Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game tough moose meat

I get really depressed when I try to eat the meat from an animal that I killed and it is so tough that it is hardly edible. My wife cooked up some of the round steaks from the moose I killed in early October on two occasions and both times they were disappointingly tough. The first time she just fried them in a skillet. The second time she pounded them first and then breaded them and started them on the stove top in a skillet before finishing them in the oven. Again, both times they were really tough. Then I decided to try cooking some of the round steak in a crock pot with onion soup mix and some red wine (afterall I am a winemaker) and taters, parsnips, rosemary, thyme, garlic and water. This turned out very tender and tasty. I was overjoyed. Then my wife did a crockpot with some round steak but she used some bacon too. After cooking she shredded the meat and we added bbq sauce and are eating it on burger buns. It really kicks booty. Tremendously tasty and tender. I encourage you big game hunters to experiment some with cooking the tougher cuts. So far I am finding that the crock pot can do wonders, turning otherwise nearly inedible meat into delectable dishes. Rufous.

With virtually NO fat in the meat, you have to be careful. With moose (and other wild meats) if I am going to fry them, and they aren't tenderloin or back-strap, I usually work in (via fork, etc) some olive oil, sear them hot, and leave them pink- or even red- in the center. Depending on the cut, they will virtually all still be tougher than beef- but I have good jaws, and like the flavors.

I took out a pkg of moose hind-leg steak ( I separate into muscle groups, then steak) Wednesday night, cooked the first one (garlic salt, pepper, roll in flour, fry in very hot butter until reddish pink inside). Very edible, not tough at all- I'm doing the other one tonight- and to hell with the dogs......who think they ought to share.

Wet/slow cooking is the way to go for much of wild meat. Crock-pots are a pretty sure-fire thing- so is baking at 300 degrees in the oven for several hours with tomato-sauce/barbeque- just make sure it doesn't go dry - preferably keep it covered. Tomato acidity seems to tenderize wild meat quite well, slow cooked.

The more you cook wild meat, the tougher it gets... unless slow, moist cooked. BBQ'ed, fried, or baked "well done" wild meat will be tough- rare or medium-rare much less so.

No matter what others think, i have long since proved to my own satisfaction that "aging" works!

Cooking Round steak from any big game animal will be tough. Bottom and Top round are best as roasts and cooked just like you did, slow and with some moisture. Pan frying the cuts will make them tougher. The best are the butterflied backstrap, the tenderloin and the Sirloin. These are good on the BBQ or pan fried very quickly. The rest are best as simmer (slow) cooked and with some type of sauce. Make sure you get the butcher to lable the cuts so you know what type they are and how to cook them

Moose is the best meat out there, other than wild sheep.

Cheers

SS

When you want to make a roast of the Top Round, cover the top (fat cap) with Bacon, then cover the Bacon with salt. When cooking, the fat in the Bacon will join with the salt & make a crust. This crust will seal the moisture inside the roast (unless you over-do it).

Richard

My wife just learned this trick, and I don't know why it works, but it really does.

Let the meat thaw and sprinkle it with baking soda and let sit for two hours. You can also soak it in water that you've dissolved a one tsp. baking soda in. Then rinse it off before you cook it. It doesn't affect the taste at all.

If you try it, let us know how it works for you.

Moose is a dry meat.Most rounds and sirlion steaks are usually chewy ..Have a rib steak on the BBQ..

Don't over cook it, always better if you don't fry the moisture out of it. Rare to meadium rare is best, especially from a yearling. or you could schnitzle it

Like Furprick said, don't overcook it. Medium-rare might be tender. Fried or overdone may well not be.

One thing has worked for me: aging.

This is how I age: keep the meat at refrigerator temps and age for at least 3-4 days. Some people think hanging the meat helps, and maybe so, but I have achieved the same effect by keeping it quartered in coolers on ice.

