Antelope Meat

[Flatlandr]

Hopefully in a few weeks I will be bringing back some Antelope to share with family & friends. I have tried it twice, ground both times, and thought it was delicious. I have also heard many say they wouldn't give a dime a pound for it. I am a firm believer in not wasting & for caring for the meat by keeping it clean, dry, etc. Besides that what do you seasoned lope hunters do to make it the best it can be?
Do you grind all of it or?
When you grind do you mix any beef or pork fat with it?


It will probably be a week after the kill before I can get home to process it, will that be a problem? I will be doing the processing myself and will only be using a knife, no saws.

Thanks for your thoughts,
Mark

 

[marlinmark]

I too am hunting lopes this next week. I have learned from others that it really depends on whether or not the animals are getting into farmers alfa and such. If the critters are on a strict "wild" diet then they are not the best around. An old ranchin' woman said that "When they're good you wish they were as big as an elk. But, when they're bad your dog won't eat'em."

If mine is to gamey/sagey then I will simply grind it 1:3 with pork butts. I make kielbasa with pork butts and throwing in some antelope will be easy enough. Some breakfast sausage 1:3 the same way.

Good luck hunting,

Mark

"When there's lead in the air, there's hope."

 

[marlinmark]

If the meat is clean and in water tight plastic submerged in ice then 1 week is no big deal. But, don't let the animal hang. Get the hide off and bone it out now. Get the meat on ice asap.

Mark

"When there's lead in the air, there's hope."

 

[sageadvice]

marlinmark,

Howdy, There was a post a few months ago about this very subject and i too quoted a rancher lady that i met while asking permission to hunt. She told me word for word exactly what you said above. Not that it matters much but i'm wondering if by chance, you had met the same lady or did you just borrow the story from my months ago post?

Joey

 

[Naildriver]

Makes good sausage. This year wanna try ground with pork fat. Ditto boning out and on ice ASAP.

 

[treedagain]

goats are some of the best eating, cool them off and you will be fine.

 

[Adventurewriter]

Seems to be each indivudual animal. I have eaten off of probably 40 Antelope over the years and had about two that were gamy. One was a meduim sized buck walking along opening morning one shot and he dropped....no stress....not running...cold morning. I had the hide off quickly and drove straight home and he was cut up by noon and he was really bad. But for the most part it is really delicious in my book.

 

[Lv2hnt]

As most of you know, it's most important to get the meat rinsed CLEAN before you put it in the ice chest. Our best meat has been the result from NOT handling the skinned carcass with gland-tainted hands ...

Lv2hnt

 

[firecapt186]

This year will be my first ever antelope hunt but, I have eaten it and to me it taste like white-tail deer. I grind all my own game and usually one batch will be 25#'s of meat and 6#'s of bacon. I get 2 3# boxes of ends and pieces for from Wal Mart.
For regular ground meat I mix some beef brisket or beef fat with mine to give it a beefy taste and to help it stick together.

 

[hoot11]

I use a small amount of beef fat. But i also put in about five pounds of bacon ends. It is the best burgur you will ever eat.

 

[TylerT]

Any one hunting the Plateau unit this weekend?

 

[rifleman]

never had elk, but i rank my favorite red meat:
1.antelope
2.mule deer
3.whitetail

i'lve killed about 10 lopes and they've always been good. one thing for sure, its one of the most tender wild game meats.

 

[Wiszard]

I've eaten a lot of antelope and it only tastes bad when I over cook it on the BBQ. It needs to be eaten medium rare IMO. I love the burger basted with Beer, worshestershire sauce, butter over red oak. I make patties and then throw them on the Q. Baste it the entire time its cooking. Nothing better and I'll stand by that statement. I've never thrown out any antelope. I love it.

Steve

 

[5yearcoueshunter]

Has anyone ever had any experience with comparing Antelope meat from state to state? The only Antelope I've eaten have been from NM and they have all been excellent. I have a friend that has shot some in Wyoming eating off sage, (No alfalfa) and he didn't like them much. In NM, we really don't have too much sage but more desert grass and forbs.

 

[Cozmo8]

I love it also but have not tried what a lot of you have suggested. Thanks for the new ideas.

 

[kilowatt]

LAST EDITED ON Aug-12-08 AT 08:41PM (MST)[p]I went Lope hunting last year for the first time and got a Buck in WYO and after following the instructions that I was told beforehand, it came out excellent tasting meat.

MAIN THING, get the hide off and wash it down good, no hair, dirt or blood left on the carcass and COOL THE MEAT down before covering it up. I gutted the lope, caped it out and washed the whole carcass down with about 5 bottles of drinking water wiping the blood etc out as I did. Let the wind cool the meat down and then bagged it up in a Elk heavy bag, half size.

Next morning I drove to the meat processor in Green River and had the whole thing ready the next morning to head home with. Got DRY ICE in Evansville and made it all the way home in two days and still cold.

My wife and I both liked the taste and so did the neighbors, want me to hunt more Lopes. LOL
Just remembered one thing too, the Meat Processor recommended that I USE NO pork or beef by product to the Lope meat, siad it will taste better and still holds together when cooking burgers and he was right.
Brian

 

[Adventurewriter]

LAST EDITED ON Aug-13-08 AT 06:36AM (MST)[p]Wizard make a point worht repeating. Over cooking is the death of tasty wildgame particually Antelope IMO

Anybody have any thoguhts running/stressed animals opposed to relaxed animals.

