Czimers Market

This place should have a thread of its own imho.

I made a visit this afternoon on my way home, and I was impressed. I saw lion, buffalo, alligator, goat, ostrich, bear, goat, venison, and alot I cant remember. Steaks, chops, roasts, ribs, burgers.

They also have free range organic chickens for those who are interested in such things.

I picked up a 1# package of alligator Boudin, a rack of Wild boar St. Louis Ribs, and a rack of Wild boar spare ribs for the smoker this Saturday.

I had the choice of crawfish boudin, or alligator, and I just cant say no to alligator. Total tab for the 3 items $26.00.

I learned they make their own polish and Italian sausage fresh or smoked, they have a smoke house on premisis. I want to try their goat shoulder for jerking at a later date.

Great place, friendly staff, Ill be back, and definitely worth a trip from anywhere in Chicagoland if wild game interests you.

CZIMER'S GAME AND SEAFOOD
13136 W. 159th St.
Homer Glen, IL 60491
(708)301-0500
(888)294-6377
http://www.czimers.com

edited for spelling, grammar, and clarity

tried to go here yesterday, but they closed early... I had even called them earlier in the day to find out if they had what I was looking for in stock.

its all good, because today I have my camera with me and will take some pics.

I need some of their crawfish boudin (a little over $12/lb), or maybe some pork boudin (almost $9/lb.) Of course if anything else catches my eye I may have to grab it as well.

Hi Jim,

I'm thinking of hitting this place up this afternoon to try to pick up something for the weekend. When do you think you're heading over there?

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:Hi Jim,

I'm thinking of hitting this place up this afternoon to try to pick up something for the weekend. When do you think you're heading over there?

heading over after work. Maybe 5:00 p.m.

I used to live right down the street from Czimer's. I remeber they used to sell lion sausage which I purchased on one and occasion.

Mmmm feliney,

Jeff

I love that place.
Be shure to check out the collection of bull penis walking sticks

JasonM wrote:I love that place.
Be shure to check out the collection of bull penis walking sticks

lol, ive never seen those.

Years ago I purchased a variety of wild game from Czimer's, mainly in the form of ribs and sausage. These were all prepared and served at my now infamous Bucktown Wild Game BBQ. Perhaps the worst of these were the lion ribs. You don't see many fat lions after all. I always smile at the memory of a friend of mine gnawing on a lion rib for a while and looking over at me and asking, " So who's king of the jungle now?"

If people haven't seen it, this is a blog post from Cooking Issues (great blog, BTW) about cooking with wild game meats from Czimer's

Quite interesting, and it's inspired me to order some stuff and get it shipped over.

Way too long between visits to Czimer's for me.

Neat place, friendly knowledgeable staff. Lots of items you will find nowhere else. Unique sauces, and condiments, and all kinds of meat.

I grabbed 3#'s of applewood, a container of gumgo file, and 1# of Crawfish boudin.







inside:





display cases:










boudin from Louisiana and Gumbo File for Sundays cooking. Crawfish boudin is for a snack, the boudin and some homemade pork belly cracklins, gumbo file is for the chicken, sausage & okra gumbo:






this place isnt cheap, but alot of different items that may or may not be found elsewhere in the area.

Hey Jim!

Have you been to two of the Eastern European deli's near there, in Lemont? Celina's is one...you can park there and also go to (I think it's called) Peter's. Something like that. At the smaller one, Peter's, they have some nice sticks. Try a few different ones, including the hunter sticks and the cold smoke hunter sticks. Oh...Celina's has some raw polish sausage that I'm going to smoke tomorrow.

I'm sure you've also stopped by Uncle Bub's, in Westmont...again...just down the road a bit more.

*cheers*
dan

gonefishin wrote:Hey Jim!

Have you been to two of the Eastern European deli's near there, in Lemont? Celina's is one...you can park there and also go to (I think it's called) Peter's. Something like that. At the smaller one, Peter's, they have some nice sticks. Try a few different ones, including the hunter sticks and the cold smoke hunter sticks. Oh...Celina's has some raw polish sausage that I'm going to smoke tomorrow.

I'm sure you've also stopped by Uncle Bub's, in Westmont...again...just down the road a bit more.

*cheers*
dan

thanks for the tips on the delis.

