Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Other Big Game => Topic started by: TrkyBob53 on March 16, 2009, 03:10:46 PM
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Just wanting to know what others have thought about moose meat from Wash. Mine is really tough. Great flavor. Just plain tough. Cant even rip apart the cube steaks. I recubed the last package with one of those little hammers. Beat the hell out of them, marinated them for a couple of hours. Then they were AWSOME. The burger is rubbery. Tastes good though. Havnt even tried the roasts yet.
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Try thawing it in the fridge for a couple days...then on the counter for a day before you cook it. I do that with my elk and it helps quite a bit.
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Every piece that we have had has been tender and tasty. We had spagetti last night, the sauce made with moose burger and it was fantastic too. My brother in law, who hates any kind of game meat, even loved it. He would not believe my wife that it was my moose meat. :tup:
The only negative I have found is that the steaks cook in a quarter of the time as beef, so that will take some getting used to. FWIW, I'm not sure what everyone else did with their animals but when we hung mine at Outfitters, he split the meat to the bone to cool faster :dunno: It was ice cold the next morning. When I got it to my butcher the next day he suggested hanging it at his house for a week, which he did before cutting it up. I have no idea if any of this made a difference but so far it has worked out perfect. :drool:
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We had a elk from New Mexico that was tough like that. A friend who is a butcher suggested we soak the steaks in milk overnight and it made a big difference and we do it with alot of our deer meat now. We put the steaks in a gallon freezer bag and add what ever spices you like and cover the meat with milk it takes the wild taaste and any freezer burnt taste out.
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The rut was over when phool got his. Thats why I think there tough. My steaks are tough too. Not like leather but tough. Very good taste. The burger is just plan good.
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BTKR's thread on canning game meat may help too.
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,12969.0/all.html (http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,12969.0/all.html)
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buckhorn, did you soak it in regular milk? I had some one tell me to use buttermilk.
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I use whole milk, for my game and sturgeon.
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Every piece that we have had has been tender and tasty.
Yeah, but you were eating backstrap Huntnphool... :P Yeah, every moose I've ever had was tough. Mine was tough except for the backstrap and tenderloin. That being said, the hamburger was tasty.
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Yeah the straps and the loins are really good. Cant figure out how to cook the burger so it is not so rubbery.
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Of the 2 bulls and 1 cow I got we only made roasts and burger, no steaks, and every piece was yummy, I have even hung a leg for so long I was scraping mold off and it was the best, It grosses my wife out when I do that and she won't eat it so I can't do it anymore but hanging it is likely the best remedy for tough meat !!!
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Yeah the straps and the loins are really good. Cant figure out how to cook the burger so it is not so rubbery.
Let's just say I finally got done with all my moose meat after a year and a half and I'm kind of happy I'm back to hamburger...
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Thanks pope! I guess that means I will be giving more away.
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:) are you over cooking? My Moose was great.???
Carl
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Nope. Just cooking till its showing no red.
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So far our moose has been tender, It did hang for ten days.. :yike: .I was worried, but it has NO wild taste . I cook the steaks mediem rare and cook the roasts for 3 hours at 300. OV corse this moose wasn't as old as some but he was in the early rut when he came prancing 1000 yards down to us. MOO~~~~ :chuckle:
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Nope. Just cooking till its showing no red.
That may be your problem right there. Cook it and leave red in the middle, it continues to cook even after you pull it off the grill. Even cooking beef until there is no red makes it too tough for me, let alone an animal with 1% fat :twocents:
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So far every moose I have had has been incredibly nice, excluding the one my Dad shot in Canda back in 74. Dogs wouldn't even eat that one.
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Dad's moose this year from the Selkirks is awesome. He hung it for 14 days i think til it turned green on the outside then skinned all that off and chopped it up. I've been marinating the steaks for 48 hours at a time and bbq'in them, they're great, the hamburger is awesome too. It was an older bull as well.
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Mine from 07 was a lil tough in spots. Backstraps and TLoins were fine but the other stuff was a lil chewy.. not outragiously so, but not tender by any stretch. As others have stated, the burger is about as good as it gets.
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A tough moose is a tough moose. I don't care how much red or how you cook it. Some are bad, some are good. I don't see any rhyme or reason to it.
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Maybe mine lost his toughness when he lost his rack :dunno: :chuckle: :chuckle:
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I have always had the best luck with hanging animals long and cold. 2 weeks in a walk in cooler makes a big difference whether any species of deer, elk, moose, beef, etc. The faster they get cooled and the longer they hang (while cold) the better off you are. Most folks don't have these sort of facilities, so do what you can to get the animal cooled quickly. For those that bone and pack - this is the best way, but if you can at least get the hide off quickly it will help minimize the toughness. The bigger animals are hard to get cooled quickly especially when you are packing. Even harder to find a place to hang a moose in controlled cold environment.
For those that are already tough -salt helps break down some of the toughness. So if you can get them season/salted/ marinated - however you prepare your meat - early and let it sit on the counter at room temp before cooking for a couple of hours will always help.
My best was a mule deer I shot in Montana at 9000 feet when it was 1 degree fahrenheit just before dusk. We had it gutted and in the truck in about 1 1/2 hours. We got it to cabin we were staying at in another hour, and it was partially frozen as we were skinning it (wrapped it in heavy game bags). Loaded on the trailer the next day and headed back to Spokane. It was frozen for almost a month in my garage. I had to bring it in the house to get it to thaw the rest of the way to butcher, as it was still partially frozen. It was the finest mule deer I have ever eaten - melt in your mouth. I owe it to cooling so quickly and being able to hang for long periods of time.
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I never hung mine. One sat in the woods a day, canoe a day then the back of a truck for 3 days.... :dunno:
One sat in the woods for two days, back of a truck for a day
Two sat in camp for a day, truck for a day....
all tasty!
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I like what shawn said. Some are and some arnt. Sounds like that most r not. I cut up my own deer. I like to shoot them one day and cut them the next if I can. Hasnt failed me yet. As for the salt, its bad for my blood pressure.
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Yeah the straps and the loins are really good. Cant figure out how to cook the burger so it is not so rubbery.
Did you add any beef fat to your burger? Mine is the best burger ever, everyone I gave some to want more. :chuckle: Not rubbery at all. Just plan good.
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Did not have any beef added to it. I have cooked it slow, fast and in between. Still rubbery. the falvor like i said is really good. I even had about 20lbs. of jerkey made. Cant hardly chew it. I think that I just got a tough one. If I didnt know any better, even though it was the last of Nov. I think he still might have been worked up. He had a gash on the left side of his neck that was bout 10" long. It was crusted over but not infected. I would have liked to have seen the bull that did that to him!
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My moose came out perfect... My wife and I cut it up ourselves and we did not mix any other meat with our burger. Fantastic meat... I got the green light to go out of state to kill another one it was so good.
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I guess I'll add my :twocents: The moose I got in Wyoming a few years ago was young, perhaps 3 years old and essentially all of the meat was made into hamburger which was mixed with beef fat and absolutely indistinguishable from beef hamburger. And it was not the least bit rubbery as has been described by others with their moose. My brother's moose, on the other hand, was probably at least twice as old and it was the toughest game meat I have ever had, including the backstraps which were like trying to chew jerky.
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Really sounds like a crap shoot at this point. I'll tell you what guys, since about 50% have had undesirable meat, 50% of you should stop buying raffle tickets, this will increase my odds dramatically :chuckle:
