Why do you hunt? New research conducted by Responsive Management shows more of us arise well before the crack of dawn and head into the woods, mountains, prairies or to a favorite stretch of water in a quest to fill the freezer.Researchers conducting the scientific nationwide telephone survey reached out to (Source – rmef blog) Americans 18 years of age and older and asked them “What is the single most important reason you hunted in 2012?” They offered a list of possible answers including spending time with family and friends, being close to nature, for the sport/recreation, for the meat or for a trophy. Thirty-five percent of hunters chose “for the meat,” which is a 13 percent increase since a similar nationwide survey in 2006.
 |
| Responsive Management, 2013 |
Members of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and elk lovers everywhere will tell you there is no leaner, healthier meat than the wild wapiti taken off its native range. You won’t get an argument from the U.S. Department of Agriculture either. USDA statistics show elk has a higher percentage of protein and a lower percentage of fat than grass-fed beef, pork, lamb, duck, whitetail deer or antelope (see chart below). Elk also wins the cholesterol battle while topping the list for the fewest calories per pound category. By comparison, moose and wild turkey put up the best fight.
 |
| Nov/Dec 2012 Bugle magazine |
And then there’s the taste test. Elk rules the barbecue too. Of course the key to teasing or better yet satisfying those taste buds is not just knowing where to find the various cuts of meat (see chart at bottom of post) or how to cook them, but how to prepare them. Let me let you in on one of the best kept RMEF secrets we recently let out of the bag. It’s a marinate recipe that’ll make you swear you just bellied up to your favorite table at the best steakhouse in town.
Here’s the back-story:
The recipe is the product of a long-running challenge between two brothers, both members of the RMEF, aimed at designing the ultimate wild game marinade. Over the course of nearly two decades, the brothers sent each other a variety of concoctions each of them made up, some better than others, until the day that one sent this particular recipe to the other. Upon trying it, the challenge was deemed complete. The ultimate wild game marinade had been found.
 |
| Photo via Chad Harder |
Here’s what you’ll need:
1 1/2 cups olive oil
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1/2 cup lemon juice
Choice cuts of venison
Here’s how to make it:
Mix ingredients in a bowl. Submerge selected cuts of locally harvested venison in marinade. Let sit, the longer the better—refrigerate overnight, if possible. Grill venison to desired temperature.
For more tantalizingly tasty recipes, check out RMEF’s Carnivore Kitchen. You will find everything from ginger-spiked elk egg rolls and Southwestern Elk Pozole to bourbon-spiked elk gravy with buttermilk biscuits, pulled elk sandwiches and smoky elk macaroni and cheese.
Back to the study. A cross-tabulation by gender of the data from the nationwide survey shows that females are even more pro-meat: 55% compared to 27% of male hunters.
 |
| Responsive Management, 2013 |
So there you have it. Not only is meat the choice of hunters across the country, but elk meat does a body good and tastes great too. We don’t need a study to tell you that.
 |