Caribou Gear

Shelter-in-place cooking

First time smoking on my new Masterbuilt gravity feed charcoal/wood grill/smoker. On my own this week, so just got a small flat from my butcher, but it turned out OK. Just a tad on the dry side, but sort of expected that with the small cut.
Your post led me down a rabbit hole. I just scrolled through all 21 pages from the beginning. Oh my!

Nothing better than the three B's: Briscuit, Berries, and Bourbon!
 
Question for the culinary folks out there. What’s your favorite seasoning to put on muley burgers? I’m normally just a salt and pepper guy for burgers and steaks, but I just can’t get to where I really enjoy a muley burger with just salt and pepper unless I load it up with pucky afterwards. I love and elk burger with just salt and pepper, but there’s just something about the taste of a muley burger that seems off to me. I’ve gotten to where I do more of my grindings as spicy Italian sausage or breakfast sausage since the only thing I really use the burger for is chili. Would love to get to where I enjoy a good muley burger though. Any advice? I do add 5% fat to my grindings, so it’s not really a dryness thing.
I'm a little late, but have you tried more fat content? Seems to make it taste much more like traditional burgers. I go between 10-15%. Not just for the flavor but makes the texture hold up better and they get a nicer charred color when you sear them. I added some cayenne and ginger to my antelope grind which came from an old doe and it was a noticeable difference. Not too much ginger though, the juice from 1 gram or so per lb of grind or add diced ginger to the grinder with the cubed meat. Ginger also helps with strong flavored fish too. 👍
 
smoked mule deer roast/steak with broccoli for dinner becomes smoked mule deer steak and overeasy eggs with a bit of cheddar cheese and chipotle tabasco for breakfast

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the gift that keeps on giving

final little chunk of smoked mule deer roast/steak made it's departing appearance for lunch as broiled nachos with a hefty layering of sauteed red onions and jalapeno. is it weird that i like my nachos with sharp cheddar and aged sharp white cheddar? ah if only i cared that it might be weird


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Off work for 2 weeks and nowhere to go. Just hunkered down with mama watching the crap on the news. Grilled up some bacon wrapped deer tenderloins and made some garden green beans with bacon and onions along with some deep fried baby red potatoes also out of the garden.

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a personal favorite of mine - homemade cheesy gordita crunches. these are with ground smoked mule deer.

i mix my ground mule deer (i mixed it about 23% beef fat when i ground it) with fresh chopped garlic, red pepper falkes, chile powder, salt, and cayenne and turn into a giant 1lb patty and smoke it for about 45 minutes, smoke your jalapeno halves and onions along with it.

then sear it up like ground beef on the skillet, add in a little more avocado oil to keep it juicy after the smoking. add more chile powder, more cayenne and a dash more salt

then you make your taco, taco bell style.

they're not the most photogenic, but they are awesome

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a personal favorite of mine - homemade cheesy gordita crunches. these are with ground smoked mule deer.

i mix my ground mule deer (i mixed it about 23% beef fat when i ground it) with fresh chopped garlic, red pepper falkes, chile powder, salt, and cayenne and turn into a giant 1lb patty and smoke it for about 45 minutes, smoke your jalapeno halves and onions along with it.

then sear it up like ground beef on the skillet, add in a little more avocado oil to keep it juicy after the smoking. add more chile powder, more cayenne and a dash more salt

then you make your taco, taco bell style.

they're not the most photogenic, but they are awesome

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Those look great. I do have to ask (for the Analytical Chemist side of me) - why 23% fat? was 22% too lean and 24% too much?;)

I would chow them down in a heart-beat no matter the fat %....
 
Pepsi because I didn't have a Mexican Coke hand
The benefit of Mexican Coke is that it’s still made with real cane sugar as opposed to corn syrup. Even the stuff labeled as Mexican cola sometimes a has corn syrup vs. cane sugar, so you need to read the ingredients. When I don’t have it or can’t find it in the store, then I’ll use homemade sweet tea (obviously made with real cane sugar) as a substitute. I like it just as well in my carnitas.
 
Those look great. I do have to ask (for the Analytical Chemist side of me) - why 23% fat? was 22% too lean and 24% too much?;)

I would chow them down in a heart-beat no matter the fat %....

it's actually due to a complete lack of perfectionism

i always buy more lbs of fat than i calculate as necessary for 20%. i do meticulously weigh everything out in advance on the kitchen scale as intended.

then the whole plan goes out the window after that, i just start tossing fat here there everywhere and before you know it at least a half pound extra made it's way in

not cause i hate the taste of venison, this mule deer has been some of the best tasting meat of any animal yet, more cause i love fat. and probably cause i drink too much whiskey when i process

you should see me with butter....
 
Found some Indigo Milk Caps in my front yard this morning, decided to cook them up for lunch. Had never seen them before, the "milk" they produce looks a lot like the blue milk from Star Wars (and it stains). They were delicious sauteed in some butter, and turned a Jade Green color - the butter became blue.

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My son’s birthday today, so I went all out and did a 44oz bone-in tomahawk ribeye reverse sear on the Masterbuilt. Smoked at 250 with oak/hickory blend for about an hour until is was 118 internal, then cranked it up to 700 and seared for 2 mins on each side. Turned out OK for the first attempt at reverse sear on this grill...

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