Working from home these days (long story) but the upside of all that is... what's for lunch.

Yesterday was a late-lunch of elk steak and eggs, and the toast had homemade wild-grape jam. Today was roasted quail (only one was left) and homemade Minestrone. I sure don't miss road food much anymore.

What winter? Who cares? All the blessings of a happy larder here.

I'm making a batch of moose jerky as we speak. I'm also snacking on some moose sticks. Like Slim Jims. You can't beat eating what you have provided yourself.

I had a very good friend from Ontario, Canada (sadly lost in a float plane crash) who sent me moose pepperettes (like small, mild pepperoni sticks) every year he got a moose. Wonderful stuff!

We had 3 kinds made this year. Pepperoni, maple bacon and jalapeno cheese.

Anybody besides me grill duck rolls?

Lloyd grills grouse rolls. Makes a fine corned goose, as well. I did venison chops over charcoal the other night, 1 1/2 minutes a side, caused me to wonder what the poor folk were doing.

Best,
Ted

I first had duck rolls in a big blind in AR several years ago, for breakfast. It's taken me a couple tries to get it right, but they're awesome. The duck breast meat has to be prepared carefully, sliced the right way, then rolled with ground sausage and cream cheese, before grilling. Lordy, I'm drooling just thinking about them!

I'm not much of a chef, I just make food. I did cook the breast of last spring's gobbler for my Christmas, and I have a bit of the brown rice and gravy for tomorrow.

Other than some pheasants, a few sticks of some summer sausage I make and a wild turkey, my larder is somewhat bare. Didn't have any luck with the elk or deer this year. I do have a number of jars of smoked, canned trout and salmon and a bunch of canned homemade sauerkraut.

A couple of buddies I hunt Saskatchewan with would combine their waterfowl and take into a local place and have a bunch of pepperoni sticks and summer sausage made from the geese and ducks. Good stuff! I make my own sausage of various kinds but have never done pepperoni. My brother does the pepperoni, so I swap him summer sausage, chorizo or link sausage for some of his pepperoni. Goose breasts brined and smoked is very good also, but one needs to be careful, as with any waterfowl, that you don't break a tooth from imbedded steel shot!

I'd take the brisket off of a moose when I lived in AK and corn that! It was very good and have done it with goose breasts, but I was less impressed with the goose breasts I've done.

I've been a bit bored this winter without elk, deer or both to process into sausage , peppered, brined and smoked roasts or something else!

A little olive oil, garlic, capers and the trout, chipped, combined into a sauce served onto pasta with a heavy sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, grated, sounds good to me...Gil

I did butter chicken last week but used pheasant. That was pretty good. Will be doing it again.

Mike will you share recipe and process?

Don't know if this counts, but last week I did dorado (mahi mahi) steaks with a crust of chopped macadamia nuts, garlic, parmesan, and panko, with a little Italian parsley. Served with steamed rice and a sauce reduction made from juice of fresh lemon, valencia and blood orange, lisbon lemon preserves and butter, with a dash of Cointreau.

Would like to see pics and recipe for duck rolls.

I cut it with my meat slicer in 1/4" strips, sprinkle with Hi country jerky seasonings and cure, (there's at least 4 flavors), and then put it in our dehydrator for 3 hours at 165. It's not real dry, just the right amount of soft. I bought the mix at Sportsman's Warehouse. I'm sure that Cabela's, Bass Pro and most likely Amazon sells it as well. I forgot to add that I let it marinate overnight in some soy sauce, Worchester sauce and some liquid smoke.

I just ate leftover deer chili made last winter and frozen in two portion packets for use 'later'. You guys have fancier lunches than I do...Geo

Stan's duck rolls sound pretty good, as does Jame's Butter Pheasant. Had an old friend over last night for dinner. He and his youngest son had been skiing in the mountains all last week and were headed back to Virginia the hard way (yet another long drive across the country, the airlines sure have run folks off!). My bride made Shepard's Pie with ground elk and scalloped potatoes (instead of the usual mashed taters on-top). Washed all that down with a good red and followed that with a long visit into the night. I've said it before and I'll say it again....hunters generally set a better table than most.

