I just bought some ostrich meat!
The new stand at the neighborhood green market is from an ostrich farm in New Jersey. Since I will try anything once, and am particularly excited about exotic meats, I happily bought a pound of burger.
So… what best goes on a ostrich burger?
Also: What’s your most exciting recent food purchase?
I first tried ostrich on a trip to South Africa. It’s really good. It has the consistency of beef, though not the exact flavor, and almost no fat. In SA, it was often accompanied by butternut squash, as a side dish, or in soup. However, I would guess that anything that goes well with a turkey burger, would work equally well with ostrich.
I’m not as certain about ground ostrich, but the tenderloin has to be cooked pretty rare, as it dries out pretty quickly due to how lean it is. Its probably the same with the burger meat. I’d cook it no more than medium rare. Its good stuff, though.
I hear it’s popular with the emu kids.
That is funny!
In regards to the OP, how much does ostrich meat cost approximately?
And for anyone - is there anywhere to get rabbit meat reasonably priced without living in a very rural area? It used to be as ubiquitous as chicken in the markets of the '50s, but you never see it anywhere today and it’s supposed to be both healthier and tastier than chicken or turkey.
Purd, I’ve seen frozen rabbit meat at Central Market. It’s in the freezer case with the other “exotic” meats - guineas, ostrich, capon, etc. Not sure it it’s exactly “reasonably priced,” since it’s at Central Market.
You could look online and have it shipped.
Concur that ostrich, like emu, is super-lean and shouldn’t be cooked past med-rare.
Yeah, I’ve looked for it online and it was on the order of $20-25 a pound. Not bleedin’ likely.
Years ago in Seattle, my friends and I held an exotic meat party. There is/was an Exotic Meat Outlet located in North Seattle.
We had buffalo steaks and emu steaks (basically the same as ostrich) wild boar patties, kangaro sausage and crocodile sausage.
Maybe you could combine it with something cheaper, like beef, to keep the cost down.
50/50. One cow, one rabbit.
I’ve had ostrich, which I received as a gift from a “rancher”. Pretty much indistinguishable from beef, IMHO. Maybe that’s why the “rancher” went bankrupt.
Having had in it steak and burger format, I can say that anything that would go with a burger (even if it is turkey burger) is fair game…
And my most exciting food purchase was a couple of hanger (or is it hangar) steaks…
I had ostrich once. I hated it. It tasted like a wet paper bag.
But I got it from a restaurant where pretty much everything sucked.
Should you cook ostrich to medium rare? It’s fowl. I wouldn’t cook a chicken or turkey to medium rare. What about ostrick makes it different?
Not all fowl has to be cooked well done. Rare duck breast, thinly sliced, is a quite a treat.
It’s “red” meat, like beef, not “white” meat like chicken. I’ve never been able to get a scientific answer - biological, molecular, whatever - why one is delicious med-rare and one is likely to make you sick, but there you go. Ostrich is not “fowl.”
Interesting. Thanks for fighting my ignorance.
I don’t think I’ve ever had rare duck.
I am one of those eaters that is willing to try anything; ostrich, lamb brains, zebra, camel, eel, alligator, most huntable game meats, horse and insects are some of the things I have tried and cooked with. There is a restaurant in Berkeley that serves Chicken Tartare which I am looking forward to trying.
We are also fortunate here in the Bay Area that a number of restaurants host “nose to tail” dinners which involve a lot of offal and parts of animals that are usually thrown away.
This gentleman was selling the patties for $10 a pound, which is more than I normally pay for beef burgers but not outrageously so.
It was still very frozen when I brought it home yesterday, so I’m going to have a burger for dinner tonight.
It is red meat. Cooked beyond medium rare it is going to be dry, unless it is cooked in a sauce. Ostrich chili is good.
Yup. Squab too.
Mmmmm…squab…
I have had pretty rare duck before, although I prefer mine to be more towards medium just for textural reasons.