Corned Elk and Pastrami too!

Corned elk and vegetables dinner!

I recently learned that it is really easy to make elk pastrami. In the old days I had a really elaborate recipe (click here for old recipe) where I made corned elk without the pink salt (Julia Childe corned beef recipe), and then actually smoked it. What I recently learned is that you do not need to actually smoke corned elk to make pastrami. Instead you coat it with a smoked paprika and coriander rub and bake it covered in tinfoil in the oven. So simple and it is really good pastrami. It is BETTER than the elk pastrami I've had that was actually smoked (and ends up too dry).

My old corning recipe was a little complicated too. Rather than a brine I used a dry rub and pressed the meat with a weight on top, and turned it every day. This time I used an actual brine and added the pink salt (nitrate). (click here for the basic recipe that I used). So much easier and the pink salt makes the meat pink like the corned beef you buy in the store. My old 'grey' corned beef was probably better for you health-wise, and actually tastes about the same but it does not look anywhere near as tasty when you cut it up. Grey meat just does not look appetizing.

Anyway, I cut up a big elk roast and corned all the pieces in a brine. Then I made pastrami with about half the pieces and kept the rest in the refrigerator and had a couple of corned elk dinners over the next couple of weeks. So easy!

Patrick
 

A piece of corned elk that I turned into dinner (above)

Sliced elk pastrami

Coriander and paprika spice rub for making the pastrami

260 pounds of ground meat

 

180 pounds of elk burger

We did the annual burger grind and hunting season is now officially over! I have not hunted anything since October, but in my mind hunting season is not over until all the burger meat has been ground up and packaged.

And this year there was a LOT! We ended up with 180 pounds of elk burger and 80 pounds of deer Italian sausage. That is 260 pounds total of ground and packaged meat. 

Suffice it to say but it is not all my meat. It is the combined ground meat of 4 different hunters. Still, I have all the ground meat I'll need for the next year. I got meat!

Patrick 

Fall Hunting Videos

 

Hanging elk quarters back at the boat

It's almost the end of the year. It's time to look back and reminisce about 2025. Lately I worked on a couple of videos documenting this Fall's hunting trips. And Philip, as usual, made one about the elk hunt.

Here is the link to the elk hunt video (Click here for hot link) and the address is also below:

https://vimeo.com/1129029356?share=copy

Further down are the other links along with a couple of photos and a blurb about each hunt.

Patrick

Camp two on the south end

This was a week long float trip on Kodiak's south end. I had not floated a Kodiak river in a few years. Fall on the south end is quite colorful. Click here for hot link to video - 2025 float hunt video. The address is below.

https://youtu.be/Y7gsSdtMxO8?si=JE7ebGnOyaZK7Nao

Glass Ball equals successful hunt!

The last video documents a 'hunting' trip to Shuyak Island. I explored this area while on an archaeological survey in the Spring. It was so beautiful and there were so many deer that I decided to go back. But I put hunting trip in quotations because we only saw one deer and the only thing we harvested were mushrooms. But it certainly was beautiful!

Click here for 2025 Shuyak hunt video. The web address is below.

https://youtu.be/O9DJGeKDX9Q

Shuyak Hedgehog mushrooms with roasted veggies

Live King Crab

 

One of my favorite Kodiak activities is buying live king crabs directly off the boat that caught it. Not many place in the United States where you can do this! For the last few days down at the docks the F/V Silver Spray has been selling live king crabs. And so yesterday I pitched in with a group of friends and bought some.

We then cleaned them and cooked them up in huge pots.  It took a couple of hours but we ended up with a lot of king crab. We then had a king crab feast and I ate so much crab I could barely move. Freshly cooked king crab is an order of magnitude better than cooking it from frozen.

But we'll have plenty of frozen crab for later in the year too. I took some clusters home and froze them directly on the coils in the freezer.  Then this morning I dipped them in icy salt water to put a rime glaze on the outside.  This will protect the crabs from drying out and getting freezer burn. I plan on dipping them once more to make the glaze thicker and then will bag and put them in a box in the freezer to further protect them.

Nothing better than king crab in the freezer for an easy winter meal.

Patrick

The elk boat

 

On the elk hunt our base camp is the 50 foot seiner Columbia. Including the skipper there are seven of us on board. Normally when fishing a seiner will carry 3 total - so space is a little tight. I'd characterize it as comfortable but crowded. However, on the boat we do eat very well. Every morning I cook up hash browns, scrambled eggs and sausages. And for dinners members of the elk crew bring along specially prepared meals.  Philip's Elk Bourguignon served on mashed potatoes is always a HUGE hit. And then 'there's beer on the boat'. Still things are not so comfortable that we are not disinclined to go onshore 'to rough it' in the teepee.

The best part about having a boat as our base camp is that it can move around. When we are on shore we can go anywhere coastal and when we get there the boat can pick us up. Your typical elk base camp is a fixed place by a beach or on a lake, and your range is limited.

Patrick

Practicing putting on the survival suits - 'Gumby suits'

Life 'on the beach'

 

Here are some 'on shore' pictures from the elk hunt. Our base camp is a big fishing boat the Columbia. And when we go ashore we carry our camp with us. At the end of every day we camp where we end up. We carry one big teepee with a woodstove, a meat shelter, and a smaller teepee for 2. Four hunters sleep in the woodstove tent and two in the 'mother-in-law' tent.

On this trip we went ashore with 3-4 days of food. We had enough food to hike all the way across Afognak if we did not see elk in the first 2 days. But on the second day ashore we found elk near our first camp. And after butchering the elk we took the meat back to the first camp and re set up camp in the same spot.  One of the big chores at every camp is cutting and splitting wood for the stove. And we already had split wood at that camp leftover from the first night.

Then after finding and harvesting the elk the rest of the time on shore is spent ferrying heavy loads of elk meat.  First we carried it all to camp where we set up an electric fence. Then we ferried the meat in 2 loads down to the boat.

Patrick

Post hunt activities

 

Nick with a 'dino' sized elk rib

Thursday evening we got back to town and unloaded the boat. And so began the post hunt activities. The most immediate activity was meat care.  We hung all the elk quarters in my shed and put all the loose 'kibbles and bits' pieces of meat onto dry game bags in a refrigerator to chill.  Philip took all the elk ribs home, cut them up, and started cooking them 'sous vid' style in coolers. He cooks them for something like 36 hours at 150 degrees, and on Saturday night we had the post hunt elk rib feed (see top picture).

Then on Friday we cut up and processed elk meat all day long (no pictures).  My living room was all meat on tables and people cutting. We filled up all my freezers completely with meat.  In the end, including ribs, we ended up with about 550 pounds of packaged elk meat - about 75 pounds per person. 

Ray's wife Julie came down from Anchorage to help cut up the meat and help Ray get his share of meat back to Anchorage (they took back three coolers of elk and fish). And on Saturday she joined Nick and I for a hike up Monashka Mountain with the dogs. Julie likes to come down and visit Kodiak because she worked here in the past and has lots of friends to visit while she is here.

Then on Saturday night we divided up all the elk meat and had the elk rib 'feed'. Philip and Brooks did the ribs and they were amazing. They cut most of them up into manageable sized pieces but kept a few HUGE for laughs.  These were the 'dino-sized', 'Fred Flintstone' portions.

And so ended the elk hunt.

Patrick

unloading the boat

Elk ribs Sous Vid ing away

Looking north to where we were hunting elk

Frost in the yard!

A not very smart spike