some of this is obvious, but you learn a little every time with an open mind

https://honest-food.net/gamey-meat-explained/

Interesting. I grew up processing my own game and have been doing it for the past fifty years and certainly agree with his thoughts on handling the animals. I've long said that if some folks treated prime beef the way that they handle game, they'd think it was "gamey" too. I've passed on lots of shooting opportunities over the years that were early in the season and just too durned hot.

I confess though that I am a bit confused as to why ANYBODY would butcher an old, rank boar and then be surprised that the wife (or anybody for that matter) wrinkles their nose at it. Old rusty boars are good for coyote bait and not much else, I'm afraid.

This subject is near and dear to my heart. In five days time, the She-Wolf will collect a cow elk and we'll spend the next two days processing her. She'll get dressed in the field, rinsed out and hauled home. Then I'll hang her in the barn, yank the hide off of her, quarter her and then commence to making little chunks outa big chunks. Our knives and our hands will be the only ones that touch her, and I promise you that she'll eat like candy!

Mark

Very good article for sure
Thanks to the OP for linking it here.

We've always processed all of our own game and as a young kid also processed all our own beef, pork, chickens, etc on my families farm.
I for one love the flavor of venison and always have. I've NEVER had a single steak from a deer or elk that was 'too gamey'. In fact, most of the time I wish it had a little more of the venison flavor to it.

I am the same way with fish. I do not like tilapia at all because to me it is basically flavorless. I love the fish flavor and have rarely had any fish cooked any way that I didn't like.
I've learned over the years that it is all about how you clean your game and fish. We used to catch giant flathead and bluecats down and choke canyon and let me tell you that when you clean it correctly it is better than any small catfish. The trick is to trim the fillets and get all the yellow fat and reddish brown meat along the backbone off. I do this even with the catfish we catch from our two ponds that weigh 2 - 10 pounds.

Don't get me wrong, I do love a good beef or pork steak but given the choice I'll take chicken fried backstrap or tenderloin over the best ribeye steak any day of the week!

From the neck shot to the crockpot. I do it all. I know a few people who have never eaten venison enjoy a meal at my home and still have never eaten venison to their knowledge. I will never tell them different, either.

Diet is pretty true, IMO. Both my pronghorn were handled properly, but the 2019 (drought year) PH has a much different smell and taste from my 2020 (good rain year). The abundant good graze last year kept them off the noxious weeds.

I don't subscribe to the rutting buck theory, though. I've loaded some bucks that smelled very rank and had been chasing does and the venison was very good. It may have just a little stronger venison taste but nothing bad. I honestly think that's age, not hormones.

While I don't disagree with the rutting hormones -- they all still taste fine to me -- I do believe in adrenaline issues affecting taste

I have not been a fan of any of the tilapia that i have bought from a store or eaten in a restaurant, but the ones that I have shot with a bow and cast netted at Braunig Lake and Gibbons Creek were all tasty. To me it is the farm raised aspect of the fish and likely the feed they are fed. The farm raised ones seem mushy and flavorless to me.

Agree on the adrenaline affecting the taste. A animal that has been running isn't as good as one that's calm especially during the rut.

Ive never noticed that rutting smell of a buck carry over to the meat like i have smelled rank hogs and the meat smells, especially when cooking it.

A few years ago my dad shot a buck we guestimated at 8-9 years old, teeth worn badly he was a scrapper always showed up busted up and had injuries from fighting. He didn't seem any tuffer and didn't have a bad taste/smell at all. One of my buddies shot an old buck same age range this year and swore the meat was so tuff he had to sharpen his knife more often.

I’ll agree, the Texas buck I shot this year was horrible. He looked liked he had ran the Boston marathon when I plugged him chasing a doe and even leaving him on ice for 5 days he tasted like turd soup after smoking the back straps into jerky for 14 hours. He smelt like hell when he was gutted so unless your into eating antlers he was a waste of a bullet outside him making a great mount.

This is great to know redchevy.

Next time I put some in my tanks to control the algae bloom I will not let the coons get them all as soon as the temp drops the water below a point they cannot tolerate!!!

thanks!

Hum

Very strange
I've never known anything on a buck to smell while gutting them unless you pop a gut.
I know an old rutted up buck can stink plenty good simply from being all pissed up but I've never know for that to affect the taste of it either.
No doubt if he was old and especially if he was run down from the rut he'd be tough though. I usually just grind everything up except the tenderloins and backstraps with those kind of bucks due to that.

