Little do people know that mountain lion meat is extremely tasty. Yes anti-hunters, we do eat predator meat on occasion, so here is a big get educated moment for yourself.
Today we are going to show a brief outline of how to make Wild West Mountain Lion Pizza.
INGREDIENTS:
- favorite steak seasoning
- 1 mountain lion backstrap
- balsamic vinaigrette
- pizza dough
- 2 tomatoes
- pasta sauce
- mozzarella cheese
- basil
- 1 can olives
- artichoke hearts in olive oil (costco)
- 14″ pizza pan
First take and slowly thaw out the mountain lion backstrap in your refrigerator. Once thawed, clean the meat, rinse, dry and put in container where you can apply your favorite steak seasoning and splash with balsamic vinegrette. Let the backstraps marinate for 24hrs.
(Now is the time to make your pizza dough, or purchase your pizza crust from the store. We prefer making our own.)
Once the meat is marinated, you are ready to prepare the most unique pizza you have ever made. In our case we will be cooking on a Traeger Grill. Preheat your grill to 350F. Once preheated lay the backstraps evenly on the grill.
BBQ backstraps 5-6min each side, flipping to new grill space each time. (These times may vary depending on thickness of cuts, so watch meat closely). *Make sure the internal meat temp reaches above 150F to avoid trichinosis*
Once meat is cooked (golden tan color), remove from heat and throw rolled out pizza dough in the Traeger at 450F for 5-6 minutes. (Be sure to spray pizza pan with non-stick spray to avoid sticking)
Make sure your pizza topping are sliced and ready.
Remove pizza dough, spread pasta sauce, sprinkle on the mozzarella cheese, and apply the toppings. Add sliced mountain lion during this step. We had extra backstrap and ate the extra steaks, which were drop dead amazing by themselves.
Throw the pizza in the Traeger on high heat until crust is crisp and golden brown and the cheese is all melted.
Once cooked to perfection, remove, cut and sprinkle with basil. Enjoy and impress your friends when you tell them they are eating mountain lion!
-Travis Boughton