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Elk processing advise #6933651 10/25/17 10:20 PM
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CenTex Offline OP
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Just returned home with my first bull elk. Front quarters, hind quarters and backstraps are on ice and have been for almost two days. Question is what do you recommend I have done at the processor? And what or how much of it needs to get tenderized? I know I want steaks, roasts and hamburger meat. I was told that the meat is too tough to eat without tenderizing. Is that true? I want some steaks for grilling and chicken frying. Obviously the grilling steaks would be thicker cuts and not tenderized. Will those be too tough to eat? Please provide this elk rookie some direction. Thank you.

Re: Elk processing advise [Re: CenTex] #6933675 10/25/17 10:43 PM
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bill oxner Offline
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I would take out the tenderloins, and back straps. You can do that in less than 15 minutes. Take the rest to the processor and let him help you decide on the on your quarters depending on your taste.


Quail hunting is like walking into, and out of a beautiful painting all day long. Gene Hill


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Re: Elk processing advise [Re: CenTex] #6933681 10/25/17 10:44 PM
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Congratulations on harvesting Your Elk.
Who ever told you that Elk are too tough to eat must have gummed their food. LOL
Elk are the absolute best venison that you will ever eat, However you like to process your deer will work just as well for Elk.


All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Edmund Burke
Re: Elk processing advise [Re: CenTex] #6933787 10/26/17 12:01 AM
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Thanks. I have had elk and never thought of it as tough. The guys I hunted with concerned me. I don't want to get a ton of steaks if they're gonna be too tough to eat. But I also don't want everything tenderized.

Last edited by CenTex; 10/26/17 12:03 AM.
Re: Elk processing advise [Re: CenTex] #6934174 10/26/17 07:45 AM
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I’ve never had tough elk so I wouldn’t be worried there to much. My old boss would bring me some cooked and it was as tender as a hamburger patty even after chicken fried. Could cut easily with a plastic fork.

Re: Elk processing advise [Re: CenTex] #6934229 10/26/17 12:02 PM
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Hearty congrats on your first bull. Your wife will send you out for another after she tastes it.


...and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen. 1:28
Re: Elk processing advise [Re: CenTex] #6934303 10/26/17 01:19 PM
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I take all the "elk/deer is tender" with a grain of salt. I have been processing my own venison since I was a child helping my dad with deer he shot from loading in the truck through putting it on the table. Yes you can have edible and even good steaks from deer that are properly cared for and prepared, but in most instances a beef steak from a similar cut will be hands down better than the venison... now how much cheap steaks, think choice sirloin etc have you had that was a bit tuff? Now think its a deer and 10 times as lean, yeah they aren't all as tender as people make them out to be. I bet for every wife like creekrunner's who gets a taste and wants more there are a dozen who want a beef steak.


It's hell eatin em live
Re: Elk processing advise [Re: CenTex] #6934383 10/26/17 02:06 PM
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Thanks gentlemen.

Re: Elk processing advise [Re: CenTex] #6934501 10/26/17 03:11 PM
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I processed a cow elk at home few years back. Took nothing at all to the processor. She had regularly been feeding on alfalfa and was some of the finest meat I have ever had. Huge undertaking that took me a couple weekends and many weeknights but it was extremely satisfying to see my freezer full of elk that I took from field to table.

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