A trip to Topeka just saved the lives of a few Kansas deer this season.
We now have about 150 pounds of moose meat. It’s from the bull that buddy Chris Tymeson shot on our trip to Maine. He graciously offered me half of the animal.
The first steaks came off the grill last night.
As well as a great trophy for Chris Tymeson the bull moose he shot in Maine will supply hundreds of meals for the Tymeson and Pearce families. Moose tastes somewhat like elk but is even more mild-flavored. It's also ultra-healthy.
The flavor was great, very mild and kind of like elk. Moose are notoriously great on the table.
Rather laid-back creatures their meat’s not usually tough. They eat green, succulent plants all spring and summer.
Like elk and venison it’s also very healthy with less fat and cholesterol than chicken.
Wow, great taste, super healthy and they come in 800 pound packages.
Actually most the deer I’ve taken from across the nation have been danged good to eat. If some were super-old I adjusted the recipes and cooking to help make them tender.
I think field care and processing often have more to do with how an animal tastes than an individual species or what they’ve been eating. Red meat is red meat but things like deer, elk and antelope take a bit more care. All fat must be removed and no bones can be cut.
If there is a down-side to our freezer of moose meat is that I didn’t process it myself. Chris and I were in a hurry so we dropped the bull off at a Topeka processor.
The meat’s clean and was well-cooled. But much fat was left-on and the cuts weren’t as I’d asked. Somehow out of animal the size of several deer I ended up with only about six roasts and oodles of moose burger. The amount of steaks seemed about right.
Oh well, that’s what I get for asking someone do the work I normally do myself.
But it’ll all be good and put to great use. For almost 30 years we’ve relied nearly 100-percent on wild fish and game. Early in our marriage it was matter of economics, then preference in our tastes and concerns about health.
I’ll still add a deer or two to our freezer this fall but I’ll be sure to process them myself. After spending so much time and money to get the animal I’ve become very particular as to how the meat is treated.
The animal deserves it and so do my family and friends.