Ok, so I helped a co-worker get his 45-70 sighted in and took him some beetles to clean his bison skull.

For that, I was rewarded with about a 2.5-3.0 pound vacumn packed shoulder roast.

Now, it isn't like these things grow on trees so I gotta get it right the first time.
He warned me that is is easy to overcook and dry it out, so I am looking for ideas, preferably with a cooking bag to preseerve the moisture.

ANY and ALL suggestions are gratefully accepted and appreciated.

LouisB

[ 03-26-2003, 21:52: Message edited by: TCLouis ]

Simple way:
Cut small slits in the roast and put a piece of garlic in each. Numgber of slits depends on how much you like garlic, COAT with course ground black pepper, oregano, basil and kosher salt, rub it in real good and let stand in a ziplock bag over night in the 'fridge. About a hour before you intend to start cooking inject it with something like Cajun Injector Garlic/Butter then follow the directions on the oven bag as to cooking time.

Almost as simple:
Everything as above with the addition of LARDING the roast with thick sliced bacon or fatback.
LARDING is like the garlic slits but the cuts go all the way through the roast and the fat is put into that cut. The easiest way is to use a LARDING needle but most people don't even know about LARDING much less have seen a LARDING needle. I have one but if you don't this is the way I did it before I got the needle. I used a metal shish kabob skewer to make the hole. I tied a piece of butcher's twine on to the end of the bacon then used a piece of S/S safety wire to pull the twine through. You should get the idea. You will need about 5 pieces of fat for a roast that size.
I just had a brain storm. All a larding needle is is a long tire leak pluging tool. Instead of a tire plug you use the fat meat and it works the very same way. I would find the longest tire pluging tool I could and try it.

[ 03-26-2003, 12:38: Message edited by: Still Crawfish ]

Cooking bag ! whats that ? Roast means dry heat, cooking bag tends to steam meat. You don't need it .For sure results use a thermometer, I do 170F internal temp for deer. Garlic and/or lard is good idea, you can use your favorite bacon. Or you could do pot roast ( brazed shoulder) Brown roast in hot oil ,deglaze pot with a cup of red wine. Then add chopped onion, celery, carrots, mushroom, tomato (canned is ok) and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

marinate, marinate, marinate . . .

JohnTheGreek

Hello Louis B.
I am an avid hunter,sausage maker and work as a chef instructor on an indian reserve in the foothills west of Calgary, Alberta.We commonly cut and cook buffalo as part of the cooking course that I teach.
Because the roast that you received is cut from the shoulder, it is comprised of a lot of working muscle.The more work that a muscle does, the more connective tissue it will have to hold it all together.This connective tissue has two main forms.Collagen is the main one and is easily converted to gelatin by applying moist heat.The second type is elastin and must be cut away to acheive tenderness.Elastin looks like an elastic band and is yellow in color.

The basic rule of thumb is that the muscles closest to the hoofs and horns do the most work.Your shoulder falls into this category of tougher meats because these shoulder muscles are constantly lifting and lowering the head to graze.

Braising is a combination cooking method that will work well for you.Braising combines the browning of dry heat cooking with the softening of connective tissues that occur when using moist heat.Here is how to proceed.
Canadian Steak Spice Crusted Buffalo Roast with Pan Jus.
Mix together the following spices to rub generously on your roast.
1/4 cup coarse kosher salt
1/8 cup coarsely ground black pepper
1/8 cup coarsely ground white pepper
1/8 cup mustard seeds
1/8 cup cracked coriander seeds
1/8 cup granulated garlic
1/8 cup granulated onion
1/8 cup cushed red chilies
1/8 cup dill seed

Use only what you need to thinly coat the roast.The rest can be stored in an airtight container and is excellent on all beef,buffalo or venison steaks, roasts and burgers.

After the roast is coated, brush it with some vegetable oil and brown it quickly but evenly in a very hot cast iron pan in a little oil.This can get smoky ,so you might just want to brown the roast on your BBQ grill.Once that the roast is a nice brown color you can place it in a roasting pan on top of about of a 3/4" diced mixture of onion,celery and carrots.You will need about 2 cups of the onion and a cup each of the other two.This mixture(mirepoix) is used by professional chefs to keep the roast off of the pan and to add flavour to the pan jus.

You need to bring to a boil enough rich beef stock to come 1/3 to 1/2 way up the height of the roast.Pour it over the roast and without letting it cool,cover the roasting pan with a tight fitting lid and place it into a 300 degree F. oven.

Internal temperature of the meat is not a factor because we are cooking for tenderness, which will only occur when the cooking liquid has slowly converted all that collagen in the shoulder roast to gelatin.Allow at least three hours of oven time.The oven temperature should only be kept hot enough to barely simmer the liquid in the pan.Check the roast after 1 hour and adjust the heat if necessary.Too rapid of a boil will toughen and shrink your roast,so go with very gentle heat 275-300 degrees F is about right.The test for tenderness will be the fork test.Place a kitchen fork about 1/2" into your roast at the end of the three hours.Rotate it gently,it should twist out of the meat easily ,If not cook longer.

Once you are happy with the tenderness,remove the roast from the pan and let it rest for 20-30 minutes tented with foil to allow the juices to reabsorb into the muscle.
Now to make the jus is quite simple.Combine about 1 ounce of corn starch with 2 ounces of cold water and stir smooth.This will thicken about 1 quart of liquid.Stir the corn starch mix into the pan and stir constantly over medium to high heat until it comes to a gentle boil.Strain through a sieve to remove the mirepoix and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Slice the roast quite thinly across the grain and serve with the jus.
P.S. Sorry about the length of my reply,but I really want this to work out for you.
Enjoy Turnerhunter

Turnerhunter, a very nice explaination ! He can't go wrong with that.

Turnerhunter

Length of the reply must be about right, it reached all the way to the end of your explanation.

Maybe I had better start working on another roast or two just so I can experiment!

Ha, the perfect reason to go myself next year!
Gotta gather cooking experiment materials . . .oh ya and hunt a little too!
Thanx for the info.
LouisB