# A Bison Breakdown



## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Hey all! This is going to be an ongoing thread where I will put recipes and pictures for how I cook up various parts of my bison. I hope you enjoy, feel free to comment or ask questions whenever, and suggestions are greatly appreciated.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

First up, tackling the tongue. I allowed the tongue to age in my shed, unwrapped, for 2 weeks with outside temperatures between 28-40F; inside my shed the temperatures remain relatively constant at 32-35F.

Ingredients:

1 bison tongue
Kosher Salt
Chipotle powder
Cumin powder
Coriander seed powder

Scrub the tongue with a plastic brush under cool water. Pat dry and then liberally coat on all sides with kosher salt. Sprinkle equal parts of the other seasonings over the entire tongue until lightly coated, approximately 1T each should suffice. Allow to sit uncovered at room temp for 30 minutes.

Poaching Liquid:
1 quart cold water
1 quart fresh apple cider
1 cup pinot grigio
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 head of garlic, roasted
1/2 cup chopped white onion, roasted
1/2 cup chopped leek, roasted
1/2 cup chopped celery, roasted
1/2 cup chopped carrot, roasted
2 large sprigs fresh thyme
3 bay leaves
4T whole black peppercorns
2T red chili flakes
2T kosher salt

Preparation:
Combine ingredients for poaching liquid in a large pot, and add seasoned tongue. The liquid should just cover the tongue, and I added more cider periodically as needed to keep the tongue submerged. Bring to a boil and reduce to a low simmer. Allow to simmer uncovered for approximately 3 hours, until the outer skin of the tongue begins to blister and is easily peeled from the tongue.

Remove tongue from poaching liquid and peel the skin. The tongue should be tender, but firm enough to hold together in a nice slice. Trim any remaining connective tissues or blood vessels.

From here, the tongue can be eaten as is, or used in other preparations (I'm thinking tacos...but haven't gotten that far yet).

Save the broth and seasoning ingredients use to make bone broth.

Before poaching









Soakin' in the goodness









After the bath









All peeled and trimmed, ready to use (and pretty tasty in its own right as is)


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

Not gonna lie, the look of that tongue before it’s bath turned my stomach. But the end result doesn’t look bad at all. I pulled the tongue from my buck this year and was ready to cook it but I just can’t get past my initial fear and ended up chucking it. I’ll eat the hearts and livers from my animals every time but for some reason the tongue messes with my head. I know it’s a shame. 

I’m looking forward to more of this thread. 


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Ya should of started with the liver and heart. :EAT:


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## weaversamuel76 (Feb 16, 2017)

Subscribed! Hopefully I see a few ideas to try with my own Bison. I agree the finished tongue looks tasty excellent work.

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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

I need to warn you, this broth is fairly labor intensive to prep, requires a lot of attention, and takes a long time to make. BUT, it is knock your socks off good and well worth the effort.

B*tchin' Bison Bone Broth:

Part I: The Meats
1 bison neck trimmed (post trimming this neck weighed 32 lbs), bone in, dry aged 2 weeks 
*Personally, I do not like using a saw to cut neck bones as they already have plenty of connective tissue to add body to the broth and I don't like the bone fragments/powder issue--I swear I can taste it when broth is made with cut bones, there's a "dusty" after taste that gives me the willies. 
1/4 cup bacon grease
Kosher salt 
Fresh thyme

Place neck in a large roasting pan, rub down with bacon grease, and cover liberally with salt. Slap springs of thyme on it where meat is thickest. Roast at 450F uncovered for approximately 1 hour or until heavily browned, rotating the neck and pan as needed for uniform coverage.

Trimming the aged bits (for reference, the blade on that knife is 10" long):









Much better









Ain't that purty?









Mmmm...good stage to steal a few snackins here and there. A bit chewy, but worth it.









Part 2: The Vegetables

5 white onions, chopped
2 lbs celery, chopped
2 lbs carrots, chopped
2 leeks, chopped
2 heads garlic
1/2 cup bacon grease
Kosher salt

In a large roasting pan (or three...) toss the chopped veggies and garlic heads with the bacon grease and liberally sprinkle with salt. Spread out the veggies until roughly 1 layer thick and roast for 1 hour at 450F or until heavily browned. Stir 1-2x to ensure even coverage, but don't mess with it too much or you'll screw up your caramelization.




























Part 3: Bring it together

1 gallon apple cider
2 quarts ice
1/2 bottle pinot grigio
1/2 bottle pinot noir
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup dried wild mushrooms (I used a mixture of oysters, porcini, shiitake, and black trumpets)
Fresh thyme (just plop a ton in)
1 bunch chives, chopped
6 bay leaves
4T whole black peppercorns
4T whole coriander seeds
1 tsp celery seeds
Remaining tongue poaching liquid

Combine liquids (but not the ice), dried mushrooms, and seasonings in a large stock pot (or two or three...), add vegetables and allow to simmer for 6-8 hours--DO NOT BOIL, YOU IMPATIENT MONSTER! Strain and discard vegetables. Add the ice to bring the temp below 100F* then add the neck bones, adding water as needed to cover the bones as much as possible. Bring to a simmer (if you boil this liquid, so help me Cthulhu I'm gonna...). Allow to simmer for 36-48 hours adding water as necessary to keep bones covered. Over the 48 hours I cooked my broth I added approximately 8 gallons of water to the pots. By the end, the bones should be mostly bare of meat and cartilage. Strain, cool, and store (can it, freeze it, or fridge for 7 days) or you can further reduce it by simmering until it is thick to take up less space and just reconstitute it later when you go to use it (again, do not boil it, that will make it bitter and off ruining all the hard work you just did).

