A friend recently gave us some antelope tenderloin, shot with a bow in Wyoming last fall. I grilled it last night, along with some venison sausage that my wife added to her catch-all pasta and feta dish. A Meat-lovers Tuesday.
Having never grilled this particular critter, I kept it simple: cut to small steaks, let sit overnight in olive oil, pinch salt, ground pepper and red pepper flakes. I grilled on low for about 20 minutes, turning every 5 and basting frequently with clarified butter and a little Mr. Stubbs. Result? Tender enough to eat with a fork (although we ate most of it with our hands) and delicious. Now I know why they have to run so fast.
This morning our reader Arthur Wilderson forwarded two links of interest, here and here. The first begins a discussion of “meatless meat,” the Soylent Green concoction some posit as a substitute for animal protein. Evidently PETA is offering $1 million to the first mad scientist who invents the stuff.
The second is a discussion thread from a hunters’ group who wonder if there’s anything they wouldn’t kill? Shades of our question about eating dogs, below. However, read a few comments–some are quite unusual. Hard to imagine what sort of hunters’ group this might be?
Samples:
“Some animals I would kill in a pinch for food, but there are a few different species that I simply will not kill at all. Primarily, rabbits, chipmunks and skunks. For one, I am not fond of eating scavengers, none of them taste good IMO and I really have a soft spot for all 3…”
Rabbits? My daughters share your soft spot for them, but both agree with me they’re delish!
And these folks (some of them “senior members” of the hunting group) seem somewhat conflicted.
“Me being quite squeamish when dealing with the blood and guts part of hunting, I stick to varmints….”
“I don’t like the taste of any game save it be fish. Yes, I know that someone has a recipe that would make me change my mind but I’ve tried most of them and just don’t like it. I used to hunt, elk, deer, pheasant, duck, dove and most any game that Utah has to offer. I found that I usually had to find someone to give my kill to as I didn’t want to eat it. This typically wasn’t a problem there is usually someone you are hunting with that will take the game. I guess for lack of a better description I had a streak of morality hit me…”
“I’m not really a fan of hunting ducks because they mate for life. Just seems weird. Not against other people doing it by any means, just not my thing. Don’t really like bird hunting at all, come to think about it…”
Huh! Sounds like there might be a larger market for meatless meat than I thought!