Posted on 10/29/2015 8:50:51 AM PDT by w1n1
I'm often amazed at the people, deer hunters included, who tell me they just don't like venison. That statement is usually followed by a qualifier: it's tough; it's gamey; it's dry. And so on.
I've eaten a lot of good deer meat. But I've eaten some really bad deer meat, too. I'm only a self-trained butcher, but I process five or six animals each fall, and have been doing so for a decade or more.
I'm no Scott Leysath, either, but my wife and I do eat venison in some form two or three meals per week, year-round. I think we eat pretty good.
Some things consistently make venison really tasty. And some things will ruin the flavor, too. Here are a dozen of the worst offenders.
1. Poor Field Care
In the real world of hunting, things happen. We all make bad shots on occasion. And while we know not to push a deer that's been hit marginally, realize that the longer it takes for the animal to die and the farther it runs, the more adrenaline and lactic acid builds up in the animal's system and muscles. Ever had a glass of good-tasting acid? I didn't think so.
The faster a deer hits the ground and can be field-dressed, the better the meat will be. Some of the best-tasting deer I've ever had have been shot in the head with a gun. The animal is killed instantly, and the meat is uncontaminated by blood and entrails from the chest cavity. That said, head shots are risky. The lungs remain the best place to aim.
2. Failure to Cool Quickly
Internal bacteria rapidly takes over after death, expelling gases and causing the animal to bloat. That's the first step in decomposition. This process is accelerated in warm weather. Learn how to field dress a deer, and get to it ASAP. Removing those organs is the first step in cooling the animal down.
On a cold night in the "mid-30s or lowerâ€a deer can be left hanging skin-on overnight. In especially cold weather, some hunters like to age a deer in such a manner for several days (more on aging in a bit). I live in a warm climate, and most of the deer I shoot in a seasons time are during early bow season, so I don't have that luxury. When I find my deer and get it field-dressed, I plan on having it skinned, quartered and on ice within the hour.
3. Shot the Wrong Deer
Modern deer hunters are in tune with deer herd management. We've learned of practices that contribute to the health of a herd, including which deer to shoot. Given the chance, most of us want to shoot a mature buck with big antlers. Me included.
Old bucks are perfectly edible, but rarely the best. Muscles get tougher with use and stringy with age. An old buck that's spent a full autumn fighting, rubbing, scraping and chasing does will be lean. Expect chewy steaks. Same thing goes for an old doe that's burned all her summertime calories producing milk to nurse fawns. I usually make hamburger, sausage and jerky out of such animals.
For steaks, you can't beat a young, crop-fed deer. Deer that spend a summer munching on corn and soybeans have an easier lifeâ€and more fattening food sources†than those that spend a lifetime wandering the big timber in search of scattered mast and browse.
The tastiest venison I've ever eaten came from a 1 and half year-old fork horn shot through the neck near a picked corn field during early bow season.
That young deer had nothing to do all summer except get fat. Am I saying to forgo everything the QDMA is teaching and whack every young buck that walks by? No. But I am saying if a deer for the freezer is your goal, young bucks from the early season are usually good eating, and have more meat than does to boot. If you want to shoot one and it's legal, go for it. You don't owe anyone an apology.
4. Failure to Age / Purge
I've been told that aging venison on ice is a mistake, but I don't buy it. The mercury rises above 50 degrees on most days of deer season in my area. That's too warm to let a deer hang, so icing them down is my only option. I line the bottom of a cooler with a layer of ice, add my deer quarters on top of that, and then cover them with more ice.
I keep the cooler in the shade with the drain plug open and on a downhill incline. That's very important. The idea is to let the ice slowly melt and drain from the cooler. This not only keeps the meat cold, but purges an amazing amount of blood from it. Do this for at least two days, checking the ice a couple times per day in especially warm weather. (Note: if you do this without a drain plug, you'll get the opposite effect; deer quarters that are essentially marinated in bloody, dirty water. Does that sound tasty? Didn't think so.)
5. Dirty Knives and Power Saws
A deer's legs are held together just like yours: with ball-and-socket joints and connective tissue. Learn where these are, and you can cut an entire skinned deer apart within minutes with a good pocket knife. Laying into a deer's legs and spine with a power saw puts bone marrow, bone fragments and whatever mess was on the saw blade into your venison. Would you season your steak with bone fragments and wood shavings? Didn't think so.
