Moose?  Oh Deer!

Last night I did what I will always think of as work for my first customer of the new business.  I thought it would be primarily about troubleshooting the modem, but the main problem was it booting slow and being totally bogged down.  It was fascinating to see how the place they’d taken it to did almost nothing for $200, and “cleaning up” didn’t include deleting accumulated temporary files or some other basics.  I charged too little, but it was also about 60% social visit, and I couldn’t leave without making sure their daughter’s new virtual pony program would run.  The other place installed it and said it was all set.

Anyway, when I got home, I held up a grocery bag and told Deb I felt like an old time doctor (getting in-kind payment).  They sent me home with a bunch of venison, and a smaller amount of moose.  The guy hunts everything from bow on up, through the entire seer season, and he actually bags them with the bow.  Impressive.  The moose was courtesy of their neighbor, who has also supplied them with bear in the past.

I’ve had venison in burgers, spaghetti, and chill.  I’m not sure I’ve had it as steak or a roast, but I went to a wild game supper my uncle organized one time, so I may have had it there.  I had multi-meat stew, but don’t remember what else, except that I didn’t have the roast racoon, which wasn’t done until I was ready to leave, and looked like it was too burned to eat.

I’ve never cooked the stuff.  I know it’s leaner than beef, and more likely to want moist cooking methods or marinades.

Any recipes or thoughts?

The venison is in the form of some burger, some steak, and a roast.  The moose is steak.

When I was a kid and we had venison sprung on us at my late uncle David’s house in Milo, Maine, there was talk of how amazingly good moose was, but it was illegal to hunt at the time.  That must have changed.  No surprise, since I seem to recall their population exploded and their range expanded.  The guy who gave me the stuff isn’t so keen on the moose.

I figure if all else fails I’ll make stew or chili out of a lot of it.  Heck, around here a steak usually ends up in that, or cooked and sliced into little pieces for burritos.  Or I can pass it along to my grandmother and she’ll make something with it.

I was lucky to fit it into our freezer.  We’re at one of those peak times when the house is full of food, so there’s ice cream (which we eat remarkably slowly), two loaves of bread, butter, several bags of veggies, most of a 10 lb bag of chicken breasts, several burgers, a couple pork chops and some pork loin cutlets, and a couple steaks.  And now the wild meat.  The fridge is pretty full too; mangoes (on sale 2 for a buck), oranges, grapefruit (ditto, and the kids adore them), apples, pears, veggies, cheese, two gallons of milk, leftover roast chicken, yogurt, hot dogs, juice, soda…

But I digress.

Any thoughts from the more experienced on cooking the meat?

1. Afraid I’ve got no idea; and I’ve got half a freezer full of venison right now myself. There’s someone around here who keeps me supplied with it for free: venison “Slim Jim” sticks, venison baloney rings, venison weiners, venison summer sausage. The cleverest I ever get is cooking the venison weiners up on my countertop George Foreman grill.

   Posted by Paul Burgess  on  04/29  at  06:35 AM  from 

2. Being from MN, I know a lot of people who love both types of meat.  From what they have said, you can cook venison pretty much like any type of beef.  Many people prefer venison stew because the flavor blends well with the other ingredients.

   Posted by  on  04/29  at  08:59 AM  from 

3. Venison, like bison, can be quite lean.  If it is a roast, “lard” it with some beef fat or other fat/oil to keep it from drying out.  If it is not a large roast, a good brine/marinade or just coating it in veggie/olive oil can work.  It is great in stews or as hamburger—that was pretty much what Dad took to getting the butcher to do with what we got each year, make it into stew meat or grind it.  It then went into everything from chili to burgers, and was delicious.  Hmmmm.  Wonder if Mom’s larding needle is in any of the cooking boxes…

   LW

   Posted by Laughing Wolf  on  05/01  at  11:18 AM  from  http://laughingwolf.net/ee.php
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