But how does it taste?

[Hunter-Habib]

Most African wild game are good to eat, as long as it is cooked properly. Some of the best are eland (as long as bulls are not in the rut) and their steaks rival the finest beef. Kudu is pretty first class as well. Also desert type game like gemsbok and hartebeest are excellent. Sable meat is good also. Of the smaller animals, most are good to eat… particularly impala & reedbuck. Nyala are also good. A lot depends on the condition of the animal, and if it is shot well and not wounded before killing. The marbling of giraffe steaks also makes them a delicacy fit for a king.

My favorite African wild game offal dish, is actually flame grilled Impala liver. Among game birds, I absolutely find a bowl of guinea fowl potjie to be heaven on earth.

The only African game which I absolutely disgust... are spurwing goose & waterbuck. A waterbuck, particularly an old one, has a very oily substance that gets in the hairs of the skin. When skinning the animal, great care must be taken to avoid getting the hair or oil on the meat. An old trophy bull does taste a bit strong, but a young waterbuck tastes quite fine. The only palatable way to prepare the meat, is to make a strongly spiced vindaloo out of it.

Cape buffalo is coarser than bison and tougher. However, the tenderloin (or fillet) are excellent when seasoned simply with coarse grained salt and grilled over the open camp fire to a maximum doneness of medium rare with a healthy squeeze of lemon juice on top. Especially with an ice cold African Castle Lager to wash it all down with. The underbelly of a hippopotamus is quite delectable when ground up and prepared as a ragout for use with pastas. Elephant trunk makes an excellent component in a stew if prepared correctly. Elephant fat is also excellent and may be spread over slices of bread, like butter. It is quite white and may be prepared like sheep tail fat. However their meat is quite coarse & tough.

 

[steve white]

@ Hunter-Habib. +1 on the impala liver.
I pretty much agree with all your assessments. Recently, for the first time in my life, I just had to have some elk meat and bought some commercially in a specialty super market. I think I could eat it every day and never grow tired.
It's only too bad that bringing home meat from Africa is virtually undoable.

Ha Ha, I think a good Vindaloo would cover up for just about anything. I'm a Tikka Masala man, personally.

 

[steve white]

Off Topic, Hunter Habib, but why do you think there is not much more game to shoot and eat in India, given the predilection for vegetarianism? Game should be flourishing, should it not?

 

[Betterinthebush]

Most African wild game are good to eat, as long as it is cooked properly. Some of the best are eland (as long as bulls are not in the rut) and their steaks rival the finest beef. Kudu is pretty first class as well. Also desert type game like gemsbok and hartebeest are excellent. Sable meat is good also. Of the smaller animals, most are good to eat… particularly impala & reedbuck. Nyala are also good. A lot depends on the condition of the animal, and if it is shot well and not wounded before killing. The marbling of giraffe steaks also makes them a delicacy fit for a king.

My favorite African wild game offal dish, is actually flame grilled Impala liver. Among game birds, I absolutely find a bowl of guinea fowl potjie to be heaven on earth.

The only African game which I absolutely disgust... are spurwing goose & waterbuck. A waterbuck, particularly an old one, has a very oily substance that gets in the hairs of the skin. When skinning the animal, great care must be taken to avoid getting the hair or oil on the meat. An old trophy bull does taste a bit strong, but a young waterbuck tastes quite fine. The only palatable way to prepare the meat, is to make a strongly spiced vindaloo out of it.

Cape buffalo is coarser than bison and tougher. However, the tenderloin (or fillet) are excellent when seasoned simply with coarse grained salt and grilled over the open camp fire to a maximum doneness of medium rare with a healthy squeeze of lemon juice on top. Especially with an ice cold African Castle Lager to wash it all down with. The underbelly of a hippopotamus is quite delectable when ground up and prepared as a ragout for use with pastas. Elephant trunk makes an excellent component in a stew if prepared correctly. Elephant fat is also excellent and may be spread over slices of bread, like butter. It is quite white and may be prepared like sheep tail fat. However their meat is quite coarse & tough.

Thank you.

 

[Betterinthebush]

Off Topic, Hunter Habib, but why do you think there is not much more game to shoot and eat in India, given the predilection for vegetarianism? Game should be flourishing, should it not?

Oh, fuck, here we go…

 

[BGGMKLR]

Eland tenderloin is my favorite.

Other tenderloin and top loin cooked on the Braai has always been excellent.

Zebra was my least favorite, but it was the top choice of the locals. All the meat was used and appreciated.

By the way, eland tenderloin was my favorite

+1 on Eland. The short ribs and tenderloin I had were absolutely spectacular.
Impala liver was very good also.
Spike

 

[Hunter-Habib]

@ Hunter-Habib. +1 on the impala liver.
I pretty much agree with all your assessments. Recently, for the first time in my life, I just had to have some elk meat and bought some commercially in a specialty super market. I think I could eat it every day and never grow tired.
It's only too bad that bringing home meat from Africa is virtually undoable.

Ha Ha, I think a good Vindaloo would cover up for just about anything. I'm a Tikka Masala man, personally.

@steve white

I'm pleasantly surprised to see how many of our fellow sportsmen from all across the globe enjoy Tikka Masala. I actually (much like yourself) even prefer it over Vindaloo. It is truly one of the most delicious curries to be invented in South East Asia. The secret is to always employ heavy cream in addition to the unsweetened yogurt & butter.

My mother makes a version with the red Jungle fowl which we hunt. "Divine" would be the most accurate word to describe it. Especially served with freshly baked garlic naan flatbreads straight out of the coal powered tandoor oven.

