comndr45

I don't get it. Maybe I've only gotten the meat from very knowledgeable butchers, but I've never had a piece of venison that was the least bit gamey. I have never used the milk trick either. My steaks come wrapped with some bone still in there. Some of the roasts do, too. I must be missing something, and I'm glad I'm missing it. My venison steaks, tenderloins, etc. all taste very much like beef, and they certainly aren't gamey. Are there a bunch of bad processors and butchers out there. I have in-laws that claim to have had gamey venison, but I swear it must be in their head. Either that or the two butcher's I've used are just very good at processing the meat without the gaminess.

by23856

I don't like venison much either, but I love to hunt. That's what it's all about for me, matching wits and skill against the deer's. That's why I mainly bow hunt, and have started ground hunting more. The tougher I can make it on myself, the more enjoyable when I am successful. But I live in area with a lot of deer. If there wasn't as many, I would probably hunt from treestands almost exclusively. I don't want to make it that tough!!!

Like livbucks said, I'm trophy hunting and all else walks. In the order of meat preference, I am beef, pork, chicken, venison. No cut on a deer can compare to a Nebraska Beef steak. I like a few back straps, and the ground met is great for chili, gives it a richer flavor, but all else I give to friends.

Monroe Archer

First of all I think its great that if you don't like the taste of venison that you do give it away to either people who need the meat or people who enjoy it. The first key to prevent gamey meat is to make sure that the animal is field dressed properly and quickly. I am lucky to have a buddy of mine butcher my deer for me. Prior to butchering we rinse out the body cavity with water and age the deer for a couple of days by hanging it outside. As part of the butchering process every piece of the silver skin is removed and the meat is deboned. I've never had a gamey piece of meat. I have seen several deer cutting businesses that due to an abundance of kill simply lie the animals to be butchered outdoors (subject to sun and rain) until they get the chance to process. This way of doing business will not lend itself to a good product. I consider eating venison as a delicacy with the loin steaks my favorite sauteed quickly and topped with a red wine butter and mushroom sauce.

livbucks

I shoot coyotes and leave them for the bears to eat

adams

A lot of a deer's flavor comes from what they diet on. I remember 1 specific deer that was full of hemlock browse and boy was the meat gamey. You couldn't burn that nasty flavor out of it[:'(]. Luckily this isn't the rule. That was the only deer I can truly say I didn't enjoy.

RomanWild

I didn't start hunting until I was 29 years old. Before that most if the venison I had was gamey. But a few times it was good.

After some study and now, real world experience I have come to the conclusion that it's a lot of factors:

Clean kill. Put it down with a good clean shot. Don't take chances. If your not sure let it go.

Don't chase it. Adreniline will make it gamey for sure.

Gut it immediatley and cool it off quick. Wash the blood out of the chest cavity. Cornell did a study and there is no advantage to letting it hang. Better to get it into your butchers cooler if he has one.

I agree that you should get the fat and silver membrane off as well. If there is gameyness it will manifest it's self there.

Knowing how to prepare it doesn't hurt either. Most people overcook it.

I personally prefer it to any other meat. I harvested 4 deer last season and gave one away. I'm single and managed to eat all three before the summer was over. I have 5 tags this year and I'm keeping them all!

I have converted many non beleivers to Venison lovers.

JeramyK

I hunt for the venison. If I get a rack while doing so then that's great. Not everyone hunts/feels the way I do. Big deal! Different strokes for different folks.

Handles

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Venison should be cooked medium rare, medium at the most. I used to gag on my mom's dry, gamey venison until one time she accidentally "undercooked" it. It was outstanding. NO gamey flavor. If you don't like medium rare, get over it. You hunter, you like bloody meat. Ug.

Blakeyboy

I used to think same thing. I will agree beef tastes better but the venison has grown on me quite abit. I'm very fussy on meat too, so i did lots of homework. The things that kept touching on the best eating for venison was fastest you can get the meat to the freezer the better, no hanging etc. the next most important thing is butcher 'no bones, no fat', just lean meat, deboned, no fat. and another really important thing is picking the right animals, and of course, the care of the animal from the field to butcher, keep it clean, do good dressing job etc. and which animal you choose to eat... 2 year old does probably the best. I'll shoot first year deer later in season and they are as good but not quite as much meat. Next would be a nice doe, not a big older doe just an average doe. The bucks are not even in the same league of meat in my experience so far.

Working with those details, it became apparent i would need to butcher myself. If shoot to early in season and warm, must butcher that night! I wait till later when cool so i can shoot one night and butcher the next night as thats the most i'll let them hang. A couple friends helps and we are not pro's, its nice if you can have someone with some experience walk you through it the first time, you'll pick it up after that. We get a big table, put cardboard on it, to soak up blood, and throw out cardboard when done(easy clean up). We have a scrap buckets to toss trimmings/bones etc. and we make piles of the meat we cut up. I cut all the big pieces into steaks, work the grain the right way and all the small pieces into chunks for stew or burger(or both). When the deer is cut up, then we use ziplock freezer bags(small size) for putting the meat in to dinner size cooking portions and we have a 5 gallon bucket full of water we submerge the bags into to push all the air out and zip up under water(poor mans vacuum sealer). We get anywhere from 30-50lbs of deboned, fatfree, lean meat from typical does when we weigh on scale, and it has no game flavor. Don't over cook on bbq, medium rare is the furthest you want to go or its tough, not gamey, just tougher than it needs be. Me and buddy after only one season and about 10 deer to practice on, can put a deer in a box to take home to freezer in about 2 hours. Its just a matter of will. If you want to give it a whirl, try some of these tips, its not difficult. We quarter the deer and take a quarter each to cut at a time, then onto next quarter. Scraps go to dog food for friend, so we save that bucket for them. You end up with more scraps that way, and you may think its not alot of meat for the effort but its all good meat that we keep, the stew meat is good enough for stir fries etc. and the burgers are outstanding.

Testament was my ex girlfriend and kid. These are pure city folk and a bit on the spoiled side, but i made them the best burgers they ever had, me included. And the steaks?...unbelievable if cooked no more than medium rare, and just a little seasoning salt and garlic pepper seasoning. Thats it, no marinades or bbq sauce needed and you within 5-10% as good as an average t-bone i kid you not. My ex can vouch for that. Growing up i had tough old bucks etc. from Dad/friends etc. and i could not go near that stinkin meat and was so skeptical of all i learned. I'm not skeptical anymore. Do some homework and try it out. Even 30lbs from a small doe is quite a bit of meat for 2 hours work.

Anyhow, there's what i know so far. I have no plans to change, its working just fine.

B

livbucks

Exactly!
I don't know why some feel they have to justify their reasons.
You do what you do, I'll do what I do.......
I'll tell you what, If my family really liked it, I would shoot as many as I legally could too. We just don't utilize it so I am real picky and enjoy watching the majority of them walk on by me. I'd rather let it walk over the hill to someone who really enjoys it and makes good use out of it. Maybe a young hunter that will go nuts by getting his or her first deer. Now THAT I would enjoy more than beef!