Best quality venison / game meat

Hi everyone,

Which indigenous US animal provides the best tasting venison / game meat?

I get that the following all play a role in the quality of meat:
- Age of the animal
- Gender
- Time of year
- What they have been feeding on
- Shot placement
- Stress level leading up to death
- How promptly the animal was gutted
- How long the carcass hung in the coldroom for

So let's say its a mature female animal in good condition that has been feeding mainly off natural vegetation. The animal was not stressed prior to the shot and was cleanly killed. It was gutted promptly and the carcass hung for say a minimum of 5 days in the coldroom to ripen. If you lightly seasoned some meat from the backstrap and fried / grilled it, would there be a clear winner i.t.o. which species produces the best-tasting meat?

I would have set up a poll but I don't know the US species well enough and so I probably would have left a few important ones out.

Which meat I must definitely order if I ever get the opportunity to visit the States?

Elk or black bear.

If we are judging it off the backstrap and only native animals I would say Elk out of the meats I've had.

But, if you would to try some good meat I wouldn't limit it there. I'm not 100% sure what you have in South Africa, but Axis and Nilgai is an exotic animal to the states with a strong population in Texas. It also has great flavor.

I'm really partial to wild pig smoked sausage. It just tastes different than any other sausage I've had. Not sure if you have Sus scrofa in South Africa, but I would definitely try and get my hands on some good sausage.

Axis(doe) are not indigenous to the States but ranks number one on my list of game meats.

For indigenous it would be elk IMO.

The most common exotics here are Fallow Deer, Barbary Sheep and European Wild Boar. But if you look hard enough you can find limited Red Deer, Asian Water Buffalo, Axis Deer, Indian Blackbuck, Mouflon and Lechwe (from Botswana/Zambia).

I've shot a number of Fallow Deer and rate their venison quite highly.

I've had some "Wild" Boar the other day from farmed/fed animals and it was excellent.

Our local wild pigs - warthog and bushpigs - have tasty meat. I once made warthog spare ribs and they were delicious. We also make sausage, salami and keep some cuts to roast and for stew/curry.

Wild pig is excellent meat and a staple in my family, I also make all sorts of sausages with it.

Axis is easily my favorite game meat, followed by various Afrrican game, Nilgai, Elk.

Elk and Pronghorn is my favorite for indigenous game

Moose is dang good but not as available as pronghorn and elk which are also great

If including game birds Sandhill Crane are fantastic

European wild boar is Sus scrofa. The same species we have here. I like the ribs off of the big(125+ pound) ones. Oddly enough, I don't care much for the backstraps on them.




Yes, sir! We keep about 5 in our freezer year round and never let it get below 3. We eat it at least once every week.

In order that I’ve had
Elk
Axis
Not from here - caribou

I need to try axis...

Elk
Axis (exotic)
Nilgai (exotic)
Whitetail
Wild hogs - just don't expect bacon or ribs - not much better than a shoulder of a sow bleeded out in ice for 5 days and then slow smoked

Why not ribs? We eat them every now and then. Shoulder pulled pork and ribs below.

Those look great Thisbeer.

I love feral pork ribs, especially from the big boars that come out of the corn crop country here. I also started frying them 7-8 yrs ago. Just split them with the sawsall & clean them up, drop them necked into hot grease and fry until crispy, then toss them in your favorite Cajun seasoning like you would cracklins. Goes great with cold beer.

1. Axis
2. Elk
3. Sandhill Crane

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Looks great!

It seems many of y’all have no idea which animals are native to Texas, or the United States.
SMH

Native
1. Whitetail
2. Pronghorn
3. Mule Deer

Exotics
1. Axis
2. Gemsbok
3. Addax

Elk.

Looks like Elk is a winner.

If only I could send you a few kg of kudu/impala/warthog meat in exchange for sending me the same quantity of elk

Does elk meat have much fat? Most of our game here in South Africa has very little to no fat even when in excellent condition. The kidneys may be covered in fat but the carcass itself will have no fat or only tiny fat deposits here and there. In addition, what little fat there is is nothing to write home about - it's quite hard and white and sticks to your palate. The exceptions are warthogs, bushpigs, zebra and exotic fallow deer. Zebra fat is bright yellow and not palatable at all. In fact, it stinks and you must remove all of it if you want to enjoy the meat. The fallow deer stags put on a lot of weight (and fat) before the rut and their fat tastes good and adds succulence. I imagine whitetail and elk might be the same?

I have not killed an elk with very much fat, one with a little around the kidneys but very little else. Whitetail deer most do not have much fat but if the groceries are good like ones I have killed around soybean fields some have a lot of surface fat one doe was covered with an inch to 1.5 inches almost all over mos not that much though. The meat off the deer a good bit of fat is usually very good but the fat its self not as good. That most of the fat on our deer is external to the muscles and very little to no marbling that one very fat doe did have a little marbling in the muscles but not much.