Moose. It's What's For Dinner.

I am a moose virgin no longer. Tonight I was invited to my inaugural moose dinner by my neighbors, Bill Eggimann, who has been my fellow FP on the wards this past week, and his wife Jane McClure, head of pediatrics. We feasted on moose rib meat that had been slow cooked in a crock pot. I admit I was a bit skeptical and uneasy, especially after watching so many episodes of Northern Exposure in the last 2 weeks. That moose in the intro sequence is growing on me.

Well, folks, you heard it from me first. Moose is delicious. It was tender, juicy, and much like beef brisket. Half way through dinner, in between our murmurings of how succulent it all was, Jane paused between bites and said "I'm glad you're not a vegetarian." I agreed.

The real surprise of the evening came after dinner. No, it wasn't some moose-filled desert. Or should I say mousse filled? Rather, earlier that day someone had gifted to them a quarter moose from this season's hunt. Said quarter moose was now inhabiting the garage and needed to be butchered, vacuum packed, and stored away in the freezer stat. Apparently people here are very generous with their moose, and when the moose fairy drops off a meaty gift, you accept gladly and get out your knives before it spoils.

So instead of leisurely chat and after dinner drinks, we headed down to the garage to take on the quarter moose (which, although only a quarter, was about 100 lbs of meat). The team included me (in my post as documentary photographer and vacuum bag maker), Bill, Jane, and a lawyer/hunter from Pennsylvania boarding at the Eggimann/McClure abode for a few days.

See for yourself:

Behold the moose quarter. First step is to remove any stray hairs. Yes, that's right. Hairs. For anatomical orientation, this section is one of the front legs and shoulder.

Knife sharpening is very important. Here the team is just getting started (you can tell by the small meat piles on the table being sorted into garbage, hamburger meat, steak meat, and stir fry meat.

Bill is really showing bullwinkle who is boss.

Later on in the process (note the growing piles).

Vacuum sealing and storing away for the winter. This amount of meat can last a year or more. I told them that if any cataclysmic event should take place, I'm heading to their place. Their freezer is a carnivorous, pescetarian delight. Salmon fishing season ended a few weeks ago, and like many folks here, Bill and Jane smoke and store their own salmon.

None for Snoopy, sadly for him.

It was certainly a uniquely spent evening among fascinating people. I was very grateful to get to witness the event, though I did bow out after about 2 hours. I didn't get to see Bill break out the bone saw (he uses the bones to make some mean moose stock). A quarter moose can take half the night, or so I hear. I don't think I'm quite ready to devote that kind of time to butchery. Perhaps I will tackle that one on my next Alaskan adventure. Can't expect to do it all the first go-around!