Here is a photo of the one she prepared for us on this Eid holiday.

Elk is one of my favorite American mammalian game meats (second only to moose). We Bengalis often nickname it "Poshchim Er Sambar" (The Sambar Of The West). The back straps are delicious seared in a cast iron pan with a little unsalted Danish Lurpak butter to a perfect rare doneness. Season simply with fine grained salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder & thyme. I typically prefer a bearnaise sauce or a chimichurri sauce with it.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Off Topic, Hunter Habib, but why do you think there is not much more game to shoot and eat in India, given the predilection for vegetarianism? Game should be flourishing, should it not?

@steve white

Because only politicians (especially the party currently in power in India), urban dwellers & people living comfortably far away from rural areas (i.e the hotspots of human-wildlife conflict) champion the concept of a plant based lifestyle. The thousands of impoverished & starving rural Indians who have their crop fields and livestock routinely ravaged by fauna (of both the herbivorous or carnivorous varieties) on a daily basis feel very differently about wildlife & meat eating. To them, all those crop raiding & livestock killing fauna (whose populations used to formerly get controlled pre 1972 by licensed hunters) are either:
A) A delicious source of protein
B) A menace to their livelihoods
C) A source of hides & antlers to sell on the black market

In 2015, the Indian government finally realized that exploding populations of game is indeed becoming too much of a problem in rural areas to ignore. So they began to authorize the culling of blue bulls and wild boars. But none of the meat from the culled animals is (legally) permitted to be consumed by anybody. All of it is buried under the ground, because the Indian government would rather allow hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh free protein to rot than to permit their citizens (including malnourished starving ones with absolutely zero aversion to meat eating) to commit the “Reprehensible act of consuming wildlife”. These are screenshots sent to me by one of the cullers. The wild boars are being thrown into the pit for burial. The blue bulls will also be given the same treatment.

If I had my way, all of the fresh venison (from the blue bulls) and pork (from the wild boars that come to feed at the crop fields) would be freely donated to impoverished local communities. Or at the very least, sold for a subsidized price at a government auction (if the government is feeling like earning a little revenue to pay the cullers for their efforts & ammunition expenditure). The only game animals which I would sanction for 100 % carcass disposal... would be the wild boars that feed on the garbage dumps at the city outskirts. Since those are extremely likely to contain trichinosis in the meat. And they should be kept away from human consumption.

I hope that I have answered your query satisfactorily. I try not to comment about India on social media platforms at all, since Indian trolls often like to join this forum just to attempt to discredit me. But you asked, so I answered.

 

[Betterinthebush]

@steve white

Because only politicians (especially the party currently in power in India), urban dwellers & people living comfortably far away from rural areas (i.e the hotspots of human-wildlife conflict) champion the concept of a plant based lifestyle. The thousands of impoverished & starving rural Indians who have their crop fields and livestock routinely ravaged by wildlife (of both the herbivorous or carnivorous varieties) on a daily basis feel very differently about wildlife & meat eating. To them, all those crop raiding & livestock killing fauna (whose populations used to formerly get controlled pre 1972 by licensed hunters) are either:
A) A delicious source of protein
B) A menace to their livelihoods
C) A source of hides & antlers to sell on the black market

In 2015, the Indian government finally realized that exploding populations of game is indeed becoming too much of a problem in rural areas to ignore. So they began to authorize the culling of blue bulls and wild boars. But none of the meat from the culled animals is (legally) permitted to be consumed by anybody. All of it is buried under the ground, because the Indian government would rather allow hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh free protein to rot than to permit their citizens (including malnourished starving ones with absolutely zero aversion to meat eating) to commit the “Reprehensible act of consuming wildlife”. These are screenshots sent to me by one of the cullers. The wild boars are being thrown into the pit for burial. The blue bulls will also be given the same treatment.
View attachment 679798View attachment 679799
I hope that I have answered your query satisfactorily. I try not to comment about India on social media platforms at all, since Indian trolls often like to join this forum just to attempt to discredit me. But you asked, so I answered.

Tragic wastefulness.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

God didn't create these animals to be wasted. I'm not a bible scholar (or even good reader) but it was pretty early in my grade school bible classes I was taught that our creator told us (commanded) that we should be stewards of the animals he created. Waste of his world's resources is sinful.

 

[PerH]

And even weirder it when all the wastefulness is based upon an animal worship religion in the background .

 

[archer36]

God didn't create these animals to be wasted. I'm not a bible scholar (or even good reader) but it was pretty early in my grade school bible classes I was taught that our creator told us (commanded) that we should be stewards of the animals he created. Waste of his world's resources is sinful.

But are they "wasted"? My understanding is that the meat is sold to butcher shops and sold to the public. It is legal to sell game meat there. I even saw large refrigerated trucks picking up the meat. Also, I'm sure the locals and employees get a good amount. This is in addition to the meat the clients and PH's eat.

 

[Hunt anything]

But are they "wasted"? My understanding is that the meat is sold to butcher shops and sold to the public. It is legal to sell game meat there. I even saw large refrigerated trucks picking up the meat. Also, I'm sure the locals and employees get a good amount. This is in addition to the meat the clients and PH's eat.

I believe this was in response to @Hunter-Habib post on waste in India with pictures of boar and nilgai being buried after culling operations.

 

[archer36]

I believe this was in response to @Hunter-Habib post on waste in India with pictures of boar and nilgai being buried after culling operations.

OK. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I believe this was in response to @Hunter-Habib post on waste in India with pictures of boar and nilgai being buried after culling operations.

Correct.