Eating deer for the first time?
 

So I've never eaten deer before and I'm curious to what it tastes like. I love every meat there is and am just wondering what all I can eat on the deer. Sorry if this is the wrong section, i'm new.

Well that's a loaded question.lol

I find it tastes a bit like lamb/beef combination??? All I know is that it is good to eat.

Heart, liver and all the meat are what I eat. I don't bother with the tongue or any of the other innards. Cut steaks, make roasts, grind burger for sausages, pepperettes or just use the burger as you would any beef burger. Don't over cook it. Medium well at the very most with medium to med-rare preferred by most people.

Enjoy!!!

HA

The taste of venison can vary depending on where you hunt and what they are eating. The time of year ( ie: early fall, fall, or winter ) will also change the taste of the meat a bit. To give you an idea, because you didn't say where you were from, I'm in Ontario. The area I hunt is heavy woods, corn, hay and bean fiels ( soya ). In the early fall and late fall the deer feed on hay and horn. The meat tastes much like beef. Late in the year after heavy snows, they begin munching on cedar and spruce. Then the meat is a bit gamey. But properly hung and cured, and taken care of it is all very palatable.

As to what you can eat, I like roasts, steaks, chops stewing meat and burger. Heart and liver are also very good. The rest is coyote bait.

Good luck, and good eating.

We push a lot of ours through a cuber.
It seems as though the cubed meat, takes on the flavor of what you cook it with.
We use EVOO, salt. pepper, garlic.
You'd swear it is a fine veal cut.
Matter of fact, gonna' whip some up tommorrow, with onions/peppers/mushrooms. Yum.

all depends on cut.. done right its as good as the finest cut of prime

kind of like taggedout said, so often you are cooking it with something and it takes on that flavor. If im eating plain deer steak, id have to say it tastes alot to me like a ny strip cut steak...the flavor isnt quite as rich, which i would say is due to a deers leaner nature over a beef cow.

A buck in the the rut tastes really gamey and nasty!!!!

Ok, remember Robin Hood? The whole thing was killing the crown's deer is bad. They're his, because they taste so good. You want venison? Possibly more expensive than lobster. So it must be better.

Now, reality. Deer is a great meat. Not my favorite (give me king crab), but it heavily depends upon conditions (as stated above). The backstraps are always amazing. With enough treatment even the ribs (normally considered "dog food") are edible. Everything else is great if cooked properly.

I have tried deer meat but it was dry. I was able to taste it few years ago and it tasted like any normal dry meat. Maybe thats because it was dry.

Deer meat is usually over-cooked by the un-initiated. Deer meat is very dark purple in the raw state, and most people base whether it is done or not by comparing it to beef. Beef is red when raw, and dark pink when rare, pink when medium rare and the pink is just barely gone when mediun.

Venison on the other hand starts out purple when raw, gets red when rare, reddish pink when medium rare, and pink when medium .... Once you get past pink with venison (IMO) you've got past the prime eating and it becomes tough and dry if you go for the color of medium beef. If you get to the color of medium beef the venison is medium well and since it has no intra-muscular fat it gets dry in a hurry.

My guests who insist on the venison being cooked past what i consider medium rare or medium go hungry. I won't do that to my table fare venison.

Nothing better than home made venison sausage.

I make mountain man skillet, cut the meat into 1/2" cubes, cook in skillet, add bell peppers, onions, garlic, pepper, potatos (cut into chunks) simmer, remove from skillet, deglaze skillet with wine or what ever you like, then add a rue to thinkin it up.

Venison definitely tastes better rare to med. Not overcooked.

The flavor is similar to a blend of lean beef and trimmed lamb.

A fast quick kill shot will result in better tasting meat than if it is chased and accumulates lactic acid in the muscles.

Quick chilling is important for preservation as well, or else the meat will spoil and taste "gamey."

So how the venison tastes depends on (1) what the deer are eating, (2) how quickly you kill it, (3) how quickly you chill it, (4) how long you age it, (5) how properly you prepare it.

It varies from unique and sweet to tough and gamey.

As stated I believe that how you treat the meat after kill is most important. If you don't know how, find someone to take it to for processing. After that it's just learning how to cook it. I can feed just about anyone who says they don't like deer meat, and they'll eat it up without ever knowing...unless I decide to tell them.