Back from Newfoundland with an entire shelf of various roast cuts from our Moose. Just looking for some better ideas for them, wife isn't big on simple "crock pot" roasts with taters and carrots

Moose is great, don't over cook it.

You got a smoker? A flat top? A grill?

I'm thinking fajitas, smoked roast beast, moose Parmesan.

What say you?

Was the bull taken during the rut, as many are in Newfoundland? That can affect flavor/tenderness considerably/

Slow cooked in beef broth was the standard around here.

If you don't mind me asking MD....say you shot a young, non rutted up bull.

What would you do differently...aside from everything I suppose!

Our group divides all the meat up equal. All of the bulls were young, not rutting yet (only heard a few half hearted responses to calls, none came in to calls). Have pellet grill, propane and ugly drum smokers, Blackstone. I already plan on "ham" brining one roast and making pastrami from another. Steaks will all likely have a trip in the cast Iron pan with some butter and onions.

Moose and caribou, dry roasting? I like to butterfly or flatten the roast, coarse chopped garlic, plenty of salt, a little thyme, a little rosemary and slather on the butter, roll it back up, tie it with string and low and slow (200 deg oven) roast it like a beef roast until the thermometer hits 127 deg, let it rest for 15 min before slicing.

Take a roast and slice it into linear chunks 1 " or so thick. Marinade in citrus, cumin, Cilantro Chipotles, etc for 24 hours. Drain marinade, put on flat top and sear until inter 125, then pull and rest. While resting, put some sliced peppers and onions on the flat top that have been briefly soaked in olive oil and lime juice. Slice roast thin and put in Tortillas or serve with black beans.

Smoke a roast at 200 deg until it hits 125-130 internal, then let rest. Slice thin and make roast beast sandwiches. Or enjoy with a side of veggies and salad.

Sometimes I'll rub it with pesto before on the smoke.

It depends on how you like meat in general. Some can't stand the thought of eating even "pink" meat, and others can't stand "over-cooked" game. And the flavor/tenderness of just about any wild big game is affected by age, time of year (especially the rut), field care and the sex and species.

Which is why Eileen's SLICE OF THE WILD started by describing all those factors BEFORE getting into recipes--and how to deal with variations in individual animals, whether before butchering or while cooking.

We've eaten moose taken from early September into November, both sexes and various ages. They're wild animals, as are other big game species, not beef that's raised and fed similarly to a certain age. Which is what the book is about: www.riflesandrecipes.com

A roast is a roast.Thaw in a refrigerator. Put it in big pot with a little EVO. 2-3 cups of beef broth, a pack of brown gravy mix, salt, Greek seasoning, garlic,a little rosemary , few bay leaves. Put it in the oven, covered, at 325 for a few hours, add chopped celery, potatoes, carrots, onions about a hour before it is done. I cook all roast to 165 degrees

Uhh...no.

If you believe that's the ONLY way to cook a big game roast, and there's no difference between various cuts of roasts, well then if you ONLY like them that way then why not?

I also know people who have ONE "favorite" recipe for any cut of big game, and claim everybody they know has raved about it. Also know people who turn all of every big game animal into burger, sausage or jerky.

But there are far more ways to make it tasty--and as stated above, that starts by understanding that wild game is not a "standard product," like 99% of commercial meat.

I’d cut it into steaks personally. 👊🏻

We used to cook them with onions and mushroom soup. Low and slow till they were super tender. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.
Delicious.

I butcher most of my own meat; elk, deer, antelope, pig, beef. The only meat that gets turned into roast is what can't be use for anything else. Sure it can be flavored with a whole lot of different things, but it is called a roast because that is what you do with it. Same as what you do with trimmed meat that you make ground burger , sausage, brats, etc. Every cut of meat can be treated ,cooked, or flavored differently.

I’d cover it with oil, salt and pepper the hell out of it, sear it on hot cast iron on all surfaces, stick a thermometer in it. Throw it on a Traeger, whatever at 250*. Cook it till 130*. Slick into steaks.

After the initial dinner with the roast, I use the remainder sliced for sandwich meat. Before anything is labeled roast what even resembles steak meat, it gets cut into steaks.

Usually the roast on my elk come off the very top of the hind quarter where it was cut away from the pelvis when using the no gut method. That is until I get down to where the muscle can be cut into steaks.

