buffalo, venison, wild boar, ostrich, goose, rabbit, goat, frog legs, eel, octopus, abalone
Most of that stuff has been on my menus too. Good suggestions. Haven't used goat where I currently am, would be curious if people would go for it. Somehow I don't think so, but maybe I can find something. I used to rub it with a spicy chermoulah-style sauce and marinate it for a day or two. Then braise it and pick the meat. It was pretty good--the strong spices helped cover some of the gaminess up, but I don't really mind a little gaminess in my meat. But then, some customers think lamb chops are too gamey, so yeah.
Haven't done abalone...how do you prepare it? That could be fun.
Thanks again!
Hanger steak is a great piece of meat. It gets a really bad rap from people that just don't understand it. It's cheap out of the box, but very time-consuming on the trim-out. You can do it fast if you are either very good or don't mind smaller chunks (large stew sized). It's not bad if you've got a grinder and can repurpose the good trim. Hanger burgers are very tasty. About 5 years ago I worked in a butcher shoppe where we couldn't get it out fast enough. We would sell out every day. Another thing is that it can be tricky on the cooking and serving. The grain runs funny and if you cut it wrong you've got a problem. Anyway ... it's a great steak in my opinion. YMMV.
I personally love hangar steak, I just don't know if I could sell it where I am. It's actually one of my favorite cuts. But your first sentence is one of the reasons I don't know if it would work...people don't know about it or understand it.
I might look into bistro filets. I've heard of them before but have never tried to source them. I'll have to check. Looks intriguing and also like it might fit the bill.
There are some really good suggestions there. I would definitely look towards game meats, if you customers would buy it as well as octopus. We used to get antelope from a ranch in Texas, can't quite remember the name right now (Broken Arrow maybe?).
Yes, the same old, same old can get boring for a chef, but you have to remember to put yourself into the customer's shoes. For many of them, they are looking for those familiar proteins. That doesn't mean that you only have to do those, but it's hard to get away from them.
Yeah, I tend to think of game as more fall/winter. I do venison in the fall which always goes over well. Rubbed it with coffee and cocoa, was a hit. I've done octopus, it was good, people liked it. I might do it again for the summer.
Yeah Broken Arrow is a thing. They raise great meat, really good stuff, but their prices are insane. Prohibitively insane.
I guess I was just in a little funk last night trying to come up with some menu replacements, not really feeling any of the big 3 steaks.
Beef tongue is sorely underused, have even had it ground and tubed up like a sausage and deep fried, delicious. Crawfish and oysters are also underused but only because they're my favorites [emoji]128512[/emoji]
Thats a good idea. I did beef tongue a while back (we made pastrami with it and served it with braised cabbage and other stuff) but it's been a minute since we did it. It was good because it was in a familiar form (pastami) but still let people feel adventurous about eating it, even though there isn't really anything scary about it.
Crawfish is good, doesn't really grow where I am though. I actually was looking at one point doing a riff on the classic chicken/crawfish thing, but then I chef I'm familiar with put it on his menu, so I didn't want to be accused of ripping him off, even though I technically wouldn't be.
I can get really good oysters, just not the right time of year
Thanks people, keep it coming.