elk . tough as a leather boot

[kidoggy]

I killed a cow elk last year and it is the toughest dang meat I ever et. this last meal I let it marinate for three days and it didn't help it .
what are some of the members go tos for solving this when cooking???? I can eat it when I grind it up for hamburger or shred it in a crockpot but don't much care for steaks on the grill with it. which is a shame because that is generally what I like the most.

tastes ok but it is just like chewing a leather boot for toughness.

 

[JimP]

Try putting it into a pressure cooker for about 20-30 minutes with a cup of water under pressure. Then when you pull it out put it onto the grill or however you like to cook it.

I got a Instapot and it works quite well for doing this but my brother in law just uses a standard old pressure cooker.

I started doing this with ribs and a lot of other pieces of game meat that are usually fairly tough. The rib meat will fall off of the bones and you can almost just stick it into your mouth and strip the meat off as you pull it out.

 

[kidoggy]

nice! will give that a try.

 

[JimP]

You can even experiment a little by adding a little liquid smoke or other flavors into the water to impregnate the meat as it cooks in the pressure cooker.

 

[kidoggy]

You can even experiment a little by adding a little liquid smoke or other flavors into the water to impregnate the meat as it cooks in the pressure cooker.

was just reading were a woman liked to use apple juice when doing ribs.do you prefer the instapot to pressure cooker?

 

[JimP]

A Instapot is just a brainy pressure cooker. It has a timer along with different settings where you don't have to pay as much attention to it as you would a actual old fashion cast pressure cooker. On the IP you just set the timer for however long you want it and then forget it.

Apple juice might be a good flavor additive. I have had my IP for about a year and a half and found a cookbook for it online to try some different things with it.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I also use my pressure cooker on tough meat. I also take a rack of elk ribs and pressure cook them for 6 to 8 mins and then put them on the grill. They are nice and tender when they are finished.

 

[kidoggy]

thanks guys .
I think I will get an instapot and give it a try

 

[go_deep]

thanks guys .
I think I will get an instapot and give it a try

When you get the instant pot read the instructions. There's a pressure release valve on top, you can quick release the pressure, or natural release.
I've had great luck with tough meat doing the natural release.

 

[JimP]

Just so that you know what the natural pressure release is without digging through the instruction book. It is just letting the pressure release by itself after the timer shuts off.

If you have extra time this is easy to do, just precook the meat in the Instapot and then throw it on the grill to warm it up or to get your char on it and it will be ready to eat.

 

[Hilltop]

Once the pink is gone, it's jerky to me. I don't care for well done meat so I would recommend using a tenderizer. I have had tough elk before-typically when I didn't have time to age properly. Running through a tenderizer or learning the method with a sharp knife works. Essentially you are making a bunch of tiny slices half way through the meat from both sides of the steak. Be careful when you grill as it tends to cook faster. It's not a cure all but it makes very tough meat edible.

Another thought, you can ground the steaks without adding fat- then you can still grill to medium rare. Again, cooking time will be a bit different. One thing that helps this is to kneed the burger for at least 1 minute to activate the proteins. Pat steaks out to normal steak thickness. It will really sick together and cook closer to whole steak times.

Hope this helps.

 

[nv-hunter]

Make sure the steaks are cut across grain. Then marinate in something with acid like vinegar or lemon juice and cook to medium rare.

 

[mallardsx2]

You tried the rock-salt trick yet?

I tried that last summer on the "Iron Maiden" doe my wife shot and it worked pretty well. Luckily, we ground most of that doe. lol

 

[kidoggy]

Make sure the steaks are cut across grain. Then marinate in something with acid like vinegar or lemon juice and cook to medium rare.

I have done that . not a big fan of the vinegar marinates though. lemon juice better but don't really care for it much either. really haven't noticed that marinating helps much with toughness. seems more for flavor.

 

[kidoggy]

You tried the rock-salt trick yet?

I tried that last summer on the "Iron Maiden" doe my wife shot and it worked pretty well. Luckily, we ground most of that doe. lol

yeah. it helped .

picked up an instapot yesterday . will probably give it a try this weekend.

also got a meat hammer , may try beating the hell out of it , though this is not something I expect to like .never been a fan of cubed steak.

 

[kidoggy]

tried the instapot today . after only 20 minutes it came out pretty well done but it was much more tender then on the grill. ended up just cutting the meat up and putting it in a stir fry with some shrimp and vegies and terriyaki sauce over rice.
was pretty good that way . just gonna have to keep experimenting.

 

[RICMIC]

Kid; Did you remember to put your teeth back in before dinner? That might work better.

 

[JimP]

Kid; Did you remember to put your teeth back in before dinner? That might work better.

I gave a pack of jerky to my neighbor today who only has 4 or 5 teeth left.. He said if nothing else he can gum it until it is soft enough to swallow. About like that grizzly bear the other day.

On the other hand I made up some Swiss steak today in my instapot. I used some elk round steak from a old bull that we called Methuselah.

From all indications it is going to be a fine dinner in a hour or so.

 

[kidoggy]

I downloaded some wild game recipes to my kindle today that I will give a shot.

 

[marcusvdk]

I use apple juice for my ribs and pulled pork