Eating Yak

People get weird about eating outside the American carnivore’s tasty trinity of beef/pork/chicken.

Even some food enthusiasts of my acquaintance turn up their schnozzes at the meat of the goat, the most widely consumed flesh on the planet.

So it was no surprise at a recent dinner at Firehouse Chicago hosted by Montana Tourism,  we saw a lot of people turning down the yak carpaccio, which was prepared by Andy Blanton, a chef at Whitefish Mountain Resort’s Café Kandahar.

I had thirds.

Now, being carpaccio, this was raw meat, which is going to scare some people right out of the box. I get that.

What I liked most about the yak was that it was extremely tender though very low fat, which is not usually a combination one can hope for.

Yak is a rather uncommon animal in this country.  The yak we enjoyed was from Spring Brook Farm in Kalispell, Montana, which is primarily a breeder of yak. According to their website, they say,

We prefer yak that are robust and stocky, never rangy or coarse. Since yak evolved in extreme climates characterized by long, cold winters a quality yak should have thick wool and a full skirt. It should also have a pronounced forelock and well-developed chaps on the front quarters.

Yak cows should be robust but feminine in appearance, exhibiting good mothering ability, plenty of milk and ease of calving. We select bulls that are masculine but not coarse, that breed aggressively yet are gentle with their cows.

Sounds like they keep some nice yak, and the yak I had was very tasty, rich and texturally pleasant.

Yaks are indigenous to the East. When my daughter Abigail came back from China, she brought us some yak jerky, which my wife took to school to share with other teachers. She got no takers. I kept some of the yak jerky around to offer friends and family when they came by: again, no takers.

Yak is a funny name. Its single syllable ends in a K, perhaps the funniest sound in the language, according to the famous comedic Rule of K.

The verb “to yak” is slang for vomiting, so it’s not surprising that some people are turned off by the idea of eating it, but I suspect many people just rebel at the thought of eating an unfamiliar animal.

Yak is a relatively unheard of menu item on most menus in most countries, though it’s been called “an ideal combination of low cholesterol, saturated fats, and calories but high poly-unsaturated fats, protein and iron.”

Most importantly, of course, yak is tasty.