First cow elk I ever killed was processed within 24 hours after killing her. Tough as boot leather! This year I killed a big OLD cow. She ended up aging for almost a week due to the hunt timing and the trip home. Very tender.

Brought some meat home from an Alaskan bull moose that was a mature bull (58" antlers). The meat aged for almost a week in coolers, and it was very tender.

Someone else said you can achieve the same results in your fridge after it is already frozen and in your freezer. He said to thaw the meat out in your fridge over 3 to 4 days to achieve the "aging" right before you cook it. Haven't tried it yet since I age before freezing but it make sense.

To each his own, but being a veterinarian and knowing that wild game can have parasites in the meat means that I cook mine medium well at least.

I've eaten more than a couple truck loads of moose meat in my 58 trips around the sun. The best cut of meat is the tenderloin -- natch. Anyone that overcooks ANY red meat needs a trip behind the woodshed.

Round steak needs to be cooked slow and moist. Butt roasts need to be cooked slow and moist. Moose is an extremely LEAN meat, and as such will dry out badly if cooked to quickly or too long. Crock Pot is your moose meats best friend, and make lots of burger out of the less tender meats. This years bull yielded 135 pounds of burger and 65 pounds of pepperettes. We only keep the good steaks as grilling steaks. Round steaks get made into "Swiss Steaks" and stew meat and stroganoff.

It's great meat, and tasty. Don't ruin it by cooking it like beef. IT AIN'T BEEF!

Got a tip roast in the slow cooker right now. Starting to smell real good.

My last moose aged 8 days before being cut up. Very good and not tough at all!

My wife and I have taken a number of mature bull moose, from several states and provinces, including a couple of real trophy bulls. All have been aged at least several days before butchering, and all the round steaks have been tender when cooked medium-rare.

Almost any round steaks except those off the youngest big game animals will be tough if the meat is butchered very soon after the kill, and then cooked beyond pink. Once in a while a very old animal will be so tough that all the meat has to be ground or moist-cooked, but in my experience that is rare.

Of course if you don't like steaks done medium-rare then the best thing probably is to cook them moist a long time.

Crock Pots ROCK!!!

Big fan of the crock pot here as well.

I'm also a fan of letting meat, whether game or store bought, marinade for a day or two in a wine or bourbon based marinade. The acidity of the wine/bourbon makes a big difference.

Get yourself some McCormicks meat tenderizer and follow the directions. It works well with the tougher game we have killed.
If it isn't rare it's ruined.

+1

I essentially live on moose (buying only fish and poultry), and I really like the way I can cook moosemeat without worrying about it being dry -- as long as I use a crockpot.

Fillet mignon is one thing, but I sure do like the crockpot for may of the "ordinary" cuts.

John

I do this regardless of how long the meat has been aged.

It all starts when you undress them. I use apple cider vinegar with a paint brush inside and out side the carcass, twice a day while I hang the carcass. Makes for the sweetest most tender meat you will ever stick a fork in. I usually do this every day I'm in the field, this allows me to get every bit of hair off the carcass (this carcass is cut in quarters of course.) Day time I cover and wrap the quarters in old sleeping bags, hung up after dark and painted again, unless it raining. Water is the enemy.

If you are one of the lucky people that still has a working electric skillet, Swiss steak in a electric skillet would make old shoe leather tender. Over Alaskan grown potatoes it's heaven.

Yeper, I to am a crock pot user, I just wish they made them in bigger sizes.

With this vinegar deal, I've made swollen neck old bulls in the rut taste like two year old bulls. I buy the gallon jugs in the plastic containers for the take along. And old coffee can for my paint bucket and a four inch paint brush.

Crock Pot is the way to go, I like to grill, so I just char mine on the grill and eat. I shot a doe Saturday, and I already ate a good chunk of it. Tenderloin when first. Heart is in the pickle jar. should be done by Christmas. I think I will try that Apple Cider Vinegar trick. Thanks for the tip.

There's no meat tougher than a grinder.