Moose Meat!

Every couple of years while we are on the trapline, the Trapper shoots a moose which will last our dwindling family at least a year, if not more.  We have shared the meat with our grown daughter's families this past year as well. Game meat is so much better for you than store bought, not containing any growth hormones or other crap! It is super lean. This means we usually cook it slowly and with moisture. It can be tough, so we marinate and tenderize. You learn to cook it differently than beef.
Because we get our moose on the trapline the weather dictates how we deal with it. Most years it has already started to go below zero and snow is on the ground. That means we can't hang our moose to age the meat, which needs to be done in a fairly controlled environment to be sure it doesn't spoil.  If it is already below freezing we need to get it cut up and packaged before the whole thing freezes solid and we end up with one big hunk of frozen meat.  This happened one year when the Trapper shot the moose and then had to leave it for a few days before we could go get it. It got really cold and we ended up with 4 quarters of frozen moose meat we had to deal with. It was not fun. We tried cutting it several ways and ended up using an electric chainsaw oiled with cooking oil. Not very good for cutting steaks. In the end we had a lot of ground moose. Good thing we like ground moose!
Our last moose is now almost gone, and as we weren't able to go to the trapline this fall due to the Trapper's medical issues (link to that post) we are in the process of doing something we have been meaning to do for awhile. Grinding up the scraps. When we butcher the moose on the trapline (we have NEVER paid someone else to cut up our meat) we do it all in our cabin. No running water, with only the power we gather from the sun or our generator. We have it down to an art. We spread a clean tarp over the coffee table, down onto the floor around it. The Trapper has already cut the moose into manageable sized pieces, usually quarters. Which, for those of you who are unfamiliar with butchering, means cutting it in half across the middle both ways. Each quarter contains a leg. From these quarters we first have to remove the hide and as much stray hair as we can. I dislike this part the most. The hair on a moose is thick and stiff. I don't like hair in my meat! So I am meticulous about cleaning it off.  After we have it as clean as we can get it, it goes into the cabin. Then we begin the process of cutting it into smaller pieces. We begin with roasts, then steaks, stew meat and finally, whatever doesn't make it into those categories gets put into plastic lined milk crates to freeze for dealing with later.

Like now. We use a little of the moose while we are on the trapline, but most of it is all packaged in meat wrap and frozen outside in totes to bring home and put into the freezer.
When you freeze raw meat you can't thaw it and then refreeze it uncooked. You must cook it, then it is safe to refreeze. We wait until we have a few free days at home at the Little Shack and then bring the crates of solidly frozen moose scraps out of the freezer and thaw them out. This happens in stages. As the outside of the 'block' thaws, we cut it off and grind it.

It goes through the grinder twice. Once is to do a coarse grind...

... and then the 2nd is to fine grind it.

Once it is ground up, it goes on cookie sheets and is baked for 30 minutes at 425F.  Once it is cooked and has cooled a bit, it gets divided up into small freezer bags. I put about a 1/2 a pound in each bag.

Then it's back into the freezer until we use it.
With this cooked ground moose it is so easy to whip up spaghetti sauce and other dishes that call for browned ground meat. I take out a bag or 2, depending on how many we are feeding, and defrost it in the microwave. It's then ready to be added to whatever dish I'm  making.
Since we started doing our ground meat this way we have been able to use every bit of the moose and nothing goes to waste.