You fillet the meat off each side of the duck breast, then cut off all the silver skin. Then, with what's left, you slice it once horizontally into roughly equal sized pieces. This thins the remaining pieces. It is important when you roll it up, that the grain in the fillet runs across the roll. IOW, when your front teeth (incisors) bite through the roll they need to be biting with the grain. If not it will be hard to bite through, and seem tough. As to the other components you use, press a thin layer of ground sausage onto the fillet, then cut a piece of Philadelphia Brand cream cheese and lay it in the middle. Roll it all up, salt and pepper the outside, and grill it on a hot grill until done. I'll leave it up to you how long that is. I want my duck meat pink in the middle. The rest will be done, too.

I'll try to remember to take pics next time I cook them. What I need is some freshly killed ducks with which to make them!

My friends like to do butter chicken with marmot. Tastes like...chicken. I did elk sausage bangers and mash and liked it a lot.

I've got some moose brats but they didn't come out as well as I had hoped. A bit bland.

How were they seasoned? The moose I’ve been given (never hunted them) has been spectacular.


Best,
Ted

Moose is great. This is the first time that I've tried to make brats out of any of it. I'll have to find another recipe to try as this one is very plain tasting.

I did some bangers and mash a while back with some elk sausage I'd made that I thought was good also! There's a traditional English Pub in Coeur d' Alene that serves bangers and mash I've been meaning to visit to compare but haven't done so yet.

A little useless trivia on why bangers are called bangers! I was curious why they were called bangers and the explanation I read, indicated that, if memory, during WW2 (could have been WW1), with the short supply of meat during the war more fat was used in making them and they had a tendency to explode on cooking, thus the name banger!

Cameron,
That's what I was told by an English shooting friend of mine, seems correct.
Karl

I went moose hunting here back in the middle 90s. Colorado had opened a season up in North Park (in the Colorado State Forrest near Rand, Colorado) and in the 2nd year of that process I drew a tag for a cow. Back then, it was one and done (1 tag per hunter was it, no more moose after that) and it may still be that for all I know. I killed a nice young cow and brought her home. I took me 5-years to eat that moose. As Ms. Harrel says above, very "plain" tasting and a little chewy. I much prefer elk.

I've taken around 14 moose in 19 years. I've never had a chewy moose. Including two old bulls in the rut.

I still have some vacuum packed moose from 10/16 in Maine, been great and not all chewy. Favorite venison.

I've waffled back and forth as to which I like better between moose and elk. First bull moose I shot in AK, I remember thinking at the time, I think I like this better than elk! After moving back to Idaho and shooting a few cow elk. I determined, from personal tastes, it's a bit of a toss up between the two. However, I will say that I've eaten some rutting bull elk that were flavor wise, less than ideal and on the other hand, have shot and been in on the killing of some old rutting bull moose, one being a 68" heavy racked fellow that was just a tad bit tougher, not chewy at all, just a little tougher than some younger bulls, but had an excellent flavor. I think if I were to group big older rutting elk with big older rutting moose, the moose would win out, IMO!

I've contemplated the differences over the years, concerning the toughness of the meat and my conclusion is, right or wrong, elk are much more wary and excitable, move around in generally much more extreme terrain in general (think steep) and will spook and run for longer distances than moose, thus the differences in how tough the meat is. Again in general, you pop an elk and if it's not planted on the spot, it's off to the races! With a moose, if you pop one, it may stand there, making you think that you missed, so you pop it again and perhaps again until it falls over!

I've only tasted Moose once. Years ago a friend had brought a roast from a bull someone in his family had shot from his home in Maine. He invited us over to help him enjoy it. We could smell it from the driveway when we got to his house. Terrible fails to describe it. Of course it could have been the way it was prepared.

