hunter]

I've done roasts in a crock pot and in the oven with a cast iron Dutch oven. The key is having the roast covered at least 1/2 with liquid, preferably more. Any exposed meat will dry out. You also want to flip the roast 1/2 way through your cooking time or in the case of an extended cooking time, every 2-3 hours.

 

Also, keep the lid shut the whole time.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[buckhound]

I have read in several recipes that searing on all sides will help keep meat moist . I tried that with a sauerbraten I made that was juicy and tender...

[Roon]

Deer meat almost always dry, little trick is use and always works cook it night before and reheat when ready to use. Beats up those close cells, large pieces or always difficult unless making pulled venison sandwiches, then the trick is root beer

Edited October 18, 2016 by Roon

[Yeti15]

Sounds like you did everything correct.  It could have been the slow cooker sauce you used.  I usually take an entire piece of roast and either add beef stock or onion soup into the slow cooker for 7 to 8 hours on low.  The venison has never once been dry.

[Williemo]

How many pounds was the roast? How lean was it? Did you sear the meat first? My first inclination is you overcooked

It. Contrary to belief you don't have to slow cook for 7-8 hours and no matter how much moisture, you can overcook any roast. I had to look up the Campbells sauce you were using. A 2-3 pound chuck roast of cow is not the same as a 2-3 pound venison roast, which is generally leaner and requiring less cooking time. You may well have had better results only cooking for 4 hours. In addition, there are 580 mg of sodium per quarter cup of the Campbell sauce! That's 25% of your recommended daily allowance and you're drenching your roast in 2-3 cups of it, which is not helping your moisture problem! Do yourself a favor and get a good recipe from on line (Honest food.net is great) and eat a lot healthier! There are not that many ingredients needed and you'll be much happier with the results!!

[jerseyhunter]

Even the wrong cuts of beef will turn out dry due to over cooking.