Periodically, while it is simmering you should pull the bones out to separate the vertebrae and expose the cartilage and connective tissues better, (helps it to fit in the pot better too). During these check ins, pull/scrape/trim off as much meat as possible and return it to the pot. The meat is pretty tasty for the first 12-18 hours of simmering if you want to snag it to eat, but after that all the flavor is gone from the meat having been absorbed by the broth and you can begin discarding the meat--but if you try to save all the meat while it is still tasty, the broth just won't be the same. Take care to keep as much of the cartilage and gooey bits going back into the pot, as this is what will eventually breakdown and give the broth its unctuousness and rich body.

*If you cannot keep the process going right away after adding the ice, continue to bring the temp down under 45F ASAP and refrigerate (7 days) or freeze for later use.










We're gonna need a bigger pot...(2.5 gal pot on the left btw)









About 6 hours in, getting better...









about 18 hours in









I was too tired last night to snap any pics of the strained final product, but I'll try to get some lovely meat jell-o pics of it when I get home tonight. Final yield is approximately 1 gallon, but I reduced it down such that it needs reconstituted by a ratio of 1:1.5 BBBB to water to be palatable as a soup base.

Gotta skim that scum and fat to reveal the goodness below









Much better









And here it is, in all of its glory









This stuff is powerful. Seriously rich and luscious. Sipping it down feels almost like drinking melted butter in the best sort of way, even after skimming out all of the fat. This stuff is gonna be fun to play with! I've got plans to turn part of it into a pho, maybe later some consomme, plus just adding bits of it to sauces and other liquids.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Critter said:


> Ya should of started with the liver and heart. :EAT:


I am not a liver fan--unless it is foie gras. Heart, rarely works for me either.

But in Ole Ugly's case, those were both decisions that were taken away from me when he refused to drop from the initial double-lung shot. His liver was a stringy mass of blackish goo (screwed up all my plans to grab the caul fat; i'm pretty pissed at that part still), and his heart was obliterated by the final shot.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

3arabians said:


> Not gonna lie, the look of that tongue before it's bath turned my stomach. But the end result doesn't look bad at all. I pulled the tongue from my buck this year and was ready to cook it but I just can't get past my initial fear and ended up chucking it. I'll eat the hearts and livers from my animals every time but for some reason the tongue messes with my head. I know it's a shame.
> 
> I'm looking forward to more of this thread.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Get over it. Seriously.

Over the past several years I have started enjoying eating wild game less and less, to the point really that I don't do roasts or steaks anymore--I need a steak or roast to have some fattiness to it to be able to really enjoy it. Now, for game meats I do a lot more burger, sausages, jerky or pastrami than I used to saving pretty much only the tenderloins from additional treatment (baby animals are the exception, as veal is fantastic regardless of species). The beauty with tongue is that all of that connective tissue provides a fatty/marbled like quality, that frankly, makes me think of good beef brisket--you know, not where it has been cooked to the point of falling apart, but where you can still get those nice slices. It is just stupid good, and one of the few cuts on wild game that I still truly enjoy it in a less processed form.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

johnnycake said:


> I am not a liver fan--unless it is foie gras. Heart, rarely works for me either.
> 
> But in Ole Ugly's case, those were both decisions that were taken away from me when he refused to drop from the initial double-lung shot. His liver was a stringy mass of blackish goo (screwed up all my plans to grab the caul fat; i'm pretty pissed at that part still), and his heart was obliterated by the final shot.


Ahhhh man. We need to get you to the shooting range along with getting you a Leupold scope. -8/-

The rest looks great.:hungry:


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

This is my favorite thread.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

What do you do when you want tacos de lengua, but don't have any tortillas and are too lazy to run get some? The obvious answer is to make nachos de lengua. I like my tacos/nachos de lengua to be pretty simple: (1) some chopped, seared tongue, after being simmered and prepared like shown above; (2) pico de gallo; (3) crumbled cotija cheese; and (4) corn tortilla chips and cheddar cheese or street taco tortillas. Avocados are great on tacos--but, personally, I think tongue is fatty enough without them, and the same goes for sour cream.










Pico de gallo:
1lbs of roma or grape tomatoes, small dice
1 medium red onion, small dice
1-3 serrano chilis 
4 cloves garlic, minced
3-6 limes, juiced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped (with stems)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
Kosher salt to taste

First, roast the serrano chilis until well blackened. This can be done on the grill, under the broiler, or you can do it in a saute pan with some bacon grease in it. Set aside to cool, and once cooled peel the outside layer off. Give the chilis a rough chop and then use the knife to smear them into a paste.

