Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Any of you ever disappointed?

I am curious how often you guys spend hours preparing a meal and end up being personally disappointed. Even if the rest of the eaters think the meal is good to great.

The reason I ask is... I just spent many ihours to smoke a young cow elk loin. I thawed it all week in a zip-lock that drained the blood. I salted it and left it in the refrigerator on a grate for almost 24 hours. I let it come to room temperature while I was preparing the rest of the meal. Then I smoked (apple wood) it between 200 and 230 until it reached 127. About 2 1/2 hours. Then I let it rest wrapped in foil for at least 30 minutes. It was good, but I expected it to be better.

I did trim all of the silver skin and anything else that looked suspicious.

Really, I am simply curious if all of these fantastic pictures you guys post were as good as they look. My loin would have been a great picture. But I thought it was lackluster. Everyone else said that they liked it, but you never really know what they thought. They were probably happy not to spend the day fixing a meal.

I did make some fantastic scalloped /au gratin potatoes. They will be even better tomorrow.

Take care and thank you for your input.

Yes.

Wife and I were craving a roasted chicken with stuffing and mashed potatoes, etc.

Got a 9 lb roasting chicken, made her mom's special stuffing. Roasted it up like we always do. Pretty as something you see on the Food Network.

Zero taste.

Like if you didn't know you just cooked a chicken, you couldn't tell what you were eating.

Stuffing and taters turned out good

Dogs got chicken in their food for a few days

Personally I like a more robust flavored smoke for game, lamb, mutton... apple, to my palate is mild and sweet...pork, poultry, some fish...otherwise I just can't fault your methods. Around here we have mountain mahogany...a sharp smelling smoke but not bitter like oak. And yes, I am my own worst critic, so am frequently disappointed. I can usually tell whether folks really like it or not by watching them go for second helpings.

It happens all too frequently when I follow a recipe that was presented to me as one that made the gods weep from joy.

Most of the time, when my wife makes dinner.

I feel better knowing that I am not the only one.

Cooked a brisket for a bbq last month that I thought was overdone - bark really heavy and black, certainly not my best effort. At an event last weekend one of the guests from the bbq commented on how great that brisket was.

For last week’s event, I did an easy shrimp pasta salad. Woman who’s hosting the bbq we’re going to today took one bite and said “Make it for my party next week.”

She’s actually one of my biggest fans. A petite little thing, she can pack it away if it’s good. I know I did a good job if she’s going for 2nd or 3rd helpings.

All the time when judging my own dishes. I find I'm much more lenient judging other's cooking.

Ymmv

I have never had much luck smoking deer or elk. Meat is too dark and too lean. A good rub will liven it up. Elk loin is better grilled rare with salt/pepper, spritz with EVO.

My spaghetti sauce comes out differently every time I make a batch. Some of it really sucks

I don't really know not having done it myself, but to me a dry brined loin doesn't seem to me to be a cut I'd smoke.

Tenderloins and backstraps make me think hot grill and a short cook time.

I've not made a really bad one, but I'd like to be more consistent with that too.

I smoke game all the time. Have to pull it early (115 deg) and sear it. You can sear on grill, I prefer a hot steel pan.

Definitely not the only one, it happens to me all the time.

First time I cooked antelope was a disaster. I made it into chili but didn't add any fat. After a long, low temp simmer, the chili was so dry it was hard to swallow.

only on rare occasions am I disappointed in my cooking. I have been doing this for most of my life, profe3ssionally and at home. Working up a new recipe can have some speed bumps, but those don't really count.

Yes, I smoked this bacon wrapped beef tenderloin last fall. Cooked medium rare and it was the toughest piece of meat I've ever chewed on. The dogs ate good for a couple of days.

Listening to the experts, I was under the impression that if the top and bottom bark (char) met in the middle, that was what perfection was all about.

Hyperbole, or your experts weren't.

First couple times I did pheasants and ducks bout 30+ years ago. Then I bought this game cookbook.

I have the same book...