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?
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: 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 ?)
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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.
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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!
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).
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> I actually quite like those.
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!!
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