The wife always adds some salt and pepper, coats with flour, and fries the elk steaks. They are good, but was wondering which way some of you prepare yours. I guess I'm just growing tired of the same old thing! HELP! And thanks.

That's a start but you can then add many other things . Start with onions ,mushrooms ,tomato paste etc.

Flowered and fried is always good, but so is on the grill. Use seasoning salt, pepper and garlic salt.

Get the grill really hot so it will sear the meat. Brush steaks (cut thick) with melted butter, then cook to medium rare with searing/slight char on both sides. Remember, game cooks faster than beef. It will be delicious.

For my taste I do not use flour. I have had the best results in a very hot skillet, with a little olive oil, some chopped or crushed garlic, salt and pepper.

Onions and mushrooms are great on top but the steaks need to be cooked bvery fast to retrain tenderness. When I do the onions and/or mushrooms, I cook them first in olive oil, with a little butter, garlic, and perhaps a dash of basil. Take them off, cook the steaks and put them on top when you serve.

I have been reluctant to try the grill because I fear drying them out.....

Thanks for the ideas. I'm cooking some this evening, without flour. gonna do the mushrooms and onions first, then do the steaks in some olive oil.

I really appreciate the suggestions, and will try every recipe you folks have suggested.

regards!

My other favorite is to take some thin steaks - about a quarter inch thick and sear them in oil in a skillet.

Put the seasoned and seared steaks in a baking dish, cover with Golden Cream of Mushroom soup using 1/4 to 1/2 of the milk called for in soup.

Then, cover the gravy covered steaks with slices of real parmegean cheese. Bake at 350 until the gravy is bubbling and the cheese is melted.

Tthis is simple to make and absolutely delicious.

quote:

Originally posted by SBT:
My other favorite is to take some thin steaks - about a quarter inch thick and sear them in oil in a skillet.

Put the seasoned and seared steaks in a baking dish, cover with Golden Cream of Mushroom soup using 1/4 to 1/2 of the milk called for in soup.

Then, cover the gravy covered steaks with slices of real parmegean cheese. Bake at 350 until the gravy is bubbling and the cheese is melted.

Tthis is simple to make and absolutely delicious.

I usually like my game meat very simply prepared. But this sounds too good to pass on.

Like some of you other guys, my wife makes absolutely wonderfull things out of elk steaks in a skillet. I think the thing that makes them so good is the gravy she makes with them.

Having said that, I am perfectly happy putting them on the barbecue. I season them with a favorite brand of seasoning salt and throw them on. Just be carefull not to over cook them. They have little fat in them and they will dry out if over cooked. (Same thing goes for venison or antelope.)

Here is another favorite.
Keep the diaphram meat from your elk. Slice incisions in the meat to make a diamond pattern, then tenderize with a meat hammer.

Sear the meat in a dutch oven with onions and oil. Once seared, place a layer of StoveTop stuffing on the meat and roll up like a jelly roll. Tie the roll with string to keep its shape. Place the roll back into the dutch oven and add golden mushroom soup mix made with only 1/2 the liquid called for if making soup. Add a small can of chopped mushrooms. Cover and cook.

I have fried and grilled them with good results but what I really like with the tougher cuts is to brown and slow cook them with a jar of salsa poured over them, just set the crock pot on low and cook for 4-5 hours, great flavor and TENDER!!

Thanks again for the responses thus far. All my elk is either cut and cubed (tenderized) then vacume packaged or made into burger. I still have a whole cow from last year as well as some from a bull (also from last year). I need to start eating elk at a serious pace! Don't get me wrong, it is good coated with flour and fried, but just looking for some more variety. Gonna try the recipe mentioned by billinthewild next as the wife loves cheese.

if you have any more receipes, I'm all ears.

Thanks again....... This is a great site.

When I have my elk processed, I only order steaks and stew meat. There is no end to what you can do with the stew meat, forgetting actual stew for a moment.

I use a wok, browning the meat first in olive oil. Setting the meat aside, and depending on my taste that evening I will then put in more olive oil, and saute sliced onion, perhaps some sliced summer squash, sliced zucchini, a few serrano peppers, salt, pepper, chopped garlic and then add back the meat. Cover and let cook for 5 to 10 minutes, and then I will add Chinese five spice and soy sauce, or Curry powder, or some fresh basil/oregano with tomato paste, and a little chicken broth to keep it nice a juicy. A minute or so to absorb those flavors and done.

With the stew meat there are many ways it can be prepared.

I've never been big on grinding up the meat or turning it into sausage or jerky, I almost always go for roasts, steaks, ribs, or tenderloin.

I'm very picky about my preparation with steaks and tenderloin being prepared one day in advance, normally the night before I take them out of the freezer and thaw in a sink of cold water. The following morning I pound them lightly and marinate them. My marinade is normally:

1/2 cup BBQ sauce (regular, not "flavored")
1/4 cup Soya sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 pinch ground ginger

Mix well and let the steaks sit for the day in this mixture, it will break down the fat and take the edge off the "gamey" flavor while still keeping it's distinctive taste. I prefer to use large Ziplock bags to hold the steaks and marinade as it's easy to whack them a few times or flip them while they're soaking up the flavor.

