A Taste of the Wild

The box arrived the afternoon after I placed my order. I ran to the door, worried about the precious goods inside.  I had never before had meat shipped.

I shouldn’t have been concerned; the styrofoam box and freeze-pak were doing their job just fine.  The package could have been delayed another day and the meat still would have stayed frozen hard. 

I checked the order. “One package of ground ostrich- check; one ostrich filet - check; a package of ground bison – check; ground venison – check; elk medallions – check…”

This was not Omaha Steaks.

Yankee Farmers Market in Warner, NH is a most unusual business.  They raise bison on their historic farm and sell the meat in their farm store and online, including cuts other farms don’t bother to offer like heart, testicle, spleen and pizzle.  But they do more than that – they also contract with other local farmers who raise antibiotic-free, hormone-free, and pastured meats.  They offer naturally-raised pork and naturally-raised chicken and turkey from Vermont, but the real excitement comes in their more unusual offerings.  From Pokanotek Farm in Massachusetts comes ostrich; red deer from a farm in Maine. Elk is available from a farm in Wilmont, NH.

It’s your one-stop shop for local game and exotic meat.

Like most Americans, my exposure to meats beyond beef, pork, and lamb was exceedingly limited.  A friend who hunts had fed me venison once in a while, and on one memorable occasion served stewed squirrel. (It tastes like, yes, chicken – dark meat, but still chicken). But I myself had never cooked venison or bison, and ostrich was new on all levels.  It was time for me to learn.

 

The bison pot roast (braised in beer with bacon, onions, carrots and potatoes) I made after my trip to Alta Vista Bison Farm was indistinguishable from beef.  Emboldened by that effort, I started with bison steaks.  I used a grill pan and cooked them on medium, just a few minutes uncovered on the each side to sear, then covered for a few more minutes to bring the center of the meat to medium/medium-rare.  

The resulting steaks were denser than beef, but not tough.  The meat tasted “wilder,” bolder and stronger, but not overly gamey, and somehow softer, less metallic than beef.  Overcooking a small piece resulted in a hint of mealiness and a flavor closer to liver.

That flavor was more dominant in the elk medallions, which were cooked similarly and served with some dried cherries glazed with the drippings and a touch of balsamic vinegar. The fruit flavors compliments the strong flavors of the meat, but something less acidic might have worked better – sautéed onions, blue cheese. The medallions were very tight-grained, but surprisingly tender. I was beginning to get the hang of this.

Venison burgers were milder and likely to be popular with more timid palates.  Under sautéed mushrooms and mild cheddar cheese (from Vermont, of course), the burgers offered a strong, but not overwhelming, meat presence.

Ostrich was the strongest-flavored meat of the bunch – despite what you might expect, ostrich taste more like lamb than like turkey.  The tender filet was wild and gamey, not for the faint of heart, but a good match for other strong flavors.  Ground ostrich meatballs in tomato sauce were somewhat less successful; the texture was a little off-putting, and the flavor was more intense, more liver-like than our tasters preferred. But the flavor and texture were still better than turkey meatballs (not that that is much of an accomplishment).

The most striking quality of all these meats was the richness and depth of flavor, given the low fat levels.  In addition, all the meat was tender, despite the reputation of venison and other wild meats for toughness and stringiness.

In summary, a few cooking tips for game/exotic meats:

• Fatty, tough cuts should be cooked very slow and low.
• Steaks and filets should be cooked to medium at most – DO NOT OVERCOOK.
• The strong flavors of these meats call out for equally strong complimentary flavors – cracked black pepper, onions, mushrooms, strong cheeses, bacon.
• Less adventurous eaters might want to start with hamburgers made from ground bison or ground venison.
• Don’t bother with ostrich meatballs. 'Nough said.