Chop the onion, tomatoes, garlic, and cilantro and combine in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the lime juice, cumin, coriander, and salt (don't be shy with the salt either). Add the chili paste to taste, depending on how mild or spicy you like things. When everything is combined and given a good mix, check seasonings. The lime should be very aggressive, especially when the pico is going to be paired with a fattier meat like tongue. Allow pico to sit for 15-20 mins before eating to allow the flavors to marry. This will keep in the fridge about 2 days before it starts looking a bit sad, but you can also pop it in the blender and make a pureed salsa if chunky isn't your style.










Tongue prep for tacos or nachos:
1/4 bison tongue for 2-3 people (would make about 8 street tacos worth of meat)
2T bacon grease
1/2 lime

Slice the tongue against the grain in 1/8" thick slices. I like to make the pico, not clean the board, and then slice the tongue as this puts just a bit of extra seasoning on the tongue before it hits the pan. 









In a heavy skillet, put in the bacon grease and turn the heat to high and wait until the pan is almost smoking before adding the slices of tongue. If you put them in a single layer around the pan you'll get a better sear and be much happier with the end result. Flip once, and it should take only about 3 mins per side, or less, to get a nice caramelization on the tongue slices.










Remove the slices from the heat and return to the cutting board. After letting the slices sit for a couple mins, give them a rough chop










From there, you should know what to do. If you don't know how to assemble a plate of nachos or a taco, you have bigger problems to resolve before tackling tongue.


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

It all looks good! but that Tongue looks tasty, "Bison lengua tacos" or what! now I am hungry too bad I cant get a hold of bison, thanks for sharing


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

*The artistry of controlled spoilage: Tenderloin Day 40*

I'm pretty excited about this portion of my Bison Breakdown. Warning, this particular dry-aging technique requires either massive amounts of luck, or significant dry aging experience + lots of effort + considerable amounts of luck.

After drawing my tag I knew I would have a fall season and a winter season, and so I began to scheme. As long as the weather was cooperating and I shot my bull during the fall, I was going to dry age the backstraps and tenderloins. Mainly, since I intended to shoot as old a bull as I could (except for maybe a tiny calf on the last day in March if need be...) I figured the steak quality would be a bit subpar based on the chewiness of certain +12 year old cow bison and bulls I have had the _opportunity_ to test my jaws against. When I ended up shooting a dinosaur bull estimated to be +16 years old, this absolutely seemed like the right approach.

Dry aging is a very old preservation technique, and there have been a number of threads about it on the forum, with excellent information for anybody who is interested. There are two goals with dry aging: 1) improve/enhance the flavor of the meat; and 2) break down the tissue to have a more tender end product. Typically, it is recommended to dry age high quality cuts of meat that have lots of internal marbling and external fat where possible, to help avoid drying out the cut. Also, as there is trim loss you should use as large a primal cut as possible, and trim into steaks/roasts after the desired aging period is concluded.

In order to properly dry age you need a space that you can consistently keep under the following conditions:

--Under 40F but above the temp at which the meat will freeze 
(Depends on the thickness, but in my experience red meat in whole roast sized chunks usually doesn't completely freeze in temps over 25F)

--Humidity between 60-80% 
(this is a huge factor as too dry and you'll lose too much weight too fast and it won't be as tender or flavorful as you want; too humid and you risk spoilage and unwanted fungal or bacterial growth; target moisture related weight losses between 10-40% are pretty normal depending on how long you are aging the cut)

--Good air circulation
(helps to develop the proper crust and regulate both moisture loss rates and fungal development)

--Somewhere that doesn't already have harsh/unwanted smells, but is a relatively closed and protected environment
(the meat is going to be "marinating" in that air for weeks or months even, if you have a lot of chemicals/etc that you can smell in the location you probably want to choose somewhere else)

Most people, and as far as I know ALL commercial, choose to dry age in a dedicated refrigerator set up for this purpose, and it's pretty easy to google and see what people like to do for this. This allows for rigid control of the environment to ensure you don't lose the cut to spoilage. It's been about 12 years since I last did any serious dry aging, but between restaurant work and culinary school I have done quite a lot of it in the past, and all of it done in refrigerators/walk-in coolers. There are also some interesting products out there like UMAi bags that while I have not used myself, seem to work well enough I might give it a go sometime.

This time, I wanted to go au naturale. It is a lot riskier and requires a greater level of effort to monitor the conditions and progress. However, it is something I have wanted to try for a very long time and I suspected that it would potentially yield a better/more unique end flavor profile--similar to the way that a sourdough starter/mother created in one place can taste radically different from one done somewhere else. While there are many products you can buy to do testing for presence of certain fungi or bacteria, I have elected to rely on a timeless method that is surprisingly reliable: the smell test and visual inspection. Good dry aged meat should smell pleasantly musky, nutty, meaty, and a bit funky--but in the best way like a sharp or hard cheese does.

*My Process*
Other than removing the backstraps and tenderloins from the spinal column, no additional trimming was done prior to wrapping and hanging the cuts. Due to bullet damage, one of the tenderloins was divided in 2 portions, but otherwise the loins and other tenderloin were kept whole. I began dry aging the cuts on 10/30/19, 4 days after I killed Ole Ugly. The tenderloin starting weights were 2lbs 4oz, 2lbs 12oz, and 5lbs 4oz; the loins were 18lbs 6oz and 18lbs even.

