Zach and I killed a few aoudad last weekend. We kept only the skulls from all but one yearling ewe that he shot the last morning. We kept the backstraps from that one. Zach had never eaten aoudad, so he wanted to try it. (I've eaten it several times before.)
If any aoudad could ever be good table fare, it would be this one.
We took the straps off the sheep withing 10 minutes of killing her. Temps were in the mid-30s. 45 minutes later, we had them in the cooler on ice, and they stayed there until we got home about 5 hours later. At home, I put them in saltwater in the fridge until I took them out a few minutes ago to cook.
I rubbed a strap down with olive oil, salt, garlic, pepper and Ragin Blaze and threw it on a hot grill and added some butter. Grilled a few minutes until medium rare, took it off and let it rest a few minutes before cutting.
It smelled exactly like aoudad while cooking. I almost just gave up at that point, but I stuck it out.
I'm sitting here eating it right now. It's not terrible. The taste is decent. Not terribly "aoudad", but not overly flavorful either. But, just like every other aoudad I've ever eaten, it is tough as boot leather. Crosscut backstrap cut into thin bites, but still VERY hard to chew.
It would OK ground into sausage or something, but it dang sure ain't axis. Zach can have the rest when he gets home for lunch in a minute.
If any aoudad could ever be good table fare, it would be this one.
We took the straps off the sheep withing 10 minutes of killing her. Temps were in the mid-30s. 45 minutes later, we had them in the cooler on ice, and they stayed there until we got home about 5 hours later. At home, I put them in saltwater in the fridge until I took them out a few minutes ago to cook.
I rubbed a strap down with olive oil, salt, garlic, pepper and Ragin Blaze and threw it on a hot grill and added some butter. Grilled a few minutes until medium rare, took it off and let it rest a few minutes before cutting.
It smelled exactly like aoudad while cooking. I almost just gave up at that point, but I stuck it out.
I'm sitting here eating it right now. It's not terrible. The taste is decent. Not terribly "aoudad", but not overly flavorful either. But, just like every other aoudad I've ever eaten, it is tough as boot leather. Crosscut backstrap cut into thin bites, but still VERY hard to chew.It would OK ground into sausage or something, but it dang sure ain't axis. Zach can have the rest when he gets home for lunch in a minute.
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