not sure how the butcher cut it.

Tough
 

Could the moose you shot been in decline??

the hamburger is awesome. i'll try to marinate it and slow cook it and see what happens. i never use the microwave..we don't even own one. my guess is we were just unlucky with this moose. we did everything right in the field. you should be able to cut it with a fork.

poke holes in it and marinate it in whiskey and olive oil, it will tenderize pretty good. or even just butter milk and it will get the wild taste out too

Not sure why it is tough but i love my pressure cooker for tough cuts. 20 minutes in the pressure cooker is like 4-5 in the slowcooker.

The cow I shot last year was tough...Next time I will grind it all.

tough moose
 

I neck shot a bull moose a few years ago and killed it instantly.Since it was in an easily accessible area we quickly winched it into the truck and drove it back to a buddys farm, where we picked it up with the tractor to gut and skin it. It was probably an hour in total.When we got the meat back from the butchers it was unbelievably tough. There was no problem with the taste as far as being gamy but a coyote would dull his teeth chewing that critter. I finally thawed out my portion and ground it into hambuger.That was the first and only time that I have not field dressed an animal immediatley following it being killed although I am not sure what caused it I am not taking any chances.

Papain is a proteolytic enzyme derived from papaya fruit. It can be obtained from exotic stores such as Superstore or nutters. Thaw steaks , coat liberally with papain ,cover and refrigerate for two days . Cook as desired. If the steaks are still tough ,feed the local coyote population and eat beef until next season

Try marinating in buttermilk for24 hours ,it tenderizes the meat and takes some of the gamey flavor out of the meat. Not the first to mention this,but it works well.

Tough Meat.....Food for thought....
 

One thing we occasionally forget, and that is, what was the animal doing just before we saw it.................maybe those tough ones just ran a few miles. I'm sure that would have an impact on the quality of the meat, regardless of age.......

tough meat
 

There's a post mortem process that takes place, known as cold shortening. It sound like you could have run into it.

From Encyclopedia Brittanica:
"Cold shortening is the result of the rapid chilling of carcasses immediately after slaughter, before the glycogen in the muscle has been converted to lactic acid. With glycogen still present as an energy source, the cold temperature induces an irreversible contraction of the muscle (i.e., the actin and myosin filaments shorten). Cold shortening causes meat to be as much as five times tougher than normal".

In a field situation, it's easy to cause cold shortening, particularly with larger critters that are often skinned and quartered in cold air, and then cut, wrapped and frozen before the condition has passed. The best way to avoid causing cold shortening is to leave the hide on and reduce the cooling rate in such conditions. Of course, when it's warm, cold shortening isn't much of a concern and carcass coooling may need to be encouraged to avoid spoilage. If cold shortening conditions can't be avoided (the hide has to come off and the critter quartered), the effects can be overcome by hanging the carcass for as long as possible at 2-4 degrees C, for often as many as 10 days. Prime beef is often aged for 14 days, I believe.

Once I learned about cold shortening, I changed my field handling of game as much as can be allowed given the conditions. I rarely experience tough meat anymore. I usually hang field dressed deer with hide on (to avoid drying) for 3-7 days, depending on temperature. For moose and elk, I usually hang the quarters in cheesecloth for as many as 10 days.

Do a Google search for cold shortening and you'll find lots of interesting reading. I think this is the kind of info that should be added to hunter ed. courses. Getting the most out of our game is important. Good meat handling honours the animal and those who eat it.

Excellent and interesting post, Wind Drift. Thanks. I've always hung my game hide on as long as reasonably possible and never had a problem with toughness. Prime beef goes as long as 21 days.

I'm curious about the spine shot thing though. The nervous system is essentially an electrical network just like we all have in our homes. While likely impossible to prove, I wonder is the massive kinetic energy transfer from projectile to spine does not cause a 'short' so to speak. Working in conjunction to your theory on 'cold shortening', perhaps this is an accelerating factor?

Tree

not sure what you mean by decline.

long in the tooth or old I think is what he's gettin at there...