I chose to loosely wrap each piece in cheesecloth to allow for additional dust/contaminant protection as well as to take the opportunity to impart some flavor by spraying white whine (a 2017 Matervitae Fiano that is very fruity with strong pear notes and has quickly become a regular in my cooking). I figured the initial spray with a follow up treatment or two would assist in controlling any rogue fungi/bacterial contaminants that I might encounter. As of now, I only did 1 follow up misting on day 7, using 2 oz of the white wine to spritz the pieces evenly.

After wrapping, I did some sloppy roast trussing as it was almost midnight, 30F, and I just needed to get it up in the shed. I did not have any good wire racks to set the cuts on, so I fashioned some rigging in a shelf of my shed and did my best to suspend the cuts in the space available, and lay out cardboard underneath to help with the cleanup afterwards. The pictures aren't great, nor was it ideal, but I was satisfied it was good enough.










My shed is a simple, uninsulated, painted plywood and 2x4 10x12 shed with an aluminum roof. It is drafty and is placed in a spot that gets very little direct sunlight from November to January. I keep coolers, kid's yard toys, some hunting and fishing gear in there, but no chemicals/fuel. It generally smells like the air outside, and I figured that would be perfect as long as I could keep the temperatures in check.

A couple weeks ago I got nervous as we had low temps in the low teens and single digits 
with highs in the low 20s. At one point, the tenderloins froze completely and I figured I was done, but as the temps jumped up into the high 30s and low 40s the next day I monitored the conditions of the cuts to see if there was any excessive moisture release, but there wasn't. So, on a whim I decided to continue the experiment and run a little buddy heater as needed to keep temps above 25F. So far my daily temperature checks have had a range inside the shed between 8 and 38F with an average of 33F. My average daily humidity has been steady at 70% with very little daily variations. My goal is to be able to push some of the cuts out as far as 90 days if I can manage, and I might need to find a new location here soon as temperatures have begun to drop.

On 12/8/19 I decided it was time to see if this experiment has been a success or a failure. So I took the smaller of the two tenderloin chunks and brought it in the house. 40 days of dry aging gave it a weight of 1lbs 11oz, so a moisture related loss of about 25%. I was a bit nervous as its appearance in the cheesecloth did not look like what I was expecting, and I feared some spoilage had occurred even though the smell test was lovely.










And after unwrapping it, my fears were entirely unjustified. The exterior was a lovely dark mahogany color, with a mostly dry but slightly oily/tacky surface.



















Relief quickly turned into excitement as I began to trim off the crust, revealing a deep purple/red meat color inside



















Trimming the crust caused a "loss" of 5 oz, with three final steaks in the 6-8oz range and one baby 2oz steaklet.



















With a liberal coating of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper I let a 6oz steak and the steaklet come up to room temp for 45 mins, vacuum packing and freezing the other two steaks for later.

Gave it a hard sear in a little bacon grease on all sides:










then finished it in the oven at 425F for 7 minutes until the internal temp reached 115F, then I let it rest for 5 minutes.










This results in a fantastic "black-and-blue" rare steak that I prefer--but admittedly, black-and-blue can often come out too rubbery/raw if the steak isn't of high enough quality.










Holy balls. This steak simply is perfect--and I am not a filet mignon/tenderloin guy anymore as I really "need" fat on a steak to enjoy it these days. The texture is unquestionably raw/extremely rare, but it still is only just barely holding together akin to a pot roast. Literally fork tender, and basically teeth not required, but without being mushy and still being "steak" textured. The flavor is intense. Very concentrated meatiness, with a hard parmesan/pecorino/padano cheese tone to it that is musky, nutty, and fruity even. Zero unpleasant gamey or off flavors, but also clearly not beef (nor like any of the bison I have eaten domestic or wild). I have yet to eat any beef or wild game that comes close to being this robust in flavor. I am floored.

It took every scrap of will power I had to not cook up the rest of the trimmed steaks right then and there and gorge myself, and then grab the other chunk of tenderloin that is out there hanging still! I did manage to resist though, and the other chunks are still pleasantly aging away, but I do plan to grab the other tenderloin next weekend and see if day 47 somehow could possibly beat day 40. I expect it will be indistinguishable but we'll see. The loins, however, I'm really aiming to hit a minimum 60 days before I try one of them.

As for the trimming scraps, I have saved those and will use them up in a few ways. Some of it I will pack in kosher salt and then grind into a powder to use as a seasoning salt, and the rest will likely find ways into burger grinds, sausages, and as flavoring agents to sauces and soups. Basically, all things that I want the flavor of it, but am able to mitigate the tougher/dry texture of the trim.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

Dang son! I take back almost all the bad things I've said about you. 

