"Venison barbecuted, that is, wrapped up in leaves, and roasted in the Embers."

Here is something I tried based upon a 17th century account of how Virginia Indians (that's what we prefer to be called rather than native Americans) cooked venison. In the 17th century a clergyman by the name of John Clayton wrote about Virginia Indian cookery that they cook "venison barbecuted, that is, wrapped up in leaves, and roasted in the Embers." I started another thread on the subject that can be found here - http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=197187 .

So. I thought I'd try my hand at it. This experiment is just a proof of concept. No conclusions can be drawn except that it's possible too cook meat wrapped in leaves roasted in embers and still be tasty.
Here are the results. I used a slice of flat iron steak rather than venison. I wrapped it in the only leaves that I know of that are big enough to wrap meat in. I also know from other accounts that Virginia Indians used corn husks to wrap food in as it cooked.



I let it "roast" in the embers for 15 minutes. I had no idea how long it would take, so I just chose 15 minutes. After about 5 minutes the wrapped meat started to hiss. This kept up until the outer corn husks began to flare up. At the 15 minute mark, I removed the wrapped meat from the embers, removed the corn husks and found a juicy steak. It was well done. So, obviously, for medium rare, 15 minutes was too long. But, the meat was still juicy. The corn husks on the bottom of the meat charred which added a nice crunch to the outside of the steak.

So, what did I learn? I learned that what Clayton wrote about Virginia Indian cooking is possible. Further research is needed to determine if long cooking times at low temps can also produce good results which is what we would expect nowadays for anything "barbecuted". Either way, i think this was a good start to the research.

Thanks for the input! I use butcher paper to make tamales. But, in this case, I wanted to try it as close to how it was described as possible for a first run test.

Yep, the butcher paper is a lot less effort. :-D

ShencoSmoke said:

Did you soak the husks in water? I'm going camping this weekend so I will thaw some venison out and give it a try!

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Nope, not this time.

oifmarine2003 said:

How was the taste?

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Good! I didn't think the meat would caramelize but it did. Also, the corn husks on the bottom became very crispy and added a nice flavor, too.

silverfinger said:

This is a great thread!
What type of leaves do they use in Hawaii to smoke whole pig?

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Banana leaves. But, the whole pig is buried with hot rocks rather than coals.

OK, so I have given this a lot of thought. The Bizarre Foods venison cook provided some input and so did a pork butt cook featured on a recent episode of Man Fire Food (MFF). On MFF, they cooked a pork butt in an earthen oven wrapped in foil and burlap on top of corn sitting in coals.

Now, while Virginia Indians in the Tidewater region (east of Washington, D.C., Fredericksburg, and Richmond) used earthen ovens, there is not written or archeological evidence that I have found that they cooked venison in them. So, I am going to go by what was written and that is "venison, wrapped in leaves and roasted in the embers."

I'm thinking of substituting a pork butt for the venison and foil and burlap for the leaves. There are two reasons for those substitutions. First, while I could acquire enough corn leaves and husks to wrap a pork butt, I don't feel comfortable that the leaves wouldn't be saturated with insecticides. I really don't want to eat that stuff. Also, the foil, I think, would compensate for the increase of liquid from fat that the pork would bring as opposed to the venison.

What do you think of wrapping a pork butt in foil then burlap and roasting it in hardwood embers? Do you all think that would be a suitable modern compromise for venison wrapped in leaves?

Ultimately, my modifications have to do with dealing with the realities of the modern world. Cleanliness, increased fat from the pork, and avoiding insecticides are drivers for my approach.

ShencoSmoke said:

Not sure if you have access to it or not but you might be able to find a local farmer that can tell you what was used on the corn. I have about a 1/4 acre staggered and I know it is clean. I'm going to give it a shot this weekend with venison wrapped in corn husk. I have some elk as well, but not sure a want to risk it with the elk. Good luck!

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Cool! Post results! I'm thinking the pork will take at least 8 to 12 hours. And, that amount of time is not outside of the scale of Indian cooking. Unlike us in our modern world, Indians in Virginia didn't have set meal times. They just ate whenever they were hungry. So, they always had a stew or a barbecue ready to eat which means that food was always cooking and was often cooing for long periods of time over low heat.

va_connoisseur said:

Is the expectation that the burlap would burn off and the foil would remain to protect the meat? Also, will the meat be covered in coals or simply resting on them?

Sounds like a great experiment. I may try this weekend during the games.

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Nope, my hope is that the burlap won't burn.