 

[madmoose]

we gut and bone out immediately. we have steaks made from as much as we can then grind the rest.. i find antelope to be great tasting meat. i would take a pronghorn steak over a whitetail any day of the week.

 

[firecapt186]

LAST EDITED ON Aug-13-08 AT 08:55AM (MST)[p]>LAST EDITED ON Aug-13-08
>AT 06:36?AM (MST)
>
>Wizard make a point worht repeating.
> Over cooking is the
>death of tasty wildgame particually
>Antelope IMO
>
>Anybody have any thoguhts running/stressed animals
>opposed to relaxed animals.


Here in La., like in most of the south, it's legal to run deer with hounds. To me, the meat is a lot tougher. If I do kill a deer that was ran by dogs I grind the whole thing up into hambuger or sausage.

 

[Wiszard]

I've never shot at a running animal so I would not know about the taste but I have heard that certain hormones are displaced throughout the muscle that will stay in the meat if shot while distressed. Who know's for sure? It makes sense to me though.

Steve

 

[RELH]

I have shot them after they have been running for over a 1/2 mile and while standing still. Could not tell any difference in taste or toughness. As been stated in here, the main thing is to get them skinned out and cooled down and kept clean. I start the skinning process within ten minutes of dropping the animal. You also do not need to add any pork or beef fat for good taste, unless you want to make some into a breakfast sausage. My whole family will select antelope over vension if given the choice and that includes the antlelope taken in wyoming that have been eating sage brush.

RELH

 

[Flatlandr]

Thanks for all of the responses. Sounds like I was on the right track & will leave the pork / beef out of most of it, gotta try a little just because.
Mark

 

[vitalzone]

Your in for a real treat,best meat I have tried,cape it immediatly,skin it, cut off the hind quarters the shoulders the back straps and neck and other trimmings,put in plastic bags as soon as you remove each piece and on ice in coolers immediatly. No need to gut or cut out loins,to small to worry about.Oh yeah no fur on any meat at all. Enjoy

 

[Willy_P]

The antelope I have been eating off and on over the last 25 years have all been off BLM range land and live on sage and a little over dried grass! My wife and one of my daughters will not eat whitetail I kill here at home that live on corn! They like antelope pretty well! If I lived in WY I would just about give up eating beef and kill all the speed goats I could legally for meat! I slice up the backstraps into little fillets that are thick, put a little course pepper and terriaki sauce on them and a wrap of bacon around it that I pin on with a toothpick and charcoal them. It is like goat in that you can get it too done really quick and it becomes dry. A little pink in the middle and that is all you want to cook them. They do not get mad cow or CWD!! I grind the rest of the antelope into burger with nothing mixed in. When I make a burger I mix a little Cajun Shake and Butt Rub together into the burger before I make the patties and then I fry or grill them till no blood comes out when you press on them. Turn them often while cooking ! Your lips will smack your eyes black and blue !!!!!!!!!

 

[elkantlers]

No doubt about it, you must cool the meat as fast as possible. The antelope that I have shot have all been skinned and boned out and in the cooler on Ice within 1 hour or less.

I always bring small garbage bags to put the meat in. Don't put too much meat in each bag. You can get the ice around several small bag easier than one big bag.

Good luck and I hope you need to use all this info.

 

[Huntnfever]

i have shot 2 antelope a buck and a doe, both are decent my dad has hunted them...you dont have to skin them right away and it doesnt hurt to be hung either...the important thing is to cool off the animal as soon as possible...if we are hunting in a area with a creek we throw the whole lope in and cool it off....my mom used to can all the deer/antelope meat, now she is older and not alot of our family eats alot of game...with me and my brother we get enough meat...we mostly give it to family or just eat tag soup.

has anyone seen my kittie

 

[alsatian]

In 2004 my son and I took a buck pronghorn and a doe pronghorn, respectively. I butchered the meat myself and ground nothing. I made roasts out of the big pieces of shoulder and rear leg. Some roasts I seared in oil and then slowly braised on low heat with a little water (first rubbing the roast all over with about 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1/2 teaspoon marjoram, 6 ground juniper berries, some coarse ground black pepper, some salt, and a cracked-up bay leaf). Some roasts I cut into thin slices, pounded out with a metal mallet, salted and peppered both sides of the meat, sauteed quickly in butter, removed the meat to a warm platter, briefly sauteed some chopped shallots in the butter, added white wine, added heavy cream and some lemon juice. Served this sauce over the sauteed slices of meat. The best, however, was backstrap steaks. All of this meat was superb and tasted great. I can't imagine diminishing it to grinding and having as a hamburger or tacos or chili.

Nothwithstanding, perhaps some pronghorn meat doesn't taste very good because of diet or other cause. Ours was very flavorful and pleasing. We ate it many times, and my family, everyone, preferred the flavor of pronghorn to deer meat.

 

[gznokes]

My wife and I rank wild game as follows
1. pronghorn
2. elk
3. mule deer
(bear would be about 50th on the list)

the key is to care for it as mentioned above, butcher your own game, and quit overcooking wild game--cook it hot and cook it quickly. Cook it medium rare or medium at the most.

 

[Willy_P]

I prefer my bear be cooked well. It being in the pork family you can get trichinosis if not done well enough to kill any worms in the meat. I have always enjoyed the bear I have had in the past.