What can I make out of a Antelope??

[hoity toit]

Got a fresh antelope from New Mexico today.What can I make??

 

[chilerelleno]

Everything!
Whole animal carcass, primals or sub primals?

 

[hoity toit]

Everything!
Whole animal carcass, primals or sub primals?

Whole carcass, very well fresh butchered., 2 hinds, 2 shoulders and back straps. just like a deer.

 

[chilerelleno]

Shoulders smoked whole.

Hind quarters parted out for roasts/steaks.

Backstraps, one as medallions or steaks, and one in 2-3 sections for stuffed straps.

 

[fivetricks]

I wish I could like Chili's post twice, but consider that more braising may be in order on the "fattier" cuts. Game has sooo little fat as a policy that you may end up having to cook less traditional cuts more like steaks or come up with a solid braising strategy.

 

[hoity toit]

what is the TASTE like??Locals said they dont like it, bar flies said they do....

 

[chilerelleno]

What kind of antelope, is it Pronghorn?
They can taste kind of brushy, as in Sagebrushy, not good.
Marinades and sauces may the order of the day.

 

[chilerelleno]

If it fed primarily on grasses, the taste should be excellent.
Just maybe the normal gamey of wild game.
if it fed on primarily sagebrush and such it could have a very strong flavor to it.
A lot also depends on how quickly it was skinned, slaughtered and put on ice.
Also if it was hung and aged.

 

[siege]

I had a buddy when I Iived in Montana who made a dish he called Chislic every hunting season with antelope.
He marinated 1/4" thick strips of meat in garlic, olive oil, and oregano and threaded the meat on metal skewers. The skewers were grilled over hardwood. He made a similar dish using marinated bits of on wooden skewers, where the meat was cut in small cubes, and cooked at the table in a fondue pot of boiling vegetable oil. There was always a variety of dipping sauces.
My last antelope was a little gamey. They live on the flats in the high desert here and eat a lot of sagebrush. A brief soak in buttermilk made the chops and steaks tender and mellowed out the flavor.
We had a couple of roasts that we smoked in a pan of apple juice. Lay a few strips of bacon on top and baste often, the meat is very lean. The rest went into jerky and sausage. Great for jerky, need to add about 35 % pork fat for sausage. Did some cased Greek sausage with orange zest, Italian bulk sausage, and stuffed breakfast sausage.

 

[tallbm]

Got a fresh antelope from New Mexico today.What can I make??

Nice!
I'm assuming this is a Pronghorn and not a Blackbuck Antelope.

I've never eaten Pronghorn so I can't tell you really what to do with it.
Blackbuck Antelope has more of an iron taste to the meat and it is much darker in color... almost a slight liver taste to it.

I posted this thread a LONG time ago about processing deer. It took me a lot of effort to find high quality deer butchering/processing video's on youtube and this guy is a real butcher that does it the correct way! I follow about 90% of what he does and I only deviate when it comes to what he says about shanks, heals, and some of that meat being good for jerky or grind... that meat is only good for braising in my book because u don't want the tissue in the grind. Other than that, it is spot on!!!!

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t...hering-and-processing-videos-and-info.259578/

I would recommend you remove the shanks or shank meat (might be easier) keeping the heel muscle on the rear shanks. Braise the shanks/meat for amazing dishes.

I always turn front legs into grind for sausage... small bodied deer/animals don't have much to work with on those front legs. I combine that meat with pork fat for the sausage grind going 80/20 meat to fat ratio. Also any good scrap meat goes into the grind pile as you trim or square up other cuts.

Rear legs, break them down into the 3 primary roasts: Top Round, Bottom Round, and Sirloin roast (football shaped one). Take the meat at the top of the hip and grind that as well... if it were a bigger animal this could make tri-tip and sirloin steak (not confused with sirloin roast... yeah confusing).
The roasts are so lean they don't actually make very good roasts lol. I usually grind the sirloin roast because it has more inner tissue than I want on a steak.
The bottom round roast (flatter one) is great for flavor and I do venison/antelope fajitas out of it so it is good for steak cuts.
The top round (with the eye of round on it) is usually the largest and will give you the best sized steak cuts.

Tenderloins (inner) and Backstrap you can do what you like with it just remove the silver skin and unwanted skin from both of of them. Tenderloins are often so small I just grind them after removing the unwanted tissue/skin.