That is simply...amazing.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Ummm.... I’m floored. That looks and sounds incredible. Beautiful cook on the meat too. Jealousy level is high


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

I forgot to add (or take a picture) but I did prepare a nice buerre blanc sauce to go with the steak. Basically, take the pan after you sear the steak and lightly caramelize some minced shallots (or onions if you feel like being a peasant). Deglaze with 1 cup of white wine (again, I used that Fiano), and allow it to reduce on medium heat until it is au sec ("almost dry" for the dirty commoners like Vanillabean), should be about 1T of syrupy liquid. Turn off the heat and allow to cool down for 5 minutes; you need the pan to be warm enough to slowly melt butter, but not so hot that the butter emulsion breaks (basically, you should be able to comfortably touch the liquid in the pan with your finger and then use that to taste test it without burning yourself). Take 4T of cold butter in equal chunks and add to the pan, swirling vigorously until all the butter is fully incorporated into the sauce. This should take several minutes and hurt your arm. Stirring typically just doesn't work as well as a big swirl, and your butter is melting too fast if you see the sauce looking "oily" instead of creamy. Once the butter is fully incorporated place in a room temp dish immediately and adjust the salt as needed. Many a buerre blanc has broken and died on the careless cook who held it too long in the pan trying to get the seasoning right. You have been warned. 

The sauce was completely unnecessary for the steak, but hot dam! It was a perfect opulence to pair with an already excessively elitist steak.


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

Wow! I don’t know what to say! Just WOW!! 


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

Now you go and ruin a perfectly good steak with a sauce, and I’m back to hating you again.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Vanilla said:


> Now you go and ruin a perfectly good steak with a sauce, and I'm back to hating you again.


There are sauces that are perfectly acceptable to accompany any steak of even the highest quality (see: bearnaise, buerre blanc, buerre rouge, bordelaise, maltaise, grimrod, etc). Then there are things like A-1.

A proper sauce on a high caliber steak is like the right lingerie on a woman. It should only serve to enhance the experience and not be distracting or otherwise get in the way of the task at hand.


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Looks incredible!


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

johnnycake said:


> There are sauces that are perfectly acceptable to accompany any steak of even the highest quality


Agree to disagree.

Which in American plain speak, that equals: "You are wrong!"


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Vanilla said:


> Agree to disagree.
> 
> Which in American plain speak, that equals: "You are wrong!"


May I remind you of the old Greek tale involving a fox and certain grapes that were out of his reach?


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

johnnycake said:


> May I remind you of the old Greek tale involving a fox and certain grapes that we're out of his reach?


Don't try to confuse me with complicated fables! You should know by now that I don't know how to read.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Vanilla said:


> Don't try to confuse me with complicated fables! You should know by now that I don't know how to read.


Sorry Shaun


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

Interesting thought on the dry trimmings. Was there any mold/goo going on with them? A little mold/crust isn't abnormal, just never thought about repurposing. 

Don't worry about using french words. I understand them. Use them frequently, because for their shortcomings. They know how to cook. I had two invites to go learn bread baking there. Wouldn't have worked, but man I loved the food there, and the bread, and the cheese. 

I haven't been a big fan of bearnaise. I'm interested in the choice of white whine vs red wine in the spraying. Conventional thought would say red, so why the choice for white? Just trying to lighten it up a little bit with the heavy (in a good way) and rich red meat? 

I gotta think you could have done a serious pan sauce with a little of the bone broth or consume you made earlier. But I'm not a wine guy.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

caddis8 said:


> Interesting thought on the dry trimmings. Was there any mold/goo going on with them? A little mold/crust isn't abnormal, just never thought about repurposing.
> 
> Don't worry about using french words. I understand them. Use them frequently, because for their shortcomings. They know how to cook. I had two invites to go learn bread baking there. Wouldn't have worked, but man I loved the food there, and the bread, and the cheese.
> 
> ...


I wish I could lay claim to using the trimmings as an original thought, but I was taught to do that by my charcuterie instructor during culinary school, who was taught it by some other old guy decades before, etc. It makes for an excellent seasoning salt/rub addition.

My crust did not have any visible mold on it. That isn't to say there wasn't/isn't some as the only way to be sure would be to run some swabs and test them. I have had mold form at times, and other times not, it is kind of hit and miss. I would guess that the overall cooler temps and low humidity outside kept spores tamped down and decreased the likelihood of colonization before a crust had formed and was too dry for it to take hold.

My crust was mostly dry, but slightly oily/tacky in some spots. Some amount of "sweating" is pretty normal during the process. This is where packing trimmings in salt to then repurpose them is handy. It finishes the drying out process and allows you to turn it into a powder for use in whatever way you want, and eliminates any "ick" factor to the texture. I've done this moldy/slimy trimmings too, as long as they pass the smell test.

Classic bearnaise with just tarragon is good, but not jaw dropping IMO. However, when you start monkeying with it a bit and doing non-traditional things like sweating/caramelizing the shallots and tarragon in the same pan that you seared the meat in, and then deglaze it and use that pan to also melt your butter before whipping it into the egg yolks, it can get pretty magical. Same goes for basically all of the mother sauces really.

I used the white wine both for the spritzing and for the sauce for a few reasons:

One, I think the classic trope of white wine only with fish/pork/poultry and red wine or red meat is narrow minded and misses out on some great pairings.