Minute steak
 

About four years ago a buddy and I shot a cow elk. We split her down the middle and i had the butcher do a typical cut & wrap (steaks, roasts, burger etc.) and he had his whole hind 1/4 made into minute steak :eek:..
I thought he was crazy but i tried some...WOW..it was awesome.
So the following year I arrowed a nice young bull moose and did the exact same thing, got a whole hind 1/4 made into minute steak. I do that with every moose or elk i get.
Maybe its worth a try for your steaks?

I use a slo cooker for all my roasts, no matter what animal.

Two cups of water, spices and 10hrs. Turn it at the 5hr mark.

Steaks I bbq at high heat and not for long.....med. rare.

I've overcooked moose before. Shoe leather.

Steaks @ High Heat
 

Thats a good point "Huntinstuff", steaks should be cooked at a high heat whether bbq or frying pan, this sears in the juices. Depending on thickness depends on amount of time on each side.
I think after all this talk, looks like slow cooker roast tomorrow ;)

High heat as the guys said above. If the steaks aren't cut against the grain, there isn't much you can do without using a slowcooker. Also, don't flip your steaks more than once! This will lose all the juices and make them tougher.

http://www.jaccard.com/Product-View/...product/5.html

I invested in one of these for tougher meat. It needs to be tough though. This thing can make meat too tender.

Makes minute steak in a pinch. The electric ones are much more expensive too and you pay extra for the butcher to do it, well worth it though ;)

As a former butcher it is uttterly amazing how many people blame the butcher for thier meat being tough, and let me tell you from experience that most of the people complaining bring thier stuff in shape that I woulpd not feed it to my dog. My first guess is how do you know how old that animal is just by looking at it you think it is 3 years old but it may well be 5 you have no idea unless you are aging it with teeth after a couple of years.

Wind drift was probablty the closest and that was good of him to post as with most meat it is the way it is treated and all situations are different.

Put about a quarter inch of cooking oil in the bottom of a dish and your favorite bbq sauce and spices, pierce the steaks and put them in the oil and bbq sauce mixture. Let it marinate for about 6 to 8 hours. :)

The moose I shot was refered to by someone who knows what he is doing as "one of the best eating moose" he had ever had the pleasure of tasting. I, on the other hand, only succeeded in producing the toughest meat I have ever put between my teeth. So I'm sure cooking skill makes a difference. I took to using a pressure cooker. Makes everything tender. I prefer a nice steak from the barbeque, but with all that meat in the freezer that nobody wants to eat otherwise, what do you do?

We had some great stews, though!

Frans

moose
 

Frans that was a great moose, I don't know what you did to it?? LOL That's actually pretty funny.

I should do a steak cooking seminar sometime. the trick is to not over cook meat and let it rest for 10 minutes in a warm place after it's done. I cooked some elk last night (sirloin) and it was fantastic, just as tender as any beef I've had. Well except for that tenderloin we aged for 90 days...but that's another story. Do a search for salt aging steaks and try that method it's a great way to do in 20 minutes what 25 days of cooler aging will do.

Also remember that some cuts are tender and others are only good for long moist cooking because they are tough no matter what. I browned some elk shanks this afternoon and boiled them for soup, the broth is very nice and the meat is nice and tender-That's what to do with shanks you could never eat them any other way.

So the steak cuts on a moose are the sirloin,tenderloin, backstrap, top round (a bit tough sometimes). The top round, and bottom round are roasts and the rest is for braising (moist heat)or grinding.

I sympathize with you guys though and I've been lucky to have 20 years of daily practice. It's not easy to learn this stuff when you only cook occasionally.

Are you sure the butcher let the moose hang long enough ? Sad to say, but when i helped a former butcher,he would cut the animal within 2 days of the animal being in the cooler.He would always joke that the meat would tenderize in the freezer.

its the way the meat was cut partner.. against the grain... only way to fix that is with a meat hammer

I was under the impression high heat sears in the juices as well, until i watched a food show where they did an experiment on this. Turns out searing the meat damages more tissue and thus lettting the juices out. Low and slow for tender it would seem.

So then its a Myth...Busted :lol::lol:
I've been high heat and searing for years, it seemed to be the way and worked...I think :confused:
Oh well, why quit now lol ;)

I've heard the same thing that the high heat is a myth. But then again you talk to 10 different people you will have 15 different answers on how to cook a steak best. People say well done meat is ruined, but depending on the steak I prefer it like that. To each their own, if high heat works for you keep on it.