I rolled the dice a bit when I jumped into raising yak. I was looking another critter to go along with my elk and they seemed like a good choice for many reasons, but I'd never actually tried yak meat before I made the decision.

Fortunately, yak meat is even better than I had ever anticipated! It is amazing! I think it may be my favorite meat  now. What makes it so special? I'm so glad you asked!

As you can see, it really isn't that different looking from very lean beef. In a lot of ways, it really tastes a lot like it, too... but it tastes a bit more robust. A bit more savory. And a lot more juicy, tender, and delicious, if you ask me. Because yak came about in the very high elevations of the Himalayas, it physically changed the meat to allow for the reduced oxygen atmosphere. Those changes mean that this meat, despite being very lean and healthy, is very juicy and tender when cooked.

Seriously, the first time I grilled a couple of steaks, I almost overcooked them because the meat does not firm up and dry out like beef when cooked. I have to use a thermometer when I cook yak steaks because I can't tell how done they are without it! What does that mean? It means you don't have to work so hard not to ruin a yak steak like you do with elk or venison (or even beef, for that matter). Yak steaks are tender and juicy despite how lean they are and it makes for an amazing eating experience!

I like to keep it simple and pan fry them in a little butter with a sprig of fresh rosemary for an aromatic flair. So, so good.

Here we have a tenderloin on the left and a New York strip steak on the right. I love the color and flavor the butter gives to these steaks! I made these steaks especially for photographing to show you how amazing they are, but I ended up eating both steaks as soon as I thought I took enough photos. I just couldn't stop - they were so good!

So juicy and delicious! These were cooked to medium rare (130F by a probe thermometer), but look how juicy and delicious they look. And, trust me, delicious they were! 

Not only does yak taste great, but it is a healthy and more environmentally friendly choice than beef. Yak has roughly half the calories and less than half the fat of beef and yak utilize about one third the feed to produce meat as beef does. Sounds like a win, win, win to me! 

​Before I married my husband and embarked on a fifteen year journey of suburban living all across America as a military wife, I spent my formative years working cattle and horse ranches out west. The deal when we got married was that I'd follow him around until he retired, but when he did, I got to have a farm. But I expected to be raising cattle! Or maybe horses or pigs or something. You know... something normal. Something commonplace.

Never did I expect to be raising such unusual stock as elk and now yak. Previously when I was farming/ranching, the question of what I did for a living did not consistently blossom into a lengthy and involved conversation as it does now. People want to know. Elk? You raise elk? What are they like? How does that work? They are so curious and I have come to be so fond of raising these critters, that it is a pleasure to take the time to answer. 

 Watching Little Girl grow has absolutely been the highlight of my time on the farm so far. What an amazing privilege I have to be the steward of her life... to make sure that she can experience what it is to be an elk in a way that is fulfilling to her. Can I replicate the exact kind of life she would experience in the wild? Of course not. Although I might argue that her life with me here is in many ways better than what she would experience out there. In my care she will never know hunger. It is unlikely she will ever have to fend off predators trying to take her or her calf. And when her time is done, she will have a clean, quick end. Nature doesn't often provide that. 

I didn't intend this post to end up about death, but when you raise animals for food, inevitably, that's where you end up. Raising meat animals is a huge responsibility and I take that responsibility very seriously. Fortunately, harvesting is a teeny, tiny part of being a farmer. Most of the time, I get to enjoy caring for these amazing animals and doing everything in my power to make sure that their lives are as fulfilling and comfortable as possible. And I may take a picture or two of them.

Or maybe five or a thousand. What an amazing job I have.