Two, I did not want the red wine to stain the crust and possibly create a false illusion of the desired dark mahogany color to the meat--I use that color as a pretty important gauge that the aging process is going correctly and the product is safe. Green CAN be ok...but IMO, green tinge/grayness requires lab results before I feel comfortable serving it to anybody but myself. I take a lot of leeway with my own body, as from experience I have a scrap iron indigestion system, having never had an issue with things like tap water in third world countries, muddy puddles in the woods/mountains w/out a filter, street food in questionable parts of Mexico, etc. even when other people around me eat/drink the same thing and end up coming down with e. coli, salmonella, giardia, trichinosis, or other parasites even. In some of my circles it has become a running joke that just because I can eat it and be fine, that is no indication of safety for human consumption.

Three, I wanted any flavor imparted from the spritzing to be light and not take over the natural environment or the meat itself--and yes, there are reds that would also strike this balance, but like I said, I'm a bit obsessed with this Fiano these days.

Finally, specifically for the use of the Fiano in a buerre blanc as opposed to a buerre rouge with a pinot noir or Malbec, I made it in the searing pan only after sampling the steak. The steak stands on its own unquestionably, but there is something to be said about adding a pop of acidity to a rich, intense cut of meat that makes the end result greater than the sum of its parts.


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Sounds delicious! Glad you finally got to the real meat of the subject ;-)


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

johnnycake said:


> I wish I could lay claim to using the trimmings as an original thought, but I was taught to do that by my charcuterie instructor during culinary school, who was taught it by some other old guy decades before, etc. It makes for an excellent seasoning salt/rub addition.
> 
> My crust did not have any visible mold on it. That isn't to say there wasn't/isn't some as the only way to be sure would be to run some swabs and test them. I have had mold form at times, and other times not, it is kind of hit and miss. I would guess that the overall cooler temps and low humidity outside kept spores tamped down and decreased the likelihood of colonization before a crust had formed and was too dry for it to take hold.
> 
> ...


The white wine makes total sense with the explanation of not wanting to affect color during the aging process. That makes a ton of sense.

I live in beef country and if someone asks for steak sauce it's almost as bad as saying that I don't follow Nebraska football- which I don't do carefully. Enough to sound like a local, but I haven't converted to the Church of the husker.

I'm very intrigued now in the dry age idea, and even saw an advertisement on a dry age bag. I've got a very large and tougher cow elk in my freezer from last year that could stand some tenderizing. I may play around a little with some as the temperature swings out here would not be ideal for dry aging, but I could get some fridge space to do that in a bag.

Personally, I'm not a filet guy- but that one was beautiful, but I would love to see what a New York, Ribeye, or Flatiron would do dry aged. New York is my favorite as the Ribeye has too much fat waste for my preference. New York fits the bill with good fat/meat ratio.

This is super interesting to watch and learn. Very cool stuff. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Speaking of charcuterie, did you consider doing something along the dry cured lines with this critter? I was in Germany/France in October visiting my parents and went to a few markets and some of those dried, cured old style meats were out of this world. It's on my list to do soon- dry cure some wild game charcuterie. For as many geese and pheasants I shoot, I've toyed with trying a terrine, mousse, or pate with goose/pheasant/pork liver. But I haven't had anything on this side of the pond that was as good as foie gras.

But you're getting my creative/culinary juices percolating. I'm not in your league, but that looks awesome.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

I was toying with the idea of making guanciale with the cheeks, but after skinning the head out in the middle of the night between working 18 hour days I just didn't have it in me. 

I got over 800 lbs of burger back from the processor (I thought it would be closer to 700) plus 40lbs each breakfast and Italian sausages and 30lbs of hotdogs for a friend. I gave away all but about 50lbs of the burger as I just don't need that much. I plan on converting some of that into bratwursts and salumi over the coming months, but we'll see how much time I have.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Bison guanciale sounds interesting and challenging. Cheek meat is the toughest meat on a bison. Its the muscle that is used the most on a grazing animal. 

This is my favorite thread.


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

johnnycake said:


> I was toying with the idea of making guanciale with the cheeks, but after skinning the head out in the middle of the night between working 18 hour days I just didn't have it in me.
> 
> I got over 800 lbs of burger back from the processor (I thought it would be closer to 700) plus 40lbs each breakfast and Italian sausages and 30lbs of hotdogs for a friend. I gave away all but about 50lbs of the burger as I just don't need that much. I plan on converting some of that into bratwursts and salumi over the coming months, but we'll see how much time I have.


How is the burger? With a dinosaur like that, I'm interested in that. Is there an gaminess to it?

How is the cane project going? Is it dried out and scraped?


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Goob, those cheeks were insanely hard/dense and present me is upset that past me was such a tired wuss and didn't bother to save them. They could have been a lot of fun. 

caddis8, I had the processor add 10% pork trim for some fat and do a double grind with a 1/4" plate. Texture is fine. Flavor is very mild. Given that this herd of bison spends a huge amount of their lives raiding fields of barley, alfalfa, wheat, and turnips I had very little concern that it would be gamey tasting--even as old as my bull was. Just tough. The burger is good, the italian sausage came out excellent with a nice burn to it, the breakfast sausage is pretty bland and will likely be repurposed at some point and if so, I'll put it up on here. 

