This is my first year eating alot of moose. And this thing is tough if I fix it the way I do my whitetail. The only I can get it tender is to crockpot it. Any advise? I have tried the buttermilk soaking thing, and then marinade in italian dressing. But even that is tough. Thinking about pressure cooking

I have not had moose, but have had some tough steaks before, here are a couple of things.

One, try a tenderizer, I think that they normally use a vinegar to break down the tissues a bit. I have used on called Basque Marinade before, made even a cheap steak taste good.

The other thing that you can try is taking it to a butcher and having them run it through a needle machine (I think term is Jicarde), it pokes lots and lots of holes in the meat, that way your marinades get into it better.

You didn't say how you do the whitetail, barbeque? have you tried baking the moose? Slow cooking at low temp would probably work good too.

Red

bigcountry,
Pressure cooking will definitely help. But mostly if it fits in wiht your recipe, ie stew, soup, pot roast etc.

Where is Turkey Creek at? My grandmother used to live in Meade county in Battletown.

Here's how we do it.

First, we always bone out our moose instead of cutting it like beef. It seems to keep a lot longer in the freezer, and has better flavor when cooked. Ribs are the exception to this; use them the same as beef. I've always felt the bones give it a 'woody' flavor.

We separate the bigger muscles, (that works best when the meat is good and cold, but not quite frozen) so they can be cut crosswise into fairly thin steaks - about 3/8 of an inch or so. Then beat the daylights out of it with a wooden meat hammer (the end with the pointy things on it) to tenderise it.. ..give it a good shot of salt & pepper, turn it in flour, and fry it up. Deeelicious!

Moose is VERY dry - no matter how fat they are, they don't 'marble' like beef. The fat seems to stay under the hide and around the organs. I've seen some so fat you could hardly find the heart or kidneys, but there was none between the muscle tissue. When you roast it, try draping some strips of bacon over it. Sausage also needs a healthy portion of pork (or beef tallow) to make it less dry. It also makes great stewing meat, cut into 1" cubes.

[ 07-23-2003, 07:19: Message edited by: Tumbleweed ]

Meade county is about 1 hour or 2 away depending on the coal trucks. It is in Pike County. The most eastern county.

Thanks for the tips. Bacon might work. I notice you really need to cut away all tissue or fat. Seems to toughen up the meat around those areas.

bc,

How long was your moose hung? I know I got a big buck that was into heavy rut a couple years ago, and we only had a chance to hang in for a day, due to circumstances. Tougher'n shoe leather.

Hope I'm not telling you anything you already know, but when cooking whole steaks, make sure you're cooking it rare. As in blood rare.

You can try cutting it in thin strips and stir-frying. Make sure you cut across the grain of the meat. This tends to make the smaller pieces more tender.

Try different marinades. Any acid will work as a marinade, so try tomato juice, apple juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, whatever. Experiment, and see what you like. No harm in letting it marinate for 2 or 3 days in the refrigerator, either.

If all else fails, cut it into strips and make it into jerky. Or, have the works ground up into sausage. That's what I did with most of my buck.

Good luck!

Moose isn't tough or dry. Moose is tender and jucie if you just do it properly from the start. The try meat comes from overcooking.

If the meat is hung right and slaughterd right you have a good start. The younger the animal the better. The front of the animal is tough but thats true about most animals.

I like my moose pink.

Johan

It was hung by the outfitter for about 5 days. And deboned. Looked like a good butchering job. So how do you prepare it properly? For it to be juicy.

Depends on temperature. I usually hang moose meat for 40 "day-degrees" (in centigrades, of course). This refers to the number of days multiplied by the average temperature. It is also imperative that the moose doesn't freeze while being hung.

This produces *well-hung* meat - keep sensitive people out when packaging it for the fridge!

It also depends on how stressed the animal was when being shot. If you have had dogs after the moose for a few hours, you are likely to have some problems.

And - some parts of the moose (maybe 50%) should be ground, or cooked in casseroles or similar. Beef quality is a maximum 50%, maybe 60% for younger animals and 40% for older. Are you sure you wasn't tricked by the person deboning the meat for you?

I cut my own meat, and I am happy to tell that my fianc� has stopped screaming when I drag a moose into our apartment kitchen!

Soak the meat in marinades, or make a pat� instead!

Regards,
/HerrBerg

In order to make a steak juicy - this is how you do it (I learnt the trick from a chef at a two-star Guide Michelin restaurant).

It's all very easy - in three stages.

Stage 1:
Large iron pan, olive oil. Hot as hell. Salt and pepper - quite a lot - on the steak. Put the steak in the pan and fry its sides completely - be rough on it and let the edges almost burn. This closes the pores of the steak.

Stage 2:
Another large iron pan, warm. Take *lots* of butter and tilt the pan so that the steak is on the upper side. Put herbs (thyme etc), salt, white pepper, whatever, in the butter. Pour spoonfuls of melted butter over it, continously repeating this. Enjoy the smell and the small bubbles on the meat as the meat's surface gets fried in butter. Stop when the steak *looks* nice. Don't let the butter go brown.

Stage 3:
Put a thermometer in the steak, and put it in an oven at 150 centigrades - no hotter than that! - and take the steak out when the inner temperature gets to 50 centigrades. Let the steak cool down for 10 minutes (VERY important!), and make a nice sauce from the residuals from stage 2 during that time. Cut and serve!

Send me amessage on this thread with your feedback after that dinner!

Regards,
/HerrBerg

Wow, you do take your cook seriously. As far as being tricked. Maybe. I was in Newfoundland, and at the mercy of the butcher. The moose was trying to mount a cow when shot. Seriously. So maybe he was worked up.

Try a three day marinade in the fridge with a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Cut small openings in the meat and place small pieces of garlic in the openings. After three days, you can do the skillet routine or transfer to the crock pot with a multitude of vegetables (my preference) - properly prepared, moose is the best! KMule

When I was stationed in Alaska,both my wife and I lucked out and got first year bulls. (Hers had antlers like a deer and mine had palmated --both were young). I removed the skin and quartered them where they fell. It was not cold weather--yet so only hung day or so. Butchered them myself removing all bone. Removed sections of large muscles and cut steaks across grain. Steaks from front quarter were tougher than from rear quarter. Possibly some of the front quarter would have been better if used as a roast. All in all I thought it better than beef. Butchering that way---now this was hard for some to grasp--the skeleton goes into the trash instead of in your freezer as when it is commercially butchered and thus you get less weight.

Get a kitchen tool called the Jaccard meat tenderizer. The larger one (48 teeth) costs around $40, and is worth every penny. It pokes thin sharp blades into the meat that cut some of the fibers. It doesn't mangle the meat like a minute steak machine, but the steak is tender enough you can throw it in a skillet, fry it, and eat it. You can do the fancy stuff too, of course. The thing to remember about venison is, the longer you cook it, the tougher it gets (barring boiling it until it falls apart.)