Topside Moose is a wonderful cut that lends itself very well to cooking on the grill. Bring it up slowly to temp on indirect heat with some smoke, and then sear it at the end. Magic!
Servings 4
Instructions
- The night before: take out the moose from the package and pat it dry with a paper towel. Trim off any fat or membranes, it is usually a quick job since moose is very lean. There is usually a silver membrane, about two inches wide, on one ‘side’ of the meat. Trim it off.
Step 1 – dry brine
- Apply the salt evenly all over the meat. This amplifies the beef flavor. Leave it in the fridge overnight.
Step 2 – smoke
- Now sprinkle the moose with black pepper on alla sides.
- Time to cook: Fire up your grill, prepare it for indirect grilling. Have it running at 240° – 265° F. Use the snake method if you’re using a kettle grill.
- Add some wood chunks for smoking if you like. I use 2-3 cherry wood chunks, but apple wood, oak wood or beech wood works just fine.
- Place the meat on the indirect side and close the lid. Wait until the inner temperature is 122° F. It takes roughly an hour.
- Remove the meat from the grill and let it rest while you stoke the fire to get it real hot.
Step 3 – sear it
- Now it’s time to sear: when the fire is hot, place the meat back on the grates, this time over high direct heat, and sear it for a few minutes. Keep turning often, it's done when the inner temp hits 56° C / 133° F.
- Once you have a nice charred surface it’s time to remove it from the grill and let it rest for 10 minutes on the cutting board. Then all you have to do is to slice and serve. It’s that easy. Serve it with a nice red wine sauce.
Interesting recipe. Unfortunately, I have not seen moose in any US game dealers.
It seems to have a reputation for good flavor; I have heard it ranked in flavor as “ Elk, first, moose, second, and you can keep the ( whitetail ) deer.”