I normally light my BBQ and let it sit on high for 5 minutes to get the coals nice and hot and brush off the grill, then turn it down to medium and throw my steaks on. 4 minutes a side or until the fatty pieces are starting to char up a little bit and the meat is wearing some nice grill marks. This normally results in a steak grilled to medium with a bit of smokey flavor from the fat drippings burning off the coals.

You can really serve this with whatever you like, I like some fried mushrooms (olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper) with my steaks pretty much as a rule, but it goes well with grilled asparagus and a chilled potato salad while relaxing out on the patio.

Medium-bodied red wine or a light to medium beer washes the meal down nicely!

We take alot of elk each fall what with both girls, Dad, Mom, my brother, brothers-in-law, and myself. To keep from getting tired of elk meat we make everything from tacos to filet mignon. I like a good broiled steak when indoors (gets rid of most of what fat there is) and grilled when possible.

One thing I never understood was why those folks who have vacume packers don't use them to marinade. When you put your meat into the vacume packer to get it ready for freezing, put the marinade in with it and then vacume pack it.
When you thaw the thing out it will be ready to go and the vacume really helps the marinade to go into the meat.

22wrf,

I vac pack my elk and have done so since maybe 1993. How do you keep the marinade from being sucked out with the air????

We soak all our game steaks in water with a bit of salt. We change the water once or twice to leach some of the blood out. This takes the edge off a real gamey taste. Then we pierce tenderize them, put them in a ziplock bag with whatever marinade we choose for that night and put them in the fridge until we grill them on a low flame that evening.

I take entire Back straps of venison, (I suppose you can do the smae with Elk) and marinade overnight in

Olive Oil
Balsamic vinegar
Garlic Salt/Fresh Garlic
Bay leaf
cinnamon
Teryaki
Splash of Wocestershire Sauce

Take the whole back strap and cook on a griddle over VERY low coals for 40mins, until it is medium, (still a bit pink)

I then slice it about 5mm thick accross the gran and put it into wraps with houmouss and salad. I'll be doing this and variations on the theme in a couple of weeks at a big BBQ I'm doing for about 70 people... Can't wait!!

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Hilliard-Krueger:
We soak all our game steaks in water with a bit of salt. We change the water once or twice to leach some of the blood out. This takes the edge off a real gamey taste. Then we pierce tenderize them, put them in a ziplock bag with whatever marinade we choose for that night and put them in the fridge until we grill them on a low flame that evening.

Sounds good!

quote:

Originally posted by SBT:

My other favorite is to take some thin steaks - about a quarter inch thick and sear them in oil in a skillet.

Put the seasoned and seared steaks in a baking dish, cover with Golden Cream of Mushroom soup using 1/4 to 1/2 of the milk called for in soup.

Then, cover the gravy covered steaks with slices of real parmegean cheese. Bake at 350 until the gravy is bubbling and the cheese is melted.

Tthis is simple to make and absolutely delicious.


Here is another favorite.
Keep the diaphram meat from your elk. Slice incisions in the meat to make a diamond pattern, then tenderize with a meat hammer.

Sear the meat in a dutch oven with onions and oil. Once seared, place a layer of StoveTop stuffing on the meat and roll up like a jelly roll. Tie the roll with string to keep its shape. Place the roll back into the dutch oven and add golden mushroom soup mix made with only 1/2 the liquid called for if making soup. Add a small can of chopped mushrooms. Cover and cook.

I want to come eat at your house . Those recipes sound good!!

shoot--- wipe it with olive oil -- salt and pepper -- slap it on a nice hot charcoal grill-- turn once at 8 minutes-- cook 8 more-- pull off and eat

Whichever way I cook an elk steak, it has to med to med/rare.... Best flavor there is.

quote:

Originally posted by matt salm:
Whichever way I cook an elk steak, it has to med to med/rare.... Best flavor there is.

I agree the thing most folks do wrong with venison is over cook it and make it tough. Doesn't matter how you cooked it or seasoned it once you make shoe leather out of it.

For my favorite recipe.
Young cow or calf.
Salt & pepper olive oil and slow cook on a hot grill.

Older bull or cow maybe a little on the gamey side. Leach the blood out as posted above. Then soak 24 hours in cheap Italian dressing. And slow cook over hot grill.

Also like to cut into strips and stir fry with veg's. & lots of hot peppers.
MM

I guess I like to keep things simple, What I do with my elk, moose and deer steaks, is just salt (Kosher) and fresh pepper corns from and pepper mill, then I either grill on charcoal with a little apple wood, med rare and eat. I like the taste of game so I don''t try to mask it, Some onions and peppers, but I really like Sweet and sour Red cabbage Hot and hot German Potato salad to go with it, along with a beer. For roast and such I like a crock pot for that. And when I can get it, Now for the tougher stew meat,in the dead of winter, I like simple stews and well Strogonoff. And lots of good rye bread for it. Most mornings I will pan sear a flank steak, and serve it up with eggs and hashbowns. Its tough being a single man, who hunts and there for cooks.

thanks for all the responses men. i've tried most of suggestions and will try the rest in the future.

thanks again...........