The pecker project is frozen at the time being. Time being the operative word there. Before freezing it I trimmed off the meat at the base, and did some clean up of the rest of the tissue. I'm not exactly clear what all I "should" be skinning off his willy before I dry it though. I'll figure it out.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Uhhh be careful handling :Willy:


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Saturday was Day 46 and it looked pretty great on the bison tenderloin.



















This piece started out at 2lbs 12oz and weighed 1lbs 15 oz when I pulled it, so about 30% water loss. The color of the meat is noticeably more purple than red, and I had more trim loss proportionately to the cut from day 40. Trim losses here were 7.5 oz. There is a very slight difference in aroma, and flavor versus the cut from day 40. Day 46 is slightly "more" everything taste wise, but there was not a noticeable difference in tenderness. It is simply excellent.

I meant to pull the other whole tenderloin Sunday Day 47, but got distracted/lazy. I plan to grab it tonight on Day 48. I think for the tenderloin we've reached maximum improvement, and with humidity levels falling into the low 60s as winter sets in I will just be increasing weight losses without much/any improvements to flavor or texture.

I plan to pull one of the backstraps this coming weekend, and depending on the results there I will decide whether or not to continue aging the other one.


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## turkinator (May 25, 2008)

Awesome thread!! I love this side of harvest almost as much as the hunt. Thanks for the detailed post and sharing with us!


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Day 48 Dry Aged Tenderloin

I was gonna pull this on Day 47, but I was just too tired and lazy. So I grabbed it last night instead. This tenderloin was kept intact from start to finish and had an initial weight of 5lbs 4oz. 









After unwrapping, but before putting it on the scale, it was very obvious that this cut had dried out much faster than the other two pieces.



















Putting it on the scale showed it weighed 4lbs 7oz after 48 days, so about a 35% weight loss. I had a much thicker crust to trim off it as well.

When I first wrapped it I failed to notice there were some areas with blood pooling in the tissue due to bullet damage, but it was readily apparent during the trimming process. This led to additional trim loss as the blood did not drain properly and caused unpleasant off-odors to develop in that portion of the meat. Thankfully, that area was mostly isolated to the "chain" of the primal cut which has a lot of connective tissue and small pockets of meat here and there. You can see the small random chunks that I recovered from this region in the upper left corner.










Total trimmed weight of the steaks came out at 2lbs 4oz. As this trim had a lot more connective tissues and the off-odor blood pooling I did not salvage it.

The steaks came out beautiful: deep purple, bold cheesy/meaty aroma, with a pleasant but assertive tang to the taste. This is meat for the true meat lover, and even then it is a steak that you take your time eating to avoid being overwhelmed by the flavor. Tenderness is excellent and seems to be identical to Days 40 and 46.










I would struggle to say I like Day 40 vs 46 vs 48 more than any of the other days (46 and 48 taste indistinguishable). However, based on Day 48's tenderloin I will probably pull the first backstrap before this weekend. I'm confident the flavor and tenderness is where I want them to be, and am curious where the drying weight loss is for the backstraps. There's no sense in decreasing the yield if I'm already satisfied with the results. Plus, we're supposed to get into the mid-teens later this week and I'm getting tired of getting up in the middle of the night to turn the buddy heater on!


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

Look at the marbling! That is a beautiful piece of meat. So how deep did the blood pooling go into the meat to trim around? Lots more trimming to be sure. Do you think that is a function of the tenderloin being whole vs somewhat trimmed on the other one? Clearly the blood pooling caused more trimming/loss, but it's interesting that the crust was, as I understand it, thicker, thus more trimming.

Very cool.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

caddis8 said:


> Look at the marbling! That is a beautiful piece of meat. So how deep did the blood pooling go into the meat to trim around? Lots more trimming to be sure. Do you think that is a function of the tenderloin being whole vs somewhat trimmed on the other one? Clearly the blood pooling caused more trimming/loss, but it's interesting that the crust was, as I understand it, thicker, thus more trimming.
> 
> Very cool.


The blood pooling was mostly in the connective tissues between the chain and the tail of the tenderloin, and I suspect it was mostly due to bullet shock/trauma. However, the blood provided an environment of unpleasant odors/flavors (think sweaty feet/sour) in that area particularly.

The crust was no doubt thicker than the piece I pulled on day 46, and I really don't have a good idea why. The pieces were all right next to each other. This piece was less "exposed" than the day 46, and had other cuts on all sides around it. The humidity dropped from the 70s into the mid/low 60s but I don't think 2 days explained that much additional dry loss. Whatever the reason, it is what it is.

We'll see what the backstraps look like.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Many have not enjoyed the flavor of trully dry aged beef, my wife doesnt care for it, I think its heavenly, thats some good looking meat there Johnny


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## waspocrew (Nov 26, 2011)

Holy crud, those steaks look amazing!


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Dunkem, yep, it is one of those things that people love or just can't wrap their heads around. IMO, properly dry aged steaks are meat for those that truly love MEAT. It's the kind of steak that won't let you just hork it down in two minutes and forces you to take your time and enjoy it slowly.



waspocrew said:


> Holy crud, those steaks look amazing!


