I come from a family of deliciously arrogant cooks. My Uncle Philip believes he makes Italian meatballs "the right way," and all other practitioners are creating abominations. My Granddad is the only one in the family capable of making "Granddad's Tomatoes," a oil and herb tomato salad. My father makes the best chocolate chip cookies. He has never once used a recipe, and I have never met a baker who can replicate them. He knows they are the best, and he relishes the fact that nobody can replicate him.
My specialty... grilled game meat. I always get a little nervous whenever somebody else grills my steak. There are few things that bring out an anal-retentive streak in me, but grilling game meat is one of them. You don't screw around with grilled game meat for a couple of reasons. First, a free and wild creature gave its life for your dinner; you better respect the animal by not ruining its meat. Second, when properly done, grilled elk, deer, or antelope steak is about as sublime as it gets. Game meat is lean, yet full of flavor, and the properly prepared steak is almost never tough, gamey, or otherwise unpalatable.
So how is it done? I am not a trained chef... and there may be techniques that accomplished chefs would eschew (I know my Uncle Phil would), but this works. I have cooked game meat this way for the accomplished palate and the neophyte game eater alike, and both sing the praises of the HHMM steak... (the implicit assumption is that these people aren't just being polite). I have had many wonderful game steaks cooked other ways than described below, but I still like my own recipe the best. Here is my approach:
Step 1. Harvest a game animal, then butcher the tasty critter yourself. A steak will taste much better if you do all the work to put it on your plate. In a pinch, commercially processed game meat or game meat from a friend will certainly get the job done.
Step 2. Baste all sides of a backstrap/loin (whole or cut into steaks), sirloin, or any steak-quality cut, with a mixture of:
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of Kosher salt
4-5 (or 8-10) cloves of chopped garlic
A bunch of course ground pepper
(note: I never measure anything when I am cooking meat, unless I am making a snooty French sauce to go on the meat. Quantities listed above are both approximate and relative).
Make sure you save any of the left over mixture.
Step 2. Start the fire. While your meat is resting on the counter in a bath of oil and spices, get charcoal going nice and hot, but only on one side of the kettle, as shown below. In my not-humble opinion, charcoal is the only proper way to grill a steak (remember what I said earlier about me and my family). Again, in a pinch, gas will work, but charcoal sears and browns the meat better, and it is easier to concentrate and control the heat by moving your meat relative to where your pile of coals sits. Whether you are using charcoal or gas, the only time you should clean your grate is when it is piping hot. Use only a wire brush and scrape the grease and crusties off from the previous cookout. The hot oils will quickly develop a patina on the metal, much like what is on cast iron cookware. This patina will prevent food from sticking on your grill, and who knows, maybe it adds to the flavor to have a homegrown seasoning on your cookware.
Step 3. Put the meat directly over the hot coals, where the heat is the most intense. You are going to sear the meat, which seals in juices and develops that wonderful browned meat flavor. The oil will help with this browning process by sizzling on the meat. It will also help prevent sticking, it will keep the meat (which has very little fat) from drying out, and olive oil tastes really darn good. Besides which, it helps with the patina described in step 2.
Step 4. After the meat is seared on to your satisfaction, take some of the remaining oil-seasoning mixture and baste it on the seared side. Once all sides are seared, move the meat off of the heat to the side of the grate with no hot charcoal underneath. Close the upper vents on your grill lid. Here you can cook more slowly, in the smoke of the charcoal until it is cooked to desired doneness (more on this later). Continue basting at regular intervals throughout the entire cooking process.
Step 5. Remove the meat from the grill a couple of minutes after your last basting. In my mind, the one easy way to ruin game steak is to overcook it. Cuts of meat with lots of connective tissue and sinew (i.e. neck meat, shoulder roast, shank meat), should be cooked very slowly at low temperature in a moist environment (i.e. braising). Steak and other cuts with low amounts of connective tissue are tender to begin with and should be cooked quickly over high heat, and they should never be cooked beyond medium rare, period. In my household, meat cooked beyond medium rare is known as "ruined." This is because the meat is dryer, has less flavor, and it starts to get more chewy, less tender. When I use a meat thermometer, I like to take the meat off at an internal temperature of 120 for "purple in the center" (which is delicious) or 130 - 135 for rare to medium rare, but make sure you calibrate your meat thermometer to your true desired doneness.
Step 6. Slice, serve, and enjoy. The outside of the slices should be a salty, garlicky shell around savory, succulent centers. This is as good as red meat gets. I think beef is greasy and flavorless in comparison. Wild meat is the King of steak meats. Doesn't that photo below make you want to bust out the best red wine in the cellar and celebrate? Yet, it only took a few minutes to prepare and cook... The flavors are simple, yet full. Olive oil, salt, and garlic cooperate quite nicely with these meats. (Actually that steak was slighltly over-done for my taste, but it was really darn good!).
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