Sure Ive been to Uncle Bub's about 5 minutes from my work, I havent been in a while though.

jimswside wrote:

JasonM wrote:I love that place.
Be shure to check out the collection of bull penis walking sticks

lol, ive never seen those.

Inspired by Mr. Hammond's "Would You Eat Lion Meat?" discussion, I decided to take my wife and two sons on a trip down south for our inaugural visit to Czimer's Wild Game Market. Upon entering, the atmosphere transforms you to the north woods of Wisconsin. It's definitely got a rustic, manly feel to it, the air thick with the scent of wild game flesh. Initially, one could suffer from a severe case of sticker shock when looking at all the meats in the butcher cases. But really, I feel like I left Czimer's with a bounty of food for quite a reasonable price.

As pointed out a number of times in this thread, the proprietors of this place are very pleasant and eager to help you out with suggestions for recipes, methods of cooking, etc. I thought about trying some rattlesnake meat, but balked when told the going price was $55/lb. That price made rattlesnake the most expensive meat on sale in the market by a long shot.

I left with two bison ribeyes (each 0.9 lbs), four 1/3 lb elk burgers, a pound of venison loin steaks, a pound of crawfish boudin, one smoked pheasant leg, and one bag of llama jerky. All of this for $105. Not bad when you consider this will make 4 dinners for my family of four plus the pheasant and llama for snacks. It helps that my wife and youngest son are light eaters.

While I'm eager to try everything, I'm most intrigued by the llama jerky. It doesn't have the brown dried, tough texture of a typical jerky. It's actually pliable and a dark pink color. It's not what one would think of as jerky at all. My wife actually questioned whether it was edible in its current state. But the package clearly says "ready to eat" and it was made with salt, honey, garlic, dextrose and sodium nitrate. It looks fantastic. Almost like shavings of deli meat. I'll report back on this after I've sampled some later. A huge pre-Czimers brunch still weighs heavily in my gut.

I tried the llama jerky last night and can definitively say it is not jerky. When I opened the package and took out a slice of the meat, it was apparent the meat was quite moist. The meat covered my finger tips in an oily residue. The meat itself had the texture of a thick cut proscuitto. The llama had a nice smokey, well seasoned taste to it. Quite rich too. I had three slices of the meat before I put it away for later. A little goes a long way. For $3.59 a bag, I'd definitely get it again. Plus it would be fun to bring to work and freak the hell out of my less than adventureous coworkers. My coworkers include people who won't eat seafood, who think Greek food is some kind of alien cusine, who don't know what truffles, crawfish or pancetta is. You get the picture.

Speaking of pictures, here is a picture of our bounty yesterday. Going clockwise from the top we have: venison loin steaks, bison ribeye, elk burgers (covered by butcher paper), smoked pheasant leg, llama "jerky" and crawfish boudin in the center.

Seamus wrote:I tried the llama jerky last night and can definitively say it is not jerky. When I opened the package and took out a slice of the meat, it was apparent the meat was quite moist. The meat covered my finger tips in an oily residue. The meat itself had the texture of a thick cut proscuitto. The llama had a nice smokey, well seasoned taste to it. Quite rich too. I had three slices of the meat before I put it away for later. A little goes a long way. For $3.59 a bag, I'd definitely get it again. Plus it would be fun to bring to work and freak the hell out of my less than adventureous coworkers. My coworkers include people who won't eat seafood, who think Greek food is some kind of alien cusine, who don't know what truffles, crawfish or pancetta is. You get the picture.

I cooked up some llama steaks on Halloween, and it was not a moist meat, certainly not "rich," so I suspect this llama jerky probably has some other fat or oil added. Probably a good thing.

I've had "moist" jerky before (e.g., some bacon jerky in Montana) and I believe the term "jerky" is misapplied in that case and in the case of your llama. Jerky, as I understand the concept, is supposed to be meat that, having been dried and sometimes salted, does not require refrigeration.

That said, next time I'm at Czimer's, I'll pick up some of llama jerky.

Has anyone been to Czimer's more recently than 2013? The phone numbers on their website are no longer in service, and there aren't any posts on their Facebook page in years.

Yelp advises this location is closed.

JoelF wrote:Has anyone been to Czimer's more recently than 2013? The phone numbers on their website are no longer in service, and there aren't any posts on their Facebook page in years.

http://www.oakpark.com/Dining/Blogs/12- ... lack-Bear/