Corned Nilgai

Corned beef isn’t just for St. Patrick’s Day and you don’t have to be Irish to appreciate it.  As a matter of fact, if you are of the adventurous sort and make it yourself, you can have it anytime you want. And if you are REALLY  risk taker, you can try your hand at making it with game. 

Hank Shaw, who is the ultimate game guru, makes a corned venison that it is so perfect, you may never buy corned beef in the grocery store again https://honest-food.net/corned-venison-recipe/

I decided to try my hand at Corned Nilgai because I had a nilgai roast that was tougher than nails and so thought it might be better if I roughed it up and marinated for a week or so.  Nilgai, if you aren’t familiar with it, is a type of antelope that is native to India.  Some enterprising  stockmen in Texas raise them for hunters who want to try hunting them but don’t want to go to India to do it. 

My boyfriend, affectionately known as “The Average Caucasian Hunter” as opposed to “The Great White Hunter” brought one to me from Texas.  We butchered it together and froze it as mostly stew and ground meat.  It makes one of the best hamburgers you’ll ever have, by the way.

Basically, this is Hank’s recipe, with a few changes and a different cooking method. 

The cooked meat was fall to pieces tender with a sweet, peppery flavor that was good with sauteed cabbage, made into a hash and also a succulent Rueben sandwich a few days later.

If you don’t have any nilgai, venison is fine too and as a last resort, you can try it with plain old beef.  It’s worth the effort.

You will need to get some pink salt also known as Instacure #1 or sodium nitrate which can be hard to find.  I bought mine on Amazon. It is called pink curing salt and is not the same thing as Himalayan Pink Salt.

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