If you love preparing delicacies on your grill, you’re surely always eager to try new things and let your adventurous spirit roam free. Have you ever tried grilling game meat? If not, it’s high time you did, because grilling game meat creates a true explosion of flavors in your mouth. Properly prepared, it’s sure to become a recurring pleasure for you.
When grilling game meat, you need to pay attention to different things compared to steaks, sausages, and other typical grill fare. Our comprehensive guide to grilling game meat can assist you further. If you’re unsure whether grilled game meat will suit your taste, you should still give it a chance. We provide helpful support through our information on grilling game meat. Your preference for the intensity of the gamey flavor will determine your choice of game meat. We’ll tell you, for example, where you could buy the perfect game meat. What should you consider when preparing it? Of course, you also need to pay attention to where you source your game meat. It should be fresh and properly stored. To maintain its freshness, it’s good to transport it chilled. Store it cool and dry once you have it.
What meat is suitable for grilling game?
Fresh and good game meat is characterized by its pleasant aromatic and slightly acidic smell. The most common choices are deer, stag, wild boar, and hare. The taste of game meat varies, so not all game meat tastes the same. Wild boar, for example, has a very spicy flavor, whereas deer has a lighter taste. A typical characteristic is the color of game meat. Due to the heavily used muscles, it has a high content of muscle pigments, giving it a dark color. There are differences in color among the game species and their meat. Stewing meat from game is naturally not suitable for grilling. It’s ideal to grill game on a skewer or in the form of a steak. Medallions, especially when wrapped in bacon, taste very aromatic.
The preparation of game meat
Game meat from the breast and back is preferably seared briefly. Since it has a low fat content, don’t leave it on the grill for too long, otherwise it will become dry and tough. If you want to grill larger pieces, the meat must be grilled indirectly. You can place it directly on the grate, but also prepare it in a grill pan. You can prepare it just as deliciously on a gas grill as on a charcoal grill. For beginners in grilling game, wild boar is a good choice, as its preparation is very similar to that of our domestic pig. By the way, very tasty from the grill as a chop! However, it becomes dry if you leave it on the grill for too long.
Why is game meat so healthy and recommended?
What you may not have known so far is that game meat is very low in fat, making it perfect for healthy grilling or a grill diet. In addition, it is rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals. The healthy diet of animals in the wild and their natural exercise make their meat a real meaty delicacy.Some interesting information about the structure of game meat:Fat content between 1% and 8% 20% – 25% protein contains iron, selenium, and zinc it has a high proportion (approx. 60% – 70%) of unsaturated fatty acids the saturated fatty acids are remarkably low (approx. 3%) it is free of medication and antibiotics, unlike mass animal husbandry.
Where to buy game meat for grilling?A very wide selection of high-quality game meat can be found online. Even hunters are to be found on the internet with a large selection of game meat in addition to butchers. However, pay attention to appropriate certifications and read customer reviews. You can also buy it directly on site in delicatessens, well-stocked butcher shops, markets, and from hunters. You can buy the meat already divided, so you don’t need any knowledge of butchering game yourself. Game meat from the supermarket is cheaper but may not be of the same high quality as, for example, directly from the hunter. The significantly cheaper meat often comes from foreign animal farms abroad. Of course, this game meat cannot be compared with ours from the forest in terms of its consistency, meat composition, and aroma. Please decide for yourself what you value.
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The shelf life of game meat
Fresh game meat can be kept in the refrigerator for about three days. It can even be kept for up to three weeks at 0° in the compartment. We would, however, be a bit cautious and prefer freezing. In the frozen state, you can keep it for up to about 2 years in the freezer. The leaner the meat, the longer it can be frozen: deer for two years, wild boar for about eight months. If you want to thaw the meat, please do so in the refrigerator. Dispose of the liquid in the sink.
How is Wild Marinated?
To ensure your wild meat is perfect in taste and texture, marinating is essential. You can prepare a marinade the day before grilling, soak the meat in it, and let it rest well wrapped in the refrigerator. If the meat is completely covered by the marinade, you can even let it sit in the refrigerator for two days. However, before grilling, the meat must be well patted dry from the marinade and allowed to warm up at room temperature for about two hours. Popular spices and herbs include thyme, juniper berries, bay leaf, onion, garlic, and pepper. Buttermilk, vinegar, or wine are usually the base for a wild marinade. Very young game meat is an exception regarding marinating, as it often doesn’t have that typical intense gamey flavor yet. Here, good seasoning and oiling are usually sufficient. Also popular are coriander, allspice, cloves, and lemon zest as seasoning support in wild grill marinades.
What Sides Go Well with Grilled Wild?
For sides, hearty dishes complement wild meat well. We definitely recommend offering half-preserved pears and cranberries as chutney. Rosemary potatoes grilled are very tasty alongside. You can, of course, prepare spaetzle, dumplings, or croquettes on the stove or in the oven, but that takes away from the flair of grilling wild. Cabbage in all variations tastes great with it. Easily on the grill in a grill pan, mushrooms with cream and a glass of wild stock can be prepared. They are a welcome side for sauce lovers. If you’re grilling wild in the colder seasons, roasted chestnuts from the grill go excellently with it.
What Drinks Pair Well with Grilled Wild?
The ideal drink is definitely wine. Red wines are preferred, as they are full-bodied, spicy, and their wonderfully fruity taste is not overshadowed by intense gamey aroma. They are the perfect companions for grilled wild. Which wine you offer depends on the taste of the meat. The stronger the gamey flavor, for example, with deer and wild hare, the stronger and heavier the red wine. Depending on the intensity of the gamey flavor, the diet and hormone levels of the animal also play a role.
Chianti Classico Riserva or a Brunello di Montalcino from bella Italia go perfectly with wild boar. For mild gamey flavor, we recommend a Cabernet Sauvignon from South Africa or California. Pinot Noir, also known as Spätburgunder in Germany, manages to soften the gamey taste. Not cheap, but excellent in taste, is Barolo from Italy. It tastes like a successful symbiosis of Rhône wine and Pinot Noir.
Do you love a cold beer with your grill? If so, we have to disappoint you now. Beer actually doesn’t go well with wild meat at all. The alcohol content is too low to effectively stimulate the digestion of wild meat. However, if you still don’t want to give up your beloved thirst quencher, a schnapps helps to produce enzymes for the stomach, which break down the food into its components for good digestion.
Alternatives to Wild Meat for Grilling
The taste of wild is, of course, a matter of personal preference. Not everyone is a fan of game meat; in fact, some grillers totally reject it. With wild, it’s like with lamb – either you love it or you completely reject it. If you have a grill party planned with the theme “Grilling Wild,” find out in advance who may not like game meat. Especially children are not big fans of it. For this guest group, simply plan sausages, pork loin steaks, and burgers, for example. Also, make sure to have appropriate side dishes and drinks for these big and little guests.
Conclusion:
We find grilled wild very delicious and enjoy it from time to time. For us, it’s important to buy our wild meat from reliable vendors (butchers, markets, online butchers). Wild meat must be fresh and of high quality because this is very noticeable in taste and texture. Being thrifty here should be quickly forgotten. For us, well-prepared wild meat is definitely part of grilling.