The guts were not punctured, he just smelt like turd soup. This was the first time I’d encountered a buck smelling like this prior to even starting to gut it. I’m guessing he had been running this doe for a long “LONG” ways and he was simply running on fumes when I shot him. He was staggering around when he was shot and I was thinking watching him he was about to die of some strange alien disease but in all actuality he was simply exhausted. After I shot him the doe simply laid down immediately after the shot. She stayed there for almost an hour and got up and staggered off so it makes one wonder. How far will these rut crazed deer go to simply breed a single doe, it was the craziest thing I’ve witnessed in the wild in over 30 years of hunting.

You can see the effects of adrenaline on ducks when you cut the steaks off the breast. When you clean a duck that was a clean immediate kill the meat is soft and very flexible (limp). The same type of duck, when wounded, will have meat that is tough and not as flexible. You can even tell the difference in texture between the two on bacon wrapped grilled duck.

👍👍

I killed a buck (aged 4 years) in Kansas during the firearms season back in early December 2010. I used a muzzleloader as that was the tag/permit I had that year. Shot in the front left shoulder, he ran 40-50 yards, piled up and expired quickly. We let him hang in the cold all night and the four of us processed him after the next morning's hunt.

When we got to cutting on him, it was like cutting rubber. We thought our knives were dull, so our resident sharpener went to work and got our blades shaving-sharp. It made no difference at all. It was a lot of work cutting on this buck, and the only meat that we found edible was what I made into jerky. It was just a tough old buck and none of us had ever seen anything like it, despite killing many older or "more rutted-up" bucks.

Thanks for sharing

Guess I've been lucky.

Haven't eaten a deer yet that I though had an off flavor.

I've eaten every pig we've shot including boars up to about 250 lbs, and I haven't had a bad tasting one yet. I've had multiple that smelled horribly, but have never found that to carry over into the meat.

I'll be honest I think the "gamey" taste is in some peoples head.

My dad was gonna make chicken fried backstrap. He called me up and asked how to make it, so I told him. He then ask if he needs to leave it in milk for a while to get rid of the "gamey" taste. I told him I dont know what "gamey" taste like, and no he doesn't. He called me back after he made dinner and was so excited about how good it was. I think deer tastes like deer.

I suppose if you don't handle it right like any other meat it might not taste right. We have ours on ice within no more then 90 minutes.

Living out here in the West, all of our game animals eat sagebrush, bitter brush, willows, and at some point even quakies, or alfalfa. We have eaten a deer, elk, and antelope every year for the last 40+ years. Had 3 Shiras moose also. Pretty much, if you take care of them in the gutting, cleaning, and packaging they will be fine.

No mature rutted up bull elk will be as good as a cow, calf, or spike elk but that is to be expected. Whitetails taste a little different than mule deer, but are milder and taste like deer. The only one type we have found to be unique is a pronghorn antelope. It seems that half are wonderful, and half are terrible, and there's no rhyme or reason for the difference. We have gotten to the point that we cut a steak off a ham, fry it and taste before wasting our time. If its good, the whole thing will be good. If it's strong or bad, it's given away or turned into spicy pepperoni sticks at the processor!!

I have mostly shot white tails & Canada geese. My opinion/observation is gamey means "tastes like liver". Easily observed with geese. The meat from those killed outright is purple and will definitely taste livery unless koshered/using salt to draw out the blood. When I wounded them field hunting I ran them down & bled them. The meat was much lighter colored & stewed can be passed off as beef.

And I think corn fed Black Angus would taste "off" if handled the same way some handle dead deer. Shot in the head(instead of chest and bled out). Not gutted quickly. Hide not taken off soonest to dissipate body heat.

gamey= Wild and how it's supposed to taste.

The author of this, Hank Shaw, is one of my favorites. His "Buck, Buck, Moose" book has an almost permanent place in my kitchen. I like his recipes better than Steven Rinella.



I agree.

I have shot for sure one, if not two bucks that were just nasty tasting and smelling
both were shot with clean, DRT shots, gutted, washed and hung in cold storage in short time.
I did my part..

Family wouldn't eat it..
it tasted like it smelled

my wife basically told me not to bring home any more bucks and all I shot were does for meat..
I have shot a few cull bucks, 5 years old that I aged on ice and drained water every day for a week and half that were perfectly fine

Grass fed beef doesn't taste like grain fed beef, same for wild game.