Happy Cinco de Mayo with Finnish Pulled Moose Tacos

The first restaurant I ever worked at was a Mexican joint in Napa Valley, California. I still have a soft spot for those flavors.

Tequila. Cerveza with lime. Cilantro. Cumin. Roasted chilis. Chips and salsa. Moose.

Moose?

You know my man Johannes Leppihalme from Finland is slow cooking moose while everyone else is stuck on pork, beef and chicken. When I first wrote about his moose experiments he said he was going to do pulled moose and I mentioned "fusion tacos."

He took me seriously. How seriously?

Image via ArcticBBQ.com

I've been shredding pork shoulders and found that with the nice fat cap, the Boston Butt is very forgiving. But wild game is notoriously lean. Drying it out is very easy.


How does Johannes do it? I'll let him tell you:


Yesterday was a great BBQ day. I got inspired by your vision on "fusion taco" and took a shot on pulled moose. Great success!


I had 5lb moose roast to cook. Low and slow.

Image via ArcticBBQ.com

I rubbed the meat with black pepper and placed it on the upper level of my Weber Smokey Mountain.Temperature inside the chamber was 180F in the beginning. No smoking this time.

It took 4hrs sharp to get internal temp up to 165F. Chamber temp varied between 210F - 250F during the process, I wrapped the moose in foil when temp was 130F and then continued cooking.


I was afraid that meat would get dry as it is very low fat. However, once rested in foil for 30 minutes, I started pulling it apart and it responded well. It was not as easy to pull as pork shoulder, but I can confirm it was moist, even juicy and pulled apart nicely enough.

Image via ArcticBBQ.com

Dinner was served with pulled moose tortilla "boats", chili and nachos. Excellent!

A couple of things will always be true for me regarding food:

- Mixing cultures and styles yields delicious results.

- Things wrapped in tortillas are good.

So Feliz Cinco de Mayo everyone. Keep being creative with food.


Oh, and next time you're shredding moose or anything, we suggest a pair of these:

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