Step One, Step Two, Step Three

 Step One.  Find an elk to harvest.  This is not an easy quest.  Our horses and mules worked hard to get us up to the top of this ridge.  When we cut wolf tracks, I was certain the chances of running into elk were nil.  But, we found tracks.  Followed the track.  I got a good shot. 

Step Two.  Hang the butchered elk in a cool spot for a week or two.  This process of keeping meat cool but not frozen helps break the meat down into something more tender.  Like aging a steak (have you seen the price of aged beef???!!).  The hung meat begins to dry, enzymes and bacteria work away causing enhanced flavor and tenderizing.  Then one plops a quarter on one's large work space and begins cutting muscles sections away from the bone and away from each other.  

The first elk I killed, a small calf on the Elk Refuge way back in 1995, was my first attempt at home butchering.  I lived in a tiny A Frame house with no work space at all.  I had no idea what I was doing and as I recall, I made a mess of the thing.  Whatever they wanted to butcher an elk was fine with me, from that day forward. 

Happily, Mike has taken lots of elk I have killed to the butcher over the years.  The price per pound has inched its way up to be a fairly expensive endeavor, even without having to pay for the animal.  Of course, you do realize that is not a free elk pictured above.  The cost of the license, the conservation stamp, the day I took off work, the horses and mules that had to be fed and doctored are all real costs.  When you add all that up, well, that is one expensive elk!  

This year's elk, as seen above, was a one year old cow.  Not a calf, but pretty young.  She was small and I decided, why not?  I think I will butcher this one!  (With retirement less than six months away now, realizing that the pipe doling out bi-weekly pay checks is about to get shut off has made me even more thrifty-minded).  

So, there I was three nights ago, perched over a dry-skinned back quarter of an elk wondering where to begin.  There were YouTubes to watch which sort of helped.  Lacking much of a knife, the sharpening tool was close at hand.  I realized quickly that cutting the muscles from the bone and from each other was pretty cool and interesting and I needed to know what muscle was what.  Was that the round steak?  Which was the sirloin?  The pile of meat from a back quarter was impressive. 

Back quarter number two was tackled on Night Two.  I was pretty sure I found the tri-tip and pulled it for consumption for the following night.  Most chunks of muscle were just labeled as "Back Quarter" or "Front Quarter".  Last night's front quarter was a whole new set of muscles and bones - and not much meat.  

With a monster borrowed meat grinder, plans are to finish up the last front quarter tonight and start grinding.  One thing for sure, there is more meat harvested when one butcher's one's own elk.  There is a whole lot less burger from this elk.  Not much stew meat and many packages of unidentified muscle pieces!  

Here is the tri tip.  Dry marinated with a homemade rub of spices, it sat in the refrigerator during the day.  I did not have high hopes for deliciousness, but what a genuine surprise!!  This first piece cooked of elk meat was amazing.  A real treat, a real reminder of how rewarding it is to be a part of the whole thing - start to finish.  Thank you Miss Elk.  We appreciate the life you gave up so we may feast. There are many more feasts to come.  Pictured below; elk tri tip steak, homemade sourdough Seedie bread, broccoli from the garden, and potatoes from the store!