I have some of those string type mesh bags that the meat goes into , maybe 2# each. That is easier than trying to wrap and tie together with cotton string.This pretty much precludes slicing the roast and stuffing it with anything though.

I am not a, moose expert nor a renowned chef. I have only killed one and it was an old cow. The game warden that checked it said it was at 7 years old, probably 10 or more. Aged 3 weeks in a cooler and it was still tough even in the crock pot. Pressure cooker tenderized it some but not much. It ended up all being ground,. I swear, even the ground burger was tough. Probably didn't help that it was pretty warm out, no placed to hang it, no shade and the meat went on ice right away.RFW hunt and I was not permitted to stay on the ranch over night.

"Usually the roast on my elk come off the very top of the hind quarter where it was cut away from the pelvis when using the no gut method. That is until I get down to where the muscle can be cut into steaks."

The no-gut method is one of the reasons you're getting tough meat, even from the top of the rump--where it should be some of the most tender. And it will be--if the quarters are allowed to cool until flexible, which takes at least 24 hours.

Meat sliced from the bone before then won't become tenderer through aging, because the meat cells have already constricted.

To get the tenderest meat, it should be left on the bone (if possible) until the muscles go through rigor mortis--and then comes out again. This takes at least 24 hours--but if cut off the bone anytime before then (and especially when the animal's first killed) then aging for a week or more won't make it much tenderer.

The best way to prevent this is leave the meat on the quarters until rigor mortis is over--which can be determined by trying to "bend" the quarters.

We still use the no-gut method on bigger animals, but leave the meat ON the quarters. This requires more effort in getting them out, but the resulting tenderness is well worth it. This includes the meat on top of a hindquarter, which tends to be some of the most tender on any big game animal IF it treated right in the field. In fact, aside from the backstraps and filets, the general rule for big game (and domestic animals) is the higher and farther to the rear the big muscles are, the more tender they will be--but only if handled correctly.

John, we typically hunt elk in extreme cold where we cannot control the normal process of rigor mortis and aging. So once home, can the rigor process still be successful if the meat is left on the the quarters, thawed and allowed to come "out" of rigor? Transporting frozen quarters shouldn't be an issue with respect to CWD because no spine or skull would be involved.

John.
I have noticed that on the loin and back straps when doing the no gut method. I have kind'a figured that out thru the years, but CPW pushes the no gut method because of CWD. They don't like to see the spine split or cut and not going up the neck very far to the lymp glands.. Hunting solo it would be tough for me going back to the old way.

Would this mean that I need to split the pelvis up to the end and keep it with the hind quarter as one piece like we use to do when quartering and splitting the spine?

This of course would mean gutting the animal I guess. I assumed, wrongly then, that having those muscles attached to the leg bone helped.

What I have done is fillet the meat starting at the top front of the pelvis at the end of the loin and strip it off the pelvis. Then work it down to the hip socket. All of it coming off in one piece with the leg bone still in it

What do you mean that you leave the meat on the quarters.

That moose I got, we didn't have choice. No pack animals permitted and we had to get it off the RFW ranch that day. Just me and another old fellow to do it.

This is all hindsight now though. A stroke grounded me in July and I had to turned my elk tag in.

Thanks for helping me understand this better though.

Sorry to hear about your stroke! We are getting toward the end of our elk (and moose) hunting as well.

What you describe in removing the hindquarters is pretty much what we do as well--but we try to keep the meat on the top of the quarter as attached as possible to the bone. Then we make also sure to age the entire quarter for several days before butchering.

If the temperatures are right this is easy--we got lucky with a big cow elk Eileen killed a few years ago in early October, when the daytime temperatures stayed 40-50 for over a week. But also have a big refrigerator in our garage, and some big coolers we've used for around 15 years.

John

Do you discuss this. Further in slice of the wild? Trying to learn.

Thx

Scott

Thanks for the explanation. Yep. Mine always got aged that way. Where I ML hunt an outfitter friend lets me use her big walk in cooler until I go home and my good hunting buddy has a smaller one we use.

Yes. But Eileen does the "discussing" in far more detail.

You can take a closer look on the website www.riflesandrecipes.com.

Swiss steak is a favorite...