# Elk Pastrami



## redheelerdog (Nov 13, 2012)

I got really lucky here in Montana this year, drew a bull elk tag AND a cow elk tag. My plan was to shoot a cow and then work the rest of the season (month of Nov.) to find a nice bull.


I told my boss that its not every day a person gets a bull elk tag so I planned to only work 9 days in November and take the rest of the time hunting, he said that was fine... I have a great boss!


Well, the season opened Oct. 20th, on the 21st I had a nice big cow down and everything was going to plan, my buddies came on the 23rd and proceeded to shoot cows also so by Oct. 25th we had 3 elk at the tent and were planning to head out Saturday the 27th, I thought that was fine, I still had almost a month to hunt my bull and we all had meat in the bag.


Well, on Friday morning the 26th I ran into a NICE 6 point non-typical bull elk that I could not pass up... long story short on Saturday the 27th we had 1200lbs of elk coming out of the woods and two were mine.


Needless to say I have been cutting, grinding and vac packing elk for darn near a couple of weeks now and still have some to do - we froze all of it in quarters, I still have a bunch of neck meat to grind and one quarter to cut up.


Got the cow, got the bull - oh well, I'm still only working 9 days this month! Workin on sausage makin and meat smokin!


I had the loins and backstrap of the cow I was working on in a bag and decided to to make some premium grade elk pastrami...


Used Smokin Al's Kick A$$ beef pastrami recipe here: Pastrami-from-scratch-lots-of-q-view


Backstrap and loin












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Mixing up Smokin Al's














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In the brine and in the fridge!












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See you in a week or so...


I the mean time, some non-typical bull elk pics...












Bull 1.jpg



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Bull 2.jpg



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Our tent with 4 elk quartered and ready to take out, you talk about allot of work!












1200lbs of Elk.jpg



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__ Nov 13, 2012


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## diggingdogfarm (Nov 13, 2012)

Very cool!



~Martin


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## thoseguys26 (Nov 14, 2012)

Congrats. That's a quick way to fill a freezer!  I'm in a similar boat, I have two mule deer and a cow elk that I've finally just got it in the freezer. My girl and I were just talking about elk pastrami since my beef pastrami came out so good. I'll have to keep an eye on your thread.

Do you have any more pics of the right side non typical horn? That drop horn is pretty sweet.


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## redheelerdog (Nov 14, 2012)

thoseguys26 said:


> Congrats. That's a quick way to fill a freezer!  I'm in a similar boat, I have two mule deer and a cow elk that I've finally just got it in the freezer. My girl and I were just talking about elk pastrami since my beef pastrami came out so good. I'll have to keep an eye on your thread.
> 
> Do you have any more pics of the right side non typical horn? That drop horn is pretty sweet.


Here is another pic of his right side.













Bull 4_Crop.jpg



__ redheelerdog
__ Nov 14, 2012


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## BGKYSmoker (Nov 14, 2012)

Nice

Wanna trade some Elk for some gator?   ......JK


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## driedstick (Nov 14, 2012)

Very nice so far Im having Tag soup YUK!! still have muzzle loader season thou congrats on your elk,


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## smokinhusker (Nov 14, 2012)

Congrats on the successful hunting!!! That's a great looking non typical bull and I would have taken him in a minute!!! We didn't even see any elk this year...with the fires that closed some areas, we literally saw 30 hunters piled into pickups where we hunt.


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## redheelerdog (Nov 21, 2012)

Pulled the elk from the brine today - Corned Elk!

An 8 day brine, dried and peppered, in the fridge tonight and ready for some TBS tomorrow.

More Q-view to come... 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			


















Corned Elk.jpg



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__ Nov 21, 2012


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## daveomak (Nov 21, 2012)

RHD, evening.... Nice Elk !!!!   Wow.....   That strami should be really good....


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## thoseguys26 (Nov 22, 2012)

Can't wait to see it sliced up.


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## driedstick (Nov 22, 2012)

That looks very good i would think it will be a very red strami - too many wolves here seen more wolves than elks


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## redheelerdog (Nov 22, 2012)

Finished up the pastrami today, brought all of it to an IT of 165F. Windy'er than heck today, hard to keep everything stabilized while smoking!

Here we are about half way in













Smoke.jpg



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Took about 6.5-7 hours for an IT of 165F - Smoker temp. set at 215F













Strami 1.jpg



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Gave them a short 1 hour rest and then got to slicing, these are all pieces of back strap and tenderloin













Strami 2.jpg



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Beautiful color to this pastrami, and just the right brine flavor













Strami 3.jpg



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Strami 4.jpg



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Strami 4a.jpg



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I already have all the fixn's for Ruben Sammy's (my Favorite!)













Strami 5.jpg



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I've got to be honest here, I saw some posts in the wild game forum and googled some about wild deer and elk pastrami, I thought it would be kind of a novelty to make some since I had some good elk meat, but WHOLLY CRAP! - This stuff is so lean and so tender I cannot believe how good it is.

One thing I did notice is with beef brisket there is allot more fat, this has absolutely no fat so it is really different, a very lean and flavor-full pastrami, I cant wait to try it on a Ruben Sammy!

My good buddy Carl that was with me on this trip did not have a tag (no luck of the draw), but he did help me pack out 2 elk this time - when we were at the truck getting ready to leave sorting out all our gear who's is who's and such I tried to give him a full hind quarter, picked it up and handed it to him and said "here take this Carl, you have helped me more than you know" he looked at me and said, "no way, this is yours, take it", I could tell he did not want it and I told him he had some good sausage coming his way then; well my friend Carl is getting some prime Elk Pastrami coming his way!

I have some large roasts that I am going to try to make some more pastrami out of, this is too good not to make more!

Thanks for looking and have fun.

Only 3 more days of hunting season here - still looking for that deer!


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## driedstick (Nov 23, 2012)

that looks great good job


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## smokermark (Nov 23, 2012)

Congratulations, looks like some mighty fine eating!


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## smokinhusker (Nov 23, 2012)

Some absolutely stunning meat!!!! Great job!


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## ajbert (May 5, 2013)

I got a bit of elk meat in the freezer at the moment and believe I'll just have to try this, too.  However, I'll be using a roast rather than any of the backstrap tender loin.  Afraid my wife would divorce me if I used the bs or tl and it came out not so good. 

Just one newbie question, what and where does one purchase #1 cure?


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## woodcutter (May 5, 2013)

That looks so good! I did close to the same with venison but it is long gone.


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## moikel (May 5, 2013)

SmokinHusker said:


> Some absolutely stunning meat!!!! Great job!


All very new to me down here 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





, from the tag draw to the end. They are big animals up close. Meat looks great,very lean.Do you eat the liver? I had a few recipes here for terrines using venison liver & bits.

Great job on the pastrami.Outstanding colour.


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