doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Good lunches!

Moose is great. This is the first time that I've tried to make brats out of any of it. I'll have to find another recipe to try as this one is very plain tasting.

I did some bangers and mash a while back with some elk sausage I'd made that I thought was good also! There's a traditional English Pub in Coeur d' Alene that serves bangers and mash I've been meaning to visit to compare but haven't done so yet.

A little useless trivia on why bangers are called bangers! I was curious why they were called bangers and the explanation I read, indicated that, if memory, during WW2 (could have been WW1), with the short supply of meat during the war more fat was used in making them and they had a tendency to explode on cooking, thus the name banger!

Cameron,
That's what I was told by an English shooting friend of mine, seems correct.
Karl

I went moose hunting here back in the middle 90s. Colorado had opened a season up in North Park (in the Colorado State Forrest near Rand, Colorado) and in the 2nd year of that process I drew a tag for a cow. Back then, it was one and done (1 tag per hunter was it, no more moose after that) and it may still be that for all I know. I killed a nice young cow and brought her home. I took me 5-years to eat that moose. As Ms. Harrel says above, very "plain" tasting and a little chewy. I much prefer elk.

I've taken around 14 moose in 19 years. I've never had a chewy moose. Including two old bulls in the rut.

I still have some vacuum packed moose from 10/16 in Maine, been great and not all chewy. Favorite venison.

I've waffled back and forth as to which I like better between moose and elk. First bull moose I shot in AK, I remember thinking at the time, I think I like this better than elk! After moving back to Idaho and shooting a few cow elk. I determined, from personal tastes, it's a bit of a toss up between the two. However, I will say that I've eaten some rutting bull elk that were flavor wise, less than ideal and on the other hand, have shot and been in on the killing of some old rutting bull moose, one being a 68" heavy racked fellow that was just a tad bit tougher, not chewy at all, just a little tougher than some younger bulls, but had an excellent flavor. I think if I were to group big older rutting elk with big older rutting moose, the moose would win out, IMO!

I've contemplated the differences over the years, concerning the toughness of the meat and my conclusion is, right or wrong, elk are much more wary and excitable, move around in generally much more extreme terrain in general (think steep) and will spook and run for longer distances than moose, thus the differences in how tough the meat is. Again in general, you pop an elk and if it's not planted on the spot, it's off to the races! With a moose, if you pop one, it may stand there, making you think that you missed, so you pop it again and perhaps again until it falls over!

I've only tasted Moose once. Years ago a friend had brought a roast from a bull someone in his family had shot from his home in Maine. He invited us over to help him enjoy it. We could smell it from the driveway when we got to his house. Terrible fails to describe it. Of course it could have been the way it was prepared.

I've enjoyed the Elk I've eaten and I eat the Georgia deer I've been lucky enough to take. I'd try Moose again if the chance came up...Geo

Not likely down here though, unless maybe one escapes from a zoo.

A friend got a Colorado moose this year. I found the taste hard to distinguish from elk, maybe a little better. My working theory is the bigger the critter, the better it tastes. deer<elk<moose<bison. Pronghorn varies too much to get a ranking. I bet woolly mammoths were really good.

I know everybody involved was quite disappointed (I shared it equally with two of my helpers) as we'd also heard about how good moose should be. It was a younger cow (with a calf), the kill was very clean (head shot), and it didn't seem to be excited in any way before the shot. The hide was gorgeous (I donated it to a local fly shop to have it turned into fly-tying materials), and field cleaning it was a memorable experience (large in every dimension!). I don't know what I did wrong but...it wasn't great to eat. I know that the Shiras(?) animals are different from the Alaskan variants, perhaps that is why?