what do you do with your elk meat??

[sk1]

so I just shot my first elk yesterday and now I have a ton of meat.....Im used to whitetail hunting and when processing i usually do steaks, hamburger, and sausage mostly, with all this meat I wanted to see what other options are out there?

I'll be cutting up meat at work this thursday and friday, just trying to decide what cuts to make! Any suggestions?

I will post a brief story since its my first elk in a day or so, but im too exhausted right now.....18 inches of snow, 8 degrees, shot her at 2pm and last load to the truck around 430am

thanks for any suggestions!

 

[fillthefreezer]

like to wrap steaks from straps and tenders and keep everything else roasts for diversity later on. neck, rib, brisket end up 30% burger 40% breakfast sausage 15% summer sausage 15% pepperoni
sometimes roasts are stew meat, sometimes jerky, sometimes stay roasts, sometimes more burger

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Do a few roasts. I am going to try and smoke one of the roasts i have.

 

[Wrongside]

As many steaks and roasts as possible. The rest usually gets cubed for stews or ground for hamburgers, chilies, tacos, etc.

Congrats on your success!

 

[Shrek]

Congratulations , great problem to have !

 

[robby denning]

Congrats on the elk!

I age mine between 21 and 30 days before it sees the butcher knife.

 

[Ryan Avery]

If you have kids like mine! You make 75% of it into hamburger

 

[Ryan Avery]

+1 on the aging. 14+ days for Elk, 21+ for Deer. It makes a huge difference!

 

[lastcall]

What temperature do you age the elk, and skin on or off?

 

[Ryan Avery]

Ideal conditions 34-36 degrees. But I live in N. Idaho the temps run from 15 to 40 degrees in November. If the meat freezes a little at night it ok. You just don't want the temp much over 40 for very long. Skin off.

 

[orionthehunter1]

Ditto, mostly burger for my two little carnivores, also do steaks and a few packages of "chunks" for stews and chilis and what not

 

[Matt Cashell]

I have 5 kids, so it is almost all burger and sausage in our house.

 

[shaun]

Burger jerkey roasts mainly besides straps and loins of course

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

As much as possible goes to steaks for me (those go fast!) A few roasts and the rest I grind into hamburger.

 

[thru-hunter]

No luck on Elk yet but with moose I like Roasts. They freeze great and store easy. Best part is you can slice them up into steaks if desired or cut them up into stew meat chunks. You can pull a few out and grind them up into burger or drop em off at a butcher to be turned into specialty meats as needed. I like having the ability to spread out the costs of specialty meat processing so it isn't a massive bill all at once and usually roasts are significantly cheaper than other options. One thing about a roast is it can be turned into most of the other meats but there is no going the other direction!

 

[Backpack Hunter]

Steaks, roasts, cubed, hamburger, and sausage for me.

 

[sanchomaes]

Yep burger and steaks with occasional roast for me. Seems as though we have barely put a dent in the bull I tagged this year and we have been eating on him regular.

 

[huntwest]

We take the choice cuts and those turn into steaks. The rest turns into burger mixed with some beef fat.

 

[mtbshark]

ok so not to derail thread but of all you burger guys, how many of you mix with beef fat???

 

[sk1]

Thanks for the ideas sounds like I was on the right track, will probably add a few roasts to the mix

I was also considering beef fat for the hamburger but maybe I should try it without first