UKC

I've recently come into a small amount of Reindeer meat - any suggestions about how best to bring out its charms? How do natives to Reindeerland take it?

In reply to nufkin:

http://www.nordicnibbler.com/2010/12/reindeer-stew-reinsdyrgryte-with-thyme...

In reply to nufkin: last time I had reindeer meat it was on a pizza (I was in Helsinki) - not recomended. Best I've had was smoked, served cold.

In reply to nufkin:

Depends. A good reindeer steak is amenable to quick frying and flambe' in brandy. Tougher stuff is great in stews.

Treat venison as lean beef and you will do reasonably well.

Thanks all. I quite like the idea of having it as cold cuts - somehow seems especially Scandinavian. Maybe on some ryvita with cucumber and mayo to garnish



Or dig a hole and leave it to ferment for a few months/years?

In reply to nufkin:

or go old school. Fire pit, eat it off the bone with a horn of mead and singing songs of your ancestors.

In reply to Kemics:

I can provide the mead

In reply to davidbeynon:

What about the horn?

In reply to Steve John B:

I've got one of those too, but I only use it for beer. A horn full of mead would leave most people horizontal.

In reply to nufkin: Do not treat as beef. Raindeer is rather different to cook , and treated as beef it will dry out and be pretty inedible. What cut do you have (steaks, thin slices, a piece similar to a roast beef ?)

In reply to nufkin:

This is how I normally have Reindeer meat;

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnbiff

Good tasty wholesome Noggy food.

In reply to nufkin: Finnbiff is very good and prettyy easy to cook to.

At christmas I 'roasted' a reindeer joint thus..
1.Brown it in frying pan
2. Roast it for 15 mins at 275
3. Turn down oven to 200 and roast one hour.

Roast it too long and it dries out. I abridged this recipe I believe...
http://www.cookingwithfriends.se/recipes/meats/roasted_leg_of_reindeer.htm

In reply to nufkin:

<smug>
I had reindeer sous vide the other weekend. Excellent, but I think I prefer it roasted fairly rare but crispy on the outside - it's so tender anyway that I'm not sure sous vide adds anything.
</smug>

In reply to nufkin: What type is it? Here its normally the flaked and frozen meet. This is then cooked in stew and served on a bed of mashed potatoes with ligonberry jam. It's fine, sort of hearty, but not really particularly exciting. But then not much tradition Nordic food is!

See http://realfoodsuomi.com/finnish-beef-or-reindeer-stew/ although that photo makes it look crappier than it is.

In reply to TobyA:

I have to admit it's actually tinned...

In reply to TobyA:


Away! I've had some really lovely traditional meals when I've been in Norway, including reindeer. I can't recall much about how it was cooked although I do remember thinking it was similar to the way we might prepare venison here (with an equivalent of a juniper-berry reduction).

Sorry, that's not much use to the OP, I know!

In reply to TobyA:

How can you say that?
I remember looking at the menu from Noma, and it had frozen Milk as a dessert!!!!

In reply to nufkin:

It's not as big a problem as it was in the 80s, but run a geiger counter over it

In reply to nufkin:

Reindeer meat is fine, just stew it with plenty of marinade to keep it from drying out.

The traditional Sami reindeer sausages on the other hand are just vile (and I even enjoy surstromming, so there).


CB

In reply to cb294:


I actually quite like those.

In reply to davidbeynon:

You have to be kidding? Or perhaps I understand. How much Schnaps did you have beforehand to make it palatable? I read somewhere that fermented herring was recognised as the worst smelling food of any culture and I've been in a Surströmning factory and can vouch for that. For the OP, starting off with a tin is perhaps not the best so I'd be tempted to follow Toby A's advice. A good reindeer inner fillet or steak can be absolutely superb, seared on the outside and then in the oven for a short while. A few years ago we bought half a frozen reindeer from a Lapp which, as we consumed its stringy meat, we reckoned must have died of old age and then he'd removed the only good bits. But that's real meat for you.....

In reply to cb294: they must be bad then! Despite being adequately warned by my Swedish friends before they opened the tin of surstromming, I thought you the drains were blocked when the smell wafted over! Even they opened it out in our the open. No wonder they need schnaps to be able and to eat it. Never again!!