Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Good Evening,

I have spent the better part of 29 years living in northern Canada (Nunavut and the Northwest Territories). First of all not all tuktu is gamey. The inuit prefer to hunt the females in the fall (males are in heat and the meat is "stinky"...aka gamey) and males in the spring (females are pregnant) however most sport hunters go after the male in the fall for the antlers for the rack for display and not the taste of the meat. First of all smell the meat. If it has a strong smell, there is a good chance it's male from the fall. If it smells like beef, then he has great patients.

Caribou is very lean and often dries out while cooking. Many locals wrap it in bacon while cooking but only after marinating. As for the marinade, any thing that you would use for beef would do.

As for eating it raw. I have eaten it many times but I wouldn't eat fall males. Way too gamey. The locals love to eat the tenderloin frozen. As for parasites, sure it's possible if you left your meat out in warm temperature for a period of time however the I haven't seen or heard of it yet.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy your meat. Outdoors on the grill should be wonderful. Make sure your bacon isn't too lean, 4-6 hours in a nice marinade and with some baked potatoes with creme fraiche, and some veggies, maybe some portabellos as well and off you go. Actually I now know what I am going to have tomorrow.

PS.....cubing it for stew with bacon, veggies, etc is wonderful. A roast of caribou will fail as like I said the meat is very lean and the roast would be too dry.

I gave up alcohol and chocolate this year. Yikes.....it's been difficult. I suspect I could put on a few pounds by the time the end of April.

I live in the Canadian arctic and have tried whale, seal and walrus. Like they say, when in Rome.......

Marshmallow fluff (can you say fluffernuter!)
Ghirardelli Bittersweet chocolate chips (2am snack with a glass of milk)
Thick Valveeta Cheese Slices