Not my Moose Wellington

44hunter45

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Aug 14, 2019
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Location
Snorth Idaho
My tent mate from my moose hunt gifted me a backstrap from the moose he killed. The outfitter said the meat would be tasty but chewy. Nope.
I wet aged the meat in the the fridge for a week. Rinsed the blood out and patted it down a couple times during the week.

I have this old game cookbook from an Austrian 5 star chef out of Canada, Klaus Wöckinger. My sister gave me this years ago.
He calls this "Moose Loin in Puff Pastry"

I cheated with Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough, but followed the rest of the recipe.

Puff Pastry
Wild Game loin or tenderloin
Fresh Spinach
Sliced Ham
One Egg
Salt and Pepper.

Not much to this one.

Trim as much silver skin and and sinew from the meat as practical. You want it in one piece.
Brown the meat on all sides in hot oil. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 400°F
Lay out the bottom layer of puff pastry dough. Be careful not to crease or fold it after the wax paper is pulled. It will stick to itself.
Blanch the spinach in salted water, rinse in cold water and set aside.
Separate the egg white from the yolk and whip the yolk with 1 Tsp of cold water.
Lay a layer of the spinach on the puff pastry
Then a layer of sliced ham.
Lay the meat on top of the ham.
Layer the ham and the rest of the spinach on top.
Lay your top layer of puff pastry and drape it all into a "burrito".
( I pie folded mine and that was a mistake.)
Glue the top and bottom of the pastry with the egg glue, (over lap, but do not fold. )
Place it all on a baking rack on a cookie sheet or casserole dish to catch the drippings.
Bake to an internal temp of 125°F. Remove and let rest for 20 minutes.

Slice into about 1/2" slabs and enjoy.

We paired it with a salad and Cabernet. Not buried in herbs and seasonings. Just a little salt. I found the ham brought salt into the flavor profile.
You can very much taste the meat. Even the non-carnivores in the house had multiple servings.

Lessons:
1) Trim the pastry to the minimums.
2) One layer of ham on the top is probably plenty. This cookbook is from a time when larding was common. I don't see the need to add any fat if the meat is aged right.

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I've made a couple wild game wellingtons over the years and enjoyed them very much. I would have guessed it would be chewy too, as the bulls we've killed were chewy, but good deal that it wasn't.
 
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