I keep three sharp knives handy when I'm cleaning a deer. One is for field-dressing. This one will be a stout knife with a drop point for prying through bone. Another is for skinning. Though a skinning blade with a gut hook is nice to have, I've been using a long-bladed fillet knife the last couple seasons, and it works beautifully. These knives can be honed to a razor's edge and quickly re-sharpened. Other than quickly dulling a knifes edge by slicing through hair, skinning is not taxing on a knifes blade, so a flexible fillet knife works fine. Finally, I swap over to another knifeâ€again, with a heavier blade†for my quartering. The point to take from all this is to keep your knives separate so you reduce contamination of the meat with blood and hair. Read the rest of the story here.
Don’t age whitetail deer! Remove all fat (tallow), it stinks and aging deer imparts the tallow flavor.
You may age elk and moose. The fat does not stink.
Never ate blacktail/ mule deer so I don’t know about that species.
Bookmark.
People better learn to like it when things go to crap....
I’ve heard that the “gamey” taste is also greatly affected by area where the deer resides. Namely, in more marshy/swampy areas, the animal will taste more bleh than in dry, pristine wilderness like Sierras/Rockies/etc.
The secret is GRAVY! The secret to all good food is GRAVY. Sometimes called sauces by the French.
I hate the taste of fish
People here in Florida use dogs to chase deer back to the road. So the deer have been running and scared when they’re shot.
Can’t imagine they taste good.
d I feel like a fish out of water sometimes on this site lol I would love to try all of those. There’s a restaurant in Manhattan that serves them. Or I can order them online. I can hear the laughter 😊when I tell family I want to try them they look at me like I’m a serial killer lol
Deer are basically grass-fed goats, so you start with a huge disadvantage. You want good meat, go shoot a nice fat steer in a feedlot.
I cook venison meatballs and sausage in red gravy or sauce if you will (my Napolitano and Calabrese family says gravy.....my wife’s Sicilian family says sauce). You should add beef or pork fat to these.
What I really prefer, is to cut fat steaks from the rump or (prime?) rib roast (then mash flat and thin with mallet or side of a cleaver ). Marinate for 3-4 hours in a good balsamic vinegar Italian dressing. Wipe off the excess marinade and Cook on a hot charcoal grill for a few minutes on each side....leave a little pink in the middle unless that bothers you.
Not much better than that.
I have never had a whit tail dear that wasn’t highly gamey no matter who killed it, how it was butchered or how it was prepared.
It’s wild game I wish it didn’t have that gamey flavor as I don’t care for it but it’s wild game I expect it.
Probably getting farm raised European roe deer or another old world species in Manhattan. Can’t sell hunted whitetail deer in NY. Farm raising a game animal makes it no longer a game animal. It will taste different.
I started hunting in the 60s to save money on meat. Now that I no longer have the economic need to hunt, I still do but won’t just shoot to fill my freezer. My grown boys do though and I wind up with meat in the freezer every year.
Your family would look at me as a serial killer and a canibal if they saw pictures (and videos) of me and my family and friends butchering a deer or 3 in my garage.
Now that there sounds righteous, I can almost taste it!
thank you for the information. It sounds like fun with your family. I would never lie to a fellow Free Republic person. I don’t know if I could shoot a deer. I don’t care that others do I would love to watch it being cleaned up cut and cooked. It sounds fun and delicious. Maybe with a gun in my hands and deer in front of me it might be different lol
I have turned around 5-6 people who never ate venison that they liked. They were impressed All wild game needs a gentle touch. You can’t cook like a fine cut of beef or whatever. I admittedly prefer a fine beef prime rib etc. but a properly cooked piece of whitetail can be very good.
I have a limited tolerance for some fish and game. If I eat the worst of those species too much I tend to not want it for a long time.
Taste has a lot to do with how hungry one is. Dont eat for 3-4 days you’ll be surprised what tastes good.
I age all my deer 7-10 days with the hide on. My venison will rival a good beef steak. Of course this is a good corn fed Illinois deer.
I have gotten more ‘live and let live’ as I get older. The excitement is in the hunting not in the killing. It is anticlimactic and it is when the work begins. (Though not being ready to kill one if the moment presents itself takes away from the hunt...photo safaris do not have the same excitement)
One or all of my 3 kids usually tag out early, so I don’t shoot unless the deer has a phenomenal rack. So I have gone from a meat hunter to a trophy hunter and in doing so have not shot a deer in a decade, though many have passed by me.
chicken fried - AND gravy
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