Ribs on small bodied animals are dog food and often necks are too except for the neck "backstraps" which are good for grinding since they are also usually small. You can try to debone the small necks and ribs but it isn't worth the time so let the dogs eat.

Flap/Skirt/Belly meat is also usually so small and full of bad rubbery tissue it's not worth processing and don't even think of grinding that with all the unwanted skin. Again dog food or buzzard food.

A final word of butchering advise with this kind of animal. If there is skin/tissue you wouldn't throw in a skillet and then eat, then DON'T include that tissue with any meat that is for grind or steaks!!!!!
Take the time and remove all of that extra unwanted tissue. It takes effort but man you get the best product you can when that tissue is gone.

I hope this info helps and watch the videos in that thread I posted for lots of good visuals and direction on breaking down and processing your animal :)

 

[hoity toit]

I had a buddy when I Iived in Montana who made a dish he called Chislic every hunting season with antelope.
He marinated 1/4" thick strips of meat in garlic, olive oil, and oregano and threaded the meat on metal skewers. The skewers were grilled over hardwood. He made a similar dish using marinated bits of on wooden skewers, where the meat was cut in small cubes, and cooked at the table in a fondue pot of boiling vegetable oil. There was always a variety of dipping sauces.
My last antelope was a little gamey. They live on the flats in the high desert here and eat a lot of sagebrush. A brief soak in buttermilk made the chops and steaks tender and mellowed out the flavor.
We had a couple of roasts that we smoked in a pan of apple juice. Lay a few strips of bacon on top and baste often, the meat is very lean. The rest went into jerky and sausage. Great for jerky, need to add about 35 % pork fat for sausage. Did some cased Greek sausage with orange zest, Italian bulk sausage, and stuffed breakfast sausage.

Thats what i was thinking...jerky for a lot of it. Soak the rest in buttermilk for steaks, and grind the remaining into HB to add to regular sausage.

HT

Thanks !

 

[hoity toit]

Nice!
I'm assuming this is a Pronghorn and not a Blackbuck Antelope.

I've never eaten Pronghorn so I can't tell you really what to do with it.
Blackbuck Antelope has more of an iron taste to the meat and it is much darker in color... almost a slight liver taste to it.

I posted this thread a LONG time ago about processing deer. It took me a lot of effort to find high quality deer butchering/processing video's on youtube and this guy is a real butcher that does it the correct way! I follow about 90% of what he does and I only deviate when it comes to what he says about shanks, heals, and some of that meat being good for jerky or grind... that meat is only good for braising in my book because u don't want the tissue in the grind. Other than that, it is spot on!!!!

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t...hering-and-processing-videos-and-info.259578/

I would recommend you remove the shanks or shank meat (might be easier) keeping the heel muscle on the rear shanks. Braise the shanks/meat for amazing dishes.

I always turn front legs into grind for sausage... small bodied deer/animals don't have much to work with on those front legs. I combine that meat with pork fat for the sausage grind going 80/20 meat to fat ratio. Also any good scrap meat goes into the grind pile as you trim or square up other cuts.

Rear legs, break them down into the 3 primary roasts: Top Round, Bottom Round, and Sirloin roast (football shaped one). Take the meat at the top of the hip and grind that as well... if it were a bigger animal this could make tri-tip and sirloin steak (not confused with sirloin roast... yeah confusing).
The roasts are so lean they don't actually make very good roasts lol. I usually grind the sirloin roast because it has more inner tissue than I want on a steak.
The bottom round roast (flatter one) is great for flavor and I do venison/antelope fajitas out of it so it is good for steak cuts.
The top round (with the eye of round on it) is usually the largest and will give you the best sized steak cuts.

Tenderloins (inner) and Backstrap you can do what you like with it just remove the silver skin and unwanted skin from both of of them. Tenderloins are often so small I just grind them after removing the unwanted tissue/skin.

Ribs on small bodied animals are dog food and often necks are too except for the neck "backstraps" which are good for grinding since they are also usually small. You can try to debone the small necks and ribs but it isn't worth the time so let the dogs eat.

Flap/Skirt/Belly meat is also usually so small and full of bad rubbery tissue it's not worth processing and don't even think of grinding that with all the unwanted skin. Again dog food or buzzard food.

A final word of butchering advise with this kind of animal. If there is skin/tissue you wouldn't throw in a skillet and then eat, then DON'T include that tissue with any meat that is for grind or steaks!!!!!
Take the time and remove all of that extra unwanted tissue. It takes effort but man you get the best product you can when that tissue is gone.