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
shoot--- wipe it with olive oil -- salt and pepper -- slap it on a nice hot charcoal grill-- turn once at 8 minutes-- cook 8 more-- pull off and eat

I like to throw a couple ounces of Crown or JD in with the olive oil and cook it rare as can be. Dad claims I don't actually cook my steaks, just warm them up some. To each his own. I like the taste of blood. I make the same spirit addition to elkburger.

Two inch square cubes of elk, wrapped in a strip of peppered bacon, and half a pickled jalapeno next to the elk. Season with cajun seasoning and marinate for half an hour in regular Italian dressing. Cook over hot coals just until the bacon is done, but be careful, because the oil in the salad dressing catches fire very easily.

I like to take a sugar cubed size of Monterey Jack and slide on the toothpick that holds the bacon on just about two minutes before the "poppers" come off the grill.

Same recipe works with duck, dove, shrimp, venison, quail, etc...

Elk and deer meat is practically the only meat I eat now. A good beef steak or flat iron is nice, but I really enjoy the game I have killed (harvested in PC terms!)

I usually have steak cuts and the rest ground. For BBQ burgers I use 1lb of game meat, add 1 T (tablespoon) of olive oil, 1 T of BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Rays is good), 1 T of marinade (your fav), a little Tom Douglas steak seasoning (or your choice), 4-5 cloves of pressed garlic, and add enough shredded Parmesean cheese to get the right texture. Grill 4 minutes one side, flip, add pepper jack cheese and another 4-5 minutes you are good to go. Great burgers for sure.

The ground meat is great for tacos and sloppy joes (manwhiches.) I was in a time crunch recently and bought ground beef for my tacos. The meat to me tasted bland and I much preferred my ground game meat. Maybe my meat is "gamey" after all!!! I prefer the taste of my game hands down for sure.

For steaks I marivac my meat with olive oil, red wine, seasonings, and tons of garlic. Grill for 4-5 minutes a side depending on thickness...do NOT over cook it. Great stuff.

If you have left over steaks or chops try a cottage pie or stroganoff. Cube the meat into small pieces, coat with flour, braise and work on your sauce. I didn't used to like stroganoff but with game meat and good noodles ( I like smaller fetticini or linguini not the wide noodles I was used to) I love stroganoff.

I cooked elk tenderloin last night. Made a red wine and brandy cream sauce finished with a little grainy mustard.

It doesn't get any better, and it's even better knowing that I packed that meat out on my own back.

the chef

I've heard a few people tell me that "you have to cook it real good before you can eat it". Obviously amateurs at cooking wild game. Here's another if your elk steaks aren't very fatty, it works on protein breakdown which really changes the flavor.

All you need is a bit of ground black pepper and a lot of Kosher salt. Pepper the steaks, then coat liberally in the salt. Let it rest for about an hour (for steaks up to 1.5" thick), then rinse the steak in cold water to remove the salt.

Water displacement will bring the pepper flavor into the meat and the salt will make it more tender, but it's important to rinse thoroughly or the steak will taste like nothing but salt.

Dry the entire surface of the steak with paper towel, then throw it on the BBQ for a good 5 minutes a side, no more. That should char up some nice grill marks and give you a nice medium-rare to medium finish, about as much as a steak should be cooked.

As it cooks, you'll notice the juices from the meat rise up instead of drip down - this is a good sign!

Here is some more information on this method - it works marvelously with elk, deer, and moose!

http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/08/28/how-to-turn-ch...-gucci-prime-steaks/

Mikey, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks but for you I'm gonna try that one next time I do a steak. I never pre season meat but you've got my interest piqued.

Ii thought I should let you know about the results of the salt cured steaks. Damned if it doesn't work!! I don't think I rinsed them well enough or maybe a full hour was too long to leave them because the two times I've tried they have been too salty. I tried the first time with a deer backstrap and the second with elk. Even though they were too salty they were tender as could be. I intend to keep playing with this one for a little while.

thanks

the chef

The jury is in!! This method works, plain and simple. I've done it side by side with steaks not salt cured and the plain ones were tougher. I've been showing a few people this idea and it's taking off here and in Africa. I'd highly recomend giving it a try. Be careful not to do it with pieces of meat that are too small. Something the size of elk backstrap at least an inch thick. I did some whitetail buck on the weekend like this, it was outside round so should have been a bit tough but it was excellent.

the chef

Tried the salt on last years 6x6 elk and it's still to tuff to eat.Have been making jerky with it and that works o.k.
Have found the ground elk makes excellent jerky.
I'm only gonna shoot at younger animals this year,
If i get the chance,wait'en on Oct.

my favorite way is to take the backstrap cot into 12 - 16 inch sections inject with Cajun butter and grill until med rare (do not over cook) slice thin and serve with a rice pilaf and morel's saute in butter and garlic. the cajun injection really helps keep it moist