I bet they'd taste pretty good on an elk or deer hunt at your family's place in Wyoming too


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## waspocrew (Nov 26, 2011)

johnnycake;2153891
I bet they'd taste pretty good on an elk or deer hunt at your family's place in Wyoming too ;)[/QUOTE said:


> I think you're on to something there! :grin:


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

*Day 52 Sirloin*

Whelp, I got over some laziness and grabbed one of the backstraps Friday night on Day 52.

This piece started out at 18lbs even. I was expecting some pretty significant drying loss based on the tenderloin I pulled on day 48, but was surprised to see I only had drying losses of 25% on this cut. Not really sure why, but maybe it has to do with the thicker layers of connective tissue/silverskin on the the backstrap retaining moisture better?










It's a beauty no doubt.



















Trim losses weren't too bad either, totaling 1lbs 2 oz leaving me with about 12lbs 8oz in steaks ranging from 4 oz to 16 oz.



















The little steaklet I seared up and sampled was unsurprisingly excellent. Tender, but toothsome. Deep meaty flavor with a pleasant tangy-musky-cheesy tone to it.

I don't know that I'm going to be able to go back to un-aged meat after this. I should end up with close to 30lbs of dry aged steaks from Ole Ugly, hopefully that will get me through the winter! I decided to keep pushing the other backstrap and get it past 60 days at least. The temps have dropped into the single digits/low teens the past few days and I'm going through a lot of propane to keep that cut from freezing though. It's almost time to call it done. Almost.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

I think I’ve been looking forward to the updates to this thread more than Christmas itself. Those steaks are beautiful.


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

What did you do for the sauce? Anything? Did you find any surprises in texture/tenderness vs tenderloins? To be sure, there will be some differences because of the difference of cut, but wondering if there was any other noticeable differences. Interesting on the trim/dry loss. Very cool.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

caddis8 said:


> What did you do for the sauce? Anything? Did you find any surprises in texture/tenderness vs tenderloins? To be sure, there will be some differences because of the difference of cut, but wondering if there was any other noticeable differences. Interesting on the trim/dry loss. Very cool.


The tenderloins felt like they were on the verge of falling apart, and the sirloin while very tender, didn't feel like that. The sirloins are still about as tender as a calf elk tenderloin for reference. The flavor on this backstrap is a bit less assertive than the tenderloin from day 48.

No sauces on the little steaklet. I finished cutting up the backstrap around midnight and was pretty tired.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Christmas Breakfast was very merry indeed.

52-day dry aged sirloin, salt+black pepper, then seared in butter with thyme and sage and finished in the oven to a beautiful rare.

Not pictured is the bearnaise style sauce made by deglazing the pan with a splash of Fiano wine, then whipping/drizzling the drippings and searing butter into 2 egg yolks and adding a touch of lime juice to brighten it up.

Counts as "steak and eggs" in my book 










A good crust is key


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

JC, have I ever told you how much I hate you?

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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Well...here we are folks. The last of Ole Ugly is finally in the freezer. After subtracting the days that it was frozen solid in the shed, this cut of backstrap was dry aged for 126 days.



















I let it go that long in part due to laziness, and mostly due to needing to make room in the freezer to fit the trimmed steaks!

The initial piece started at 18lbs 6oz. After aging, it weighed just under 13lbs so ~30% drying loss. But, the trim losses on this one were pretty significant compared to the other one, and I ended up with only 9lbs 3 oz of usable steak. 50% yield on the money.

I didn't take a picture of the test cutlet I ate last night, but intense is not sufficient to describe it. It is strong, pungent, and deeply meaty in the best possible way. And the texture is almost too tender really. These are not steaks that I will be eating a 10oz cut in one sitting, as that would just be too overwhelming. I think these will be best used in appetizer style applications as it is so powerful.

Am I glad I pushed it that long? Yep (just don't ask me how much propane I had to burn to keep that shed over 25F in -20F temps!). Will I push a cut of game that far again? Probably not. I think the 40-60 day range is ideal for my tastes.

There will still be other things I add to this thread (I've got some cased sausage plans in my head), I just have no idea when that will happen!


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

Nice! Do you give the trimmings to your dog(s)? Can they gut the concoctions that Johnny Frankenstein is cooking up? :grin: I'm not nearly as dedicated to the art of fine dining as you but when I cut and wrap an animal I throw every trimming I have into a crock pot/freeze it and feed it to my hounds over the course of a few months.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Airborne said:


> Nice! Do you give the trimmings to your dog(s)? Can they gut the concoctions that Johnny Frankenstein is cooking up? :grin: I'm not nearly as dedicated to the art of fine dining as you but when I cut and wrap an animal I throw every trimming I have into a crock pot/freeze it and feed it to my hounds over the course of a few months.


Some of these dry aged trimmings I saved and am using for broths and to season salts. It just kind of depends on the appearance/texture and tissue itself.

I don't usually feed my dog butchery scraps as I don't like dealing with the way it comes out the other end! But Ava manages to sneak enough of them (especially when i'm field dressing!) that she gets her tastes in.


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