11 replies to this topic

[Alex Parker]

Hey everyone. I have a Moose loin that I am planning on doing for Christmas Eve. Its about 4 lbs, and looks delish! I have a few questions though, as I am planning on Sous vide, followed by a light smoke of dry pine branches.

1) - Does Moose benefit from a couple days of dry aging? Or is there simply not enough fat content to do anything of significance to the meat?

2) As I said above, I am planning on Sous Vide. I have settled on probably 48 hours at around 62.5 degrees. Does this seem about right? Or again, am I way off the mark.

I am throwing this out there, because I haven't dealt much with Moose other than in ground form, so I want to make sure this is perfect. Any and all help is super appreciated!

Thanks so much


Alex.

[Alex Parker]

Ok so I am going to do this on my own it seems.

I was way off in my initial temps and times. I did some math and figured out what I want texture wise and decided
on 145 degrees for 24 hours. I am going to add a little red wine, a couple of drops of rose syrup to bring out the sweetness a little.and some salt and pepper and thats it. I know that cooking time seems a little optimistic in terms of complete doneness, but I think the smoking at the end is going to take it up to where I need it, which will be 155 degrees. May do a mustard and red wine reduction as a sauce. I will get pictures of the entire process and report back with my findings early Christmas morning!


Alex

[Mjx]

You might want to PM fellow member sjemac, who started the Moose topic, which describes his butchering of a moose, and one of the things he did with the meat; he sounds like his experience with working with moose is pretty comprehensive.

[Alex Parker]

Thanks Michaela!

I did a search on the forums and that topic didn't appear.. Ugh! Sorry.


Alex

[sjemac]

Hey Alex,

Depending on how the moose was cared for, it can definitely benefit from a few days in the fridge. Was it hung for any amount of time before butchering? Old or young moose?

If I've been forced to butcher an animal before the optimal hanging time of 14 days (I had to butcher my moose two days after taking it) I take my roasts and after defrosting them I put them in a large ziploc with a huge wad of paper towel underneath and leave it in the fridge for a few days. This improves the flavour and texture somewhat though not nearly as much as proper aging on the bone does.

Sous vide works excellently with elk and moose. I recently did an elk roast sous vide for 12 hours at 130 F and it turned out perfect. For moose I would not go past 135 F (140 max). It is a lean lean animal and temps of 145 and higher are considered well done. 48 or even 24 hours of sous vide is sometimes too much for game like moose and deer. The meat stays nice and pink but the texture can get somewhat mushy -- almost chalky. Moose loin is of a much finer grain than other parts of the animal and more susceptible to this effect than beef.

The pic below is of the sous vide elk roast. I Jaccarded it (I would NOT do this for loin), seasoned with salt and pepper and vac packed it in a bag with chiles, lime slices, red onion and olive oil and cooked it for 12 hours at 130 F (54.5 C). Seared it with a torch afterwards. 135 F would give a lighter pink and 145 F would be bordering on gray. The beautiful thing about sous vide is that you could go for 12 hours and then check for texture and doneness -- if happy, chill and rebag and simply bring it up to temp on the day of the meal. If not, rebag and place it back in the bath for more time. Smoking lightly afterwards and then searing should be fine. I liken moose to really beefy tasting beef, you notice that it is not beef but it does not have the tang that deer does, the flavour is deeper and rounder than venison. Big red wines and dark beers were made for it.

Edited by sjemac, 19 December 2012 - 11:02 AM.

[Alex Parker]

Thank you so much!

So excited to work with this beautiful piece of meat! Taking your advice, and bringing down cooking time and temp. Cannot wait to get going on it!

Again thanks so much! I will be taking plenty of pictures to document, and of course, I will put them up on here.

Yours sincerely


Alex

[demo]

I have had good results at 55-56C, and no more time than to make sure the core has reached temp. I think I have read somewhere, Modernist Cuisine perhaps?, that game contains more of the enzymes that break down your meat, so one should be careful with long time low temp cooking as the risk of mushiness is higher than in beef.

[Syzygies]

followed by a light smoke of dry pine branches.

Have you used pine smoke before?

I have a ceramic cooker and I'm active on the Komodo Kamado forum (http://www.komodokamado.com/forum). There, I've long advocated putting wood chips or chunks in a cast iron dutch oven with a few small holes drilled in the bottom, and the lid sealed on with flour paste. (This is to place on a charcoal fire, temperature controlled like sous vide by a PID controller.) The idea is to "distill" the most pleasant part of the smoke, making it one more flavor in balance. Even then, I prefer apple to stronger wood smokes for most purposes. I'm having trouble imagining that pine smoke would contribute a desirable flavor.

[sjemac]

followed by a light smoke of dry pine branches.

Have you used pine smoke before?

I have a ceramic cooker and I'm active on the Komodo Kamado forum (http://www.komodokamado.com/forum). There, I've long advocated putting wood chips or chunks in a cast iron dutch oven with a few small holes drilled in the bottom, and the lid sealed on with flour paste. (This is to place on a charcoal fire, temperature controlled like sous vide by a PID controller.) The idea is to "distill" the most pleasant part of the smoke, making it one more flavor in balance. Even then, I prefer apple to stronger wood smokes for most purposes. I'm having trouble imagining that pine smoke would contribute a desirable flavor.

A very light smoking with pine does depending on the recipe. Maybe a half hour at most.

[ninagluck]

what would you serve with your dear animal? i just had one recently, smoked a vanilla bean and put it into a potatoe mash, matched perfecct!

[Syzygies]

I am planning on Sous vide, followed by a light smoke of dry pine branches.

I see a logistical conflict here: In the BBQ world, one always smokes cold raw meat, getting a beautiful red smoke ring as the meat absorbs smoke, until this process stops somewhere before 145 F. Any smoke after that is a surface effect, only there to reassure the cook and guests that they're really cooking with smoke. In the sous vide world, one typically moves hot procedures to after sous vide that in classical technique would precede a braise.

I'd smoke the moose first, then chill it as your vacuum chamber requires, or use an alternative method (I use an impulse sealer and snip a corner to expel air under water, allowing me to work hot).

Recall also the advice of Thomas Keller (and others) that flavors are stronger sous vide, one has to be very careful with any spice. Pine smoke is such a spice...

[Alex Parker]

Hey everyone!

So the poor old Moose seems to have deteriorated between the time it was killed and the time it was frozen, as It had such an off putting smell I had to throw it out. It was like sour fecal or something, Nasty. Anyways, I ended up just doing shortribs instead and they were lovely! I served those with a chocolate cheese, and a really nice coconut bbq sauce that I did up. Really mellow, with a bit of heat, and it offset the richness of the Cheese nicely!



Alex