Raw and Fried Blackbuck

The blackbuck is a beautiful antelope native to India. I was surprised by this, thinking that it was an African antelope. The male blackbuck has distinctive long, cylindrical, spiral, ringed antlers, a black upper body and face, and white on the underside, around the eyes and on the inside of the legs. Males become almost all black with age. The female has the same white coloring, but is tan where the male is black and is without antlers.

This blackbuck picture was taken from Wikipedia.

I took this picture of a blackbuck at a zoo in Memphis years ago. Note that the white undersides and insides of the legs have nearly all turned black.

I was able to get some blackbuck ribeye from Anshu Pathak at Exotic Meat Market. I'm not sure where he got it, but I find that blackbuck are hunted on ranches in Texas where they were transplanted and now roam wild.  

Blackbuck ribeye steaks. 

The ribeye is dark red, attached to a small semi-circular shaped rib bone, and cut thinly, the same thickness as the bone. There is virtually no fat.  The meat is dimpled in the pictures because of the packing plastic it was wrapped in. First, I tried the blackbuck raw. It was very, very mild, unlike the pronghorn antelope or nilgai antelope meat that I've had before, both of which were quite gamy.  

Next I put the ribeyes in a frying pan with a little canola oil and browned the meat lightly on both sides and lightly salted and peppered it. It was still very rare inside. I liked it better a little cooked. It retained its very mild flavor and the salt brought out some more taste.

Pan fried ribeyes.

A cut edge reveals the rare meat inside.

I have a little more blackbuck to try using a different cooking method at a later date.