>You've done a disservice to the game lovers of the group. I assume
>that the elk was Roosevelt or Tule version considering your
>BC/Washington locale. What sort of roasts did you get--backstrap? Or
>hind quarter? Bone in or bone out?

I got one of eac, no bones, and sliced the backstrap into thick steaks. Froze
the other one for later use, though I much prefer them fresh.
Not sure which species it was - my client, the deli owner from the Black Forest
area in Germany was the hunter


>And, you don't mention the cooking of the steaks--grilled, pan-fried,
>broiled? Larded? Basted? And, then there's the sauce which you've left
>hanging. Mushrooms? Cherries? Berries? Juniper?


Pan fried, served quite rare (is there any other way?) with a poivrade sauce -
a veal reduction, red wine reduction, shallots, seived and finished in the
usual way with butter.


>Gotta confess that I never considered Barbaresco or any Italian-style
>wines with elk, nor Cornas. I like the Cornas, but will give the
>Barbaresco a try as well. My leaning is usually toward cabernet or
>with the fruity sauces, a big dark Pinot Noir.

The Nebbiolo works really well with game.

>Also, never considered referring to elk meat as "venison" which I
>always associate exclusively with deer. But, my handy Webster's
>(not-so) New World Dictionary tells me that venison can be applied to
>all game meat (although I'm not sure about gnu, kudu or dik-dik
>"venison".)

I'm not sure I want to talk about your 'dik-dik' on this group.
Locally, we apply the term 'venison' to anything in the deer family.
Preferably without front bumper marks on the carcase, but it doesn't do to be
too picky......

Lat time we had a gift of venison, I had a bit of a blow-up with a guest I'd
mistakenly (as opposed to moose-steakenly) invited when I refused to give him
any meat after he asked for it well done. I DID offer to char a beefsteak for
him, but I guess he was insulted that I wouldn't ruin a great piece of game to
please him. What would you have done?

And when cooking such things, I shy away from adding too much sweetness to the
sauce as it does the wines no favours and often fails to complement the meat as
well. I have done a quite successful pomegranite sauce for medallions of
venison, mind you......