I hope this info helps and watch the videos in that thread I posted for lots of good visuals and direction on breaking down and processing your animal :)

I most certainly appreciate your response and will follow your advice on this one. Thank You.

HT

 

[hoity toit]

What kind of antelope, is it Pronghorn?
They can taste kind of brushy, as in Sagebrushy, not good.
Marinades and sauces may the order of the day.

Yes it is Pronghorn from New Mexico. Neck shot and cleaned immediately and cooled.

 

[hoity toit]

I had a buddy when I Iived in Montana who made a dish he called Chislic every hunting season with antelope.
He marinated 1/4" thick strips of meat in garlic, olive oil, and oregano and threaded the meat on metal skewers. The skewers were grilled over hardwood. He made a similar dish using marinated bits of on wooden skewers, where the meat was cut in small cubes, and cooked at the table in a fondue pot of boiling vegetable oil. There was always a variety of dipping sauces.
My last antelope was a little gamey. They live on the flats in the high desert here and eat a lot of sagebrush. A brief soak in buttermilk made the chops and steaks tender and mellowed out the flavor.
We had a couple of roasts that we smoked in a pan of apple juice. Lay a few strips of bacon on top and baste often, the meat is very lean. The rest went into jerky and sausage. Great for jerky, need to add about 35 % pork fat for sausage. Did some cased Greek sausage with orange zest, Italian bulk sausage, and stuffed breakfast sausage.

Thank you !

HT

 

[deerhnt65]

I killed a buck Pronghorn in Wyoming a couple years ago, had the butcher make as many steaks as possible, and ground the rest into burger with 20% pork shoulder added. I grilled the steaks rare to medium rare, and they were tender enough you could almost cut them with a fork. As with any wild game it is very lean, so be careful not to overcook.

 

[S-met]

I'm a braising fan for tougher game meats. I usually do mirepoix, trinity or similar variations of cooking over a bed aromatics. One of my favorite recipes below.

4-5lb meat
2 T. vegetable oil
1-2 carrot, diced
1 onion, diced
1-2 stalk celery, diced
1 T. tomato paste
2 c. red wine
2 c. beef broth
2-3 star anise pods
Zest from orange
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350°F. Season meat with salt and pepper. In a wide, heavy bottom stainless steel saucepan, brown meat over high heat with vegetable oil, until brown on all sides. Remove from the pan, add the vegetables and sauté for 5 minutes to carmelize. Stir in the tomato paste. Deglaze with the red wine and reduce by half. Add the beef broth, star anise, orange zest and bay leaves. Return the meat to the pan, lower the heat to a simmer, cover and place in the middle of the oven. Cook for 3 hours or until tender (if bone-in pulling away from the bone.) Remove meat and pour broth into a saucepan and reduce to a light sauce consistency. Pour the sauce back over meat.

 

[Hawging It]

Absolutely Nothing. They have a horrible sagebrush taste no matter how you marinate or season it up. Mount the horns on the wall. and give the meat to the coyotes. Just my take.

 

[uncle eddie]

Stack the back-straps and wrap in bacon...makes a great filet mignon

You might need to use a couple of toothpicks if the back-straps are butterflied

 

[indaswamp]

what is the TASTE like??Locals said they dont like it, bar flies said they do....

hoity toit, The flavor of antelope is dependent upon what they are eating. If they are eating a lot of wild sage, the flavor of the meat will be strong. If it's corn or wheat stubble, the flavor will be excellent.

 

[mountbaldy]

I hope you have gotten to feast on some of that antelope. I have never had an antelope I did not care for. A lot has to do with how it was treated in the field and how quickly it gets processed. I prefer not to age my antelope and prefer to only allow it to rest for a couple days on ice, if that long. Also like others mentioned, the flavor is dependent on where it was harvested and what it was eating.

That said, I love antelope steaks. They are tender and high quality. Antelope doesn't taste like most game like deer or elk and does at times taste slightly sagey. To me that flavor is not off putting at all. It has flavor. Add a touch of olive oil and any good steak rub grill over hardwood coals and enjoy!

I don't hardly make much more than steaks and stew meat but it does also make fantastic breakfast sausage. The added flavor of the meat is accented nicely by the flavors in breakfast sausage. Grind in equal part of fatty pork shoulder into most any breakfast sausage recipe and you will not be disappointed.