I've enjoyed the Elk I've eaten and I eat the Georgia deer I've been lucky enough to take. I'd try Moose again if the chance came up...Geo

Not likely down here though, unless maybe one escapes from a zoo.

A friend got a Colorado moose this year. I found the taste hard to distinguish from elk, maybe a little better. My working theory is the bigger the critter, the better it tastes. deer<elk<moose<bison. Pronghorn varies too much to get a ranking. I bet woolly mammoths were really good.

I know everybody involved was quite disappointed (I shared it equally with two of my helpers) as we'd also heard about how good moose should be. It was a younger cow (with a calf), the kill was very clean (head shot), and it didn't seem to be excited in any way before the shot. The hide was gorgeous (I donated it to a local fly shop to have it turned into fly-tying materials), and field cleaning it was a memorable experience (large in every dimension!). I don't know what I did wrong but...it wasn't great to eat. I know that the Shiras(?) animals are different from the Alaskan variants, perhaps that is why?

Moose is, by a large margin, my favorite wild ungulate to eat. I like it much more than elk and even more than antelope (American or African). Everyone has their favorite.

1. Moose, 2. Whitetail/Pronghorn (tie), 3.Mule Deer, 4. Elk, 5. Black bear.

To be fair the only Elk I've ever eaten were killed & cooked by my late BIL Bubba Magnumitis & all the Moose were from Northern Ontario. I've heard great things about both Elk & Black bear but not experienced it. The Black bear experience was limited to 2 & both were late fall kills & not over bait/carrion or near dumps (one killed foraging in a blueberry patch).

Never having shot one, but eating plenty of it, not the store bought but wild, free roaming, bison rates right up there towards the top, IMO. Shot an old musk ox bull on Nunivak Island years ago, that was very flavorful. However, I threw some backstrap I'd cut into steaks on the BBQ and when I went to stick a fork in it to turn over, the fork darn near bounced off the steak! Very good flavor but it was about the toughest meat I've ever eaten! Ended up turning most of that into various types of sausage. Did have some cow musk ox meat that was an entirely different story than the bull.....tender and very flavorful!

A personal funny story about the musk ox. I'd sent a wetlock box of some silver salmon to my folks in Idaho, in 1989, along with 10 lbs or so of the musk ox meat. Later on. They told me they'd made some mince meat from the musk ox, again in 1989, which was probably good since it was so tough. I moved back to ID in 1997 and didn't give the musk ox mince meat a second thought. Around 2006, my mom was telling me that they had a church pie social and had made a pie from the canned mince meat....around 17 years after they had made it. I kind of chuckled and asked how the folks liked it! She said that it was the hit of the church social, with my dad chiming in, that he had mentioned they were probably the only ones in the USA eating musk ox mince meat pie. Didn't sound like they had too much concern or thought about it being around 17 years old!

Tonight is aoudad bratwurst with mashed potatoes. And some cheap Shiraz. Last night was aoudad sausage with farfalle pasta and a dijon mustard lemon-butter cream sauce. And some cheap Shiraz.

This is going in a different direction, but oh well...

Had Elk Braciole for dinner last night, with GF pasta and roasted broccoli (and homemade gluten-free bread). It was a school night so no vino (working today). We seem to be getting a real winter this year, (1st one in a long time) so a fairly-heavy game-based Italian meal really hit the spot. Snowing today even!

Didn't really want to put much effort into dinner last night, so I thawed a pheasant, fillet it out and threw it in the crockpot with a little apple juice, BBQ sauce, onion and seasonings, with roasted thin sliced potatoes and parsnips! Nothing resembling a gourmet meal but it was passable and hit the spot!

Not so healthy but, whatever, it's cold. Biscuits and gravy made from homemade elk breakfast sausage and simple drop biscuits seemed appropriate. Not every game meal needs to be fancy, nor is that realistic when venison is your go to red meat protein. I'll eat a brook trout to make up for it.