Moose (Merged topic)

[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

[ElainaA]

I have been given some moose meat by a friend whose husband recently went on a hunting trip in Labrador. I have a large roast (I think about 3 -4 lbs.) and a package of cubes marked stew meat. While I have occasionally cooked venison I have no experience with moose. Does anyone? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Elaina

[MasteringTheFlame]

A great way to cook up the moose roast is putting it in a crockpot. First I would brown the roast on all sides, then put it into the crockpot. I'd add any sort of seasonings you like, but a simple thing to do is just put in a pack of dried onion soup mix. Add about two cups of apple juice, cover and cook in the crockpot for about 6 to 8 hours. It should turn out pretty tasty and tender. You can also take some of the liquid out and use it to make a gravy.

[Peter the eater]

Ten pounds of ground moose I got last night from my hunter buddy. Tourtière tomorrow. The meat is lean and tough - lots of pork fat and spices will help.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Mom came up behind me while I was reading this and reminded me that my uncle used to fill our freezer with moose when I was younger. She swears by marinating it in beer (preferably ale), garlic, and onions for a couple of days and then searing and stewing.

[ElainaA]

I made moose stew - braised for 2 hours with stock and wine, lots of onions, some carrots and potatoes and a seasoning packet that was given to me with the moose - the first time in almost 50 years of cooking that I have used one of those. It was sent to my friend from a friend of hers in Germany and was labelled (in German) 'Hungarian Goulash' (thanks, google translate). I don't read German and did not translate the ingredients list but I think it was largely paprika. The end result was good but not all that different from a beef stew - much closer to beef than is venison. I still have a venison roast in the freezer - that's going to be part of Christmas dinner.

Elaina