It must be what you grew up on. I grew up in WY and ate mostly mulies. I think I would take one of those over a MN whitetail. That said, now that we have our own cows that get fattened on corn, I think that have an odd taste compared to the ones I always had that came off grass. I prefer elk over anything, and antelope is kind of iffy. Some are great but some I could definately do without.

Quail is my all time favorite wild game by far.

On the hoof is another story.

Antelope loins are fantastic just about anyway you cook them. Even a little on the rare side. I used them in chili once by mistake and boy that stuff was the best chili i ever made. The chunks of meat fell apart in your mouth.

The best ive had was wild but "farm raised" Caribou...more like farm fed and not really domesticated. Followed closely by young deer that have been fed a lot of grains, sweet clover and common live stock feeds. The ones with a lot of acorns in the belly taste much stronger but are still awesome in chili.

Grandpa always left a few rows of corn up for them every fall and left out other bails of feed too. I think it was alfalfa and sorghum?

Anytime i get a stronger "gamey" meat i use it in chili or curry. All that strong flavor just blends with the other strong spices pretty well.

Well I was spoiled growing up in Southern Wisconsin where the deer are all corn fed as we used to laugh. They graze in the corn, soybean, alfalfa fields, and oat fields and are about as good as a steer except they have less fat to them. Then moving up north, the deer eat a little corn I am sure, but mostly acorns, and other wild mast crops and grass. It makes a much stronger taste to them. But still very good mind you.

But the thing that really stands out is that caribou steak I ate at a friends house. It has a real wild strong taste. He said its because they hunted in a different area of Alaska that year where the caribou are not grazing on grass as much. That's why he made sausage out of it. And the sausage was excellent by the way.

I can remember when I was a kid, my dad had hunted in the swamps near Black River Falls. And he shot a huge black swamp buck. When mom started cooking a chunk of that thing, it stunk the house up so bad, even Dad complained. And my family eats lutefisk, so we know stink. He took that whole buck to a local meat market and they made venison salami out of it. Man that was so good. I still make salami (not summer sausage) out of my venison.

I think a lot of it has to do with how it is field dressed ,aged and prepared, along with what a person is use to. I usually hunt deer, and antelope. We have both Mulies and Whitetail. I have a friend who thinks Mulies are not edible. I love Mule deer. I hunt as many or more of them than Whitetail. So far this season we have already eaten 2 deer and 1 antelope. The antelope was delicious . It only lasted 4 days . We are a family of 10 so a deer goes pretty quick. I always field dress a deer immediately. Then age it at least a week. If it is hot out, like it has been here, then I age it in a cooler that we bought at a school auction. It is a milk cooler and hold 40 degrees all the time. I can get 2 deer at a time in it. If I freeze the meat then i always de-bone it so as to have a milder taste and not have any bone sour. How it is cooked also makes a big difference. Some people don't seem to be able to cook wild game without making it taste tough . And for some it's all in their head. I've had people tell me that antelope or Mule deer is nasty. I fix some and serve it without them knowing what it is and they talk about how good it is. The I love to watch their face when you tell them what it is. I did that with some snapping turtle soup i made. They loved it til I told them what it was, then I thought they were going to puke. Plus wild game shouldn't taste like corn fattened cow anyway. This concept of it having a wild gamey taste is baloney. It is wild game , that doesn't mean it tastes bad, just tastes different.

I have had just about all of the above, except for Caribou.

#1 has to be a 2 1/2 year old, corn fed ohio doe. I pull the inside loins out right when i field dress and marinade for a day. Wooooeee are they good.

#2 Elk steaks or loin!

#3 Moose

#4 Mulies and Pronghorn, Maybe its because i wasn't brought up on them, but that sage taste is different. I'll eat it and don't mind it, its just different.

My least favorite was a Barbary Sheep a.k.a. Audad that my buddy shot in New Mexico. It could have been the age of the ram but it was tough and had a taste like no other. I doubt it had much to do with the care of the meat ,as I have hunted with this guy many times and that is tops on his priority list, as it did with the age of the animal.

As for small game, nothing beat a good rabbit pot pie, or pheasant and Chukar breast injected with creamy italian dressing and wrapped in bacon!

My favorite is elk, but I've only had it a couple times.

I enjoyed moose and antelope as well, but only have had them
once.

I usually eat deer, but it depends how old they are and how the meat is taken care of. The best eating is a 2 year old doe or a button buck. With older bucks I usually take it to a processor and get sausage made.

SuperKirby - interesting you mention grass fed vs grain fed beef.

I have heard people talk about this, and notice that its more an east/west deal than anything. I guess they even have different shades in meat.

From what I know, I have always had grain fed beef, but I haven't bought any beef / pork / chicken at the store in about 4 years now, so I am not even sure, other than the cows I see on the range and the feedlots around here.

Later,

Marcial

Got to say whitetail is my favorite. Went on a hog hunt in texas and the fellas I went with brought Elk steaks and that was the best steak I ever had. Elk are too far away, however Missouri has just passed an Elk restoration project area in southern MO that will have hunting available. Can't beat hog either. Man I am hungry.