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.
I don’t think she was faking, her face turned bright red and she tried to hide her tears.
Yeah i’ve experienced almost no outdoors at that level. Still time at 47. 2nd time i’ve mentioned my age today. Late mid life crisis. :)
I didn’t read the whole article but my Dad always taught me the first thing to do is to slice across just above the scent glands to keep that from migrating. Whether this works or not, all I know is that we never had any gamey tasting venison or elk.
I have a friend whose folks own a large cattle ranch in north central Oregon and he brought over some beef for us. The cattle there were raised on range grass, cheet grass, and sagebrush and then sold to a feedlot to finish. It was the worst tasting meat I had ever eaten and I shot plenty of deer in the same country that never tasted anything like that.
...I never understood the whole issue with "game" taste...
...why folks want their deer to taste like cow, their ducks to taste like chicken and their dolphin to taste like flounder is beyond me...
...guess I'm just weird, I've always enjoyed the variety of flavors each species provides...
Me, too. My mother would bake fish and it would be dry and stank like old fish.
Then we moved to a town next to the Columbia River, and my Dad took me ocean fishing over the Columbia River bar.
Ocean fishing for salmon was awesome. And the fish tasted superb.
Halibut from Alaska is also very good and clean.
I am not impressed by trophies hung on walls, and unlike your visitor, I am from the west coast where hunting and fishing was part of my family’s life.
We have an 8-1/2 foot-long striped Marlin hanging on the wall. I keep offering it to various bars and taverns, but so far, to takers.
I am not a Liberal.
You shot Cape Disappointment its on my bucket list so cool
Well at least you lost all your guns when the boat went down
We can hope its mid life
If the venison “tastes like crap”, maybe it’s from the hind end and needs to be wiped first! (Just a little joke ... I like venison ... especially when it doesn’t “taste like crap”!)
Guns? What guns?
Thanks. That was nice :)
i’ll spill the beans. 430 last year. 320 now. 250 by summer?
we’ll see :)
BTTT
You don’t burst into tears at the sight of a trophy, either.
I'm too cynical to comment on that.
They taste fine. I’m from N Fla and have cooked and eaten many dog chased deer. The secret is in the preparation of the meat. You can’t just take a piece of venison and throw it on the grill and put a little salt and pepper on it and get a good outcome.
If its bloody I soak it in saltwater overnight to get the blood and gamey taste out. If not I marinate the meat in my homemade citrus marinade overnight which tenderizes the meat and gets the gamey taste out. If its a roast I make little slits in the roast and push garlic cloves in then slow roast in the oven for about 4-5 hours on a low heat. You can cut it with a fork and it tastes like roast beef. Gravy on the side is always good too.
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