The wife and I have the chance to go on an Aoudad hunt in December. What is y’all’s experience with the meat on these things? I have it my head that it’ll probably be awful, and super tough, but I do lot want to be making a mistake either. Thanks for the help.

You and your wife go hunt them. If you take one or 2 do what you do for a WT. Gut them as soon as possible and keep the meat clean. Cook it and you be the judge on what you think about it.

My only experience is with an aoudad ewe.
She was very good eating.

Cooking an old boot is about the same as Auodad.

Haven't wanted to eat an aoudad again after trying it. Stick to WT

I have eaten several. Very tough meat, the toughest I have ever had. However the flavor of the meat is very good. I started grinding mine and it makes great jerky!

We had a Bratwurst made and it is most excellent! I'd shoot another Aoudad just to get this made. The butcher shop was Silver Springs in Hondo.

Ewes are great eating if cleaned right and taken care off properly. Rams in my opinion are better for grinding meat burger, sausage, ect.. My favorite way to cook the burger is make 1/2-3/4 inch thick patties and season like you would a steak and smoke on low heat it’s amazing how the ground meat will take the smoke flavor. Add some sautéed mushrooms and onions and your favorite side! It’s not my preference but they are not awful by any means!

The meat is very good made into burger and sausage. The steaks can be tough.

Aoudad shepherds pie is tasty

Agreed. The meat is very good, but it has a pretty distinct density that makes some of the cuts very tough. If you treat it like whitetail (or beef for that matter), you might be disappointed. These are tough, athletic animals and they are likewise not very tender. I think their flavor is excellent if handled correctly--keep the gutted carcass dry and cold-- and cooked in ways that work with the animal. Ground and sausage are really nice, and they make excellent stews and curries. I would recommend leaving the silverskin on (this is collagen that will convert to gelatin during slow cooking) stew meat, as it will actually help with the texture once it is broken down and tender. this might take a very long time, like 5-6 hours, so be patient. If grilling backstraps and tenderloins, I've found that slicing dead 90 degrees against the grain, very thinly, helps a lot, too. Dry cooking methods like smoking, grilling or roasting can be risky, as there's not a lot to retain moisture within the meat. I really think that aoudad is underrated.

If grinding, do y’all add any kind of fat to it?

I would add some beef fat (unrendered from the kidney area/brisket) at 10-20% for ground or burger and 20-25% pork or beef fat for sausage.

We were invited for “steaks “ at a neighbor’s house. They served aoudad . My wife and I have a saying anytime we are served sketchy meat. “It’s better than Aoudad!”

i don't have a significant amount of experience with them but i had the chance to shoot a couple of them in the hill county several years ago. I was not impressed with them. I eat a lot of whitetail deer and a decent amount of feral hogs. these were just different. that said i tried to treat them exactly as i would a deer or hog. there might be some better preparations out there that would have better results. i'm not going to say they were completely not edible, but i don't care to have anymore.

I shot an aoudad a couple of years ago and we turned everything but the back straps into Italian sausage and breakfast sausage. We love it!

Crockpot would be a good way to cook it.