Along with what the others have said I think some of it comes from the location the deer is in and what it eats. I have noticed that deer from out west and deer from northern Michigan taste a little different, with a bit more of a wild taste to them. Which makes sense considering that the deer in my area pretty much eat the same things live stock would. Where as out west and up north they eat a lot of scrub and pine and other stuff.

I also feel it has a lot to do with how the deer is handled after the shot.

I think Retrieverman hit the nail on the head though. Venison will not taste like beef because it is a leaner meat. Different animal, different taste. Ask any chef or good cook and they will tell you a lot of the taste in a good steak comes from the marbling and the cut of the steak. This is why a $10 ribeye with good marbling tastes better than a $3 lean chuck steak. That is also why one costs 10 bucks and the other one three.

Deer are also much more active than pen raised cattle are and I feel that makes a difference in the meat as well.

I like to hunt and I like venison, but I don't feel it is better tasting than a good cut of beef. It is just as good or better than a cheap cut though, especially if you are going to freeze it anyway. Lets just say I wouldn't go to Lonestar and pay $20 or more for a venison steak.

However I have a buddy that is the other way around, he likes venison much more than steak. To each his own I guess. I like ground venison better than I do ground beef though. Venison kicks ass in tacos, sloppy joes and hamburgers.

Paul

Petasux is right about the mishandling of the carcass after the kill. I too have seen deer being dragged at 30 mph a half mile across a field. I guess it would have been too difficult to put that deer ON the 4-wheeler, might get some blood on the custom paint.

I have helped my boy process two deer thet were shot in the evening and not found until the next day. Both were well shot and died within seconds of being hit but dropped in tall grass. This happend two days in a row. Both days they wondered how they didn't step on the deer during the search. The temperature was in the thirties and the deer were found easily the next day.

There was a funky odor to the meat, not a spoiled or rotten odor mind you, but off or sour. Not being field dressed quickly, body heat was trapped and the carcasses did not cool off. The meat was still edible, not bad eating really, we just noticed the odd smell during butchering and not later when the meat was cold during food prep.

This experience has made me believe that if a deer is not recovered in good edible condition, any rack should be inelligable for the record book. I see too many experts on the TV double lung a deer with an arrow and then back out for the night even though they can confirm the hit with the video. They were complaining about the heat in the stand so the temperature was not in the thirties like the deer I helped butcher. How much of that meat do you think got consumed??? I saw a rack that a guy took credit for when it wasn't found for a year. What bull.

About silver skin- I have found that removing as much as you can from solid meat helps when it comes time to eat it but that it does not affect the flavor of the meat so we do not worry about it in the trim pile that gets ground. Again, we take out ALL of the deer fat (tallow). If you need fat for the gound meat use beef trimmings or pork trimmings. We use beef fat because we can get it for 75 cents a pound, pork fat is the same price as sausage or about 2 dollars a pound. (that is because hogs are so lean now and all of the fat normally goes into the sausage so they sell it for the price of sausage)

Bob

I think most of time its in they're head. My stepkids refused to eat venison for a while, I didnt force it on them. I did however start making things that they didnt know were venison. After so long I finally told them and they decided they liked it. I think prep and where the deer came from makes a difference to.

There is a difference between deer. An old buck is naturally going to taste a little different than a doe or a young deer. If it is handled right, though that makes all the difference. I never field dress a deer. I do, however get them dressed out usually within an hour. Always bone out the meat. Never cut through the bone. I slice the hind quarters up into steaks and run them through a tenderizer. This allows the meat to cook quicker and it doesn't dry out when cooking. The front quarters and other trimmings goes through the grinder. As everyone else has said, get rid of all the tallow that is possible.

I used to think I didn't like deer meat. That was after I shot my first buck and took it to the processor. They cut through the bone and left it in the steaks and didn't tenderize it. When we fried a steak it dried out, got tough, and didn't taste good. I had to have an old "pro" show me the proper way to handle deer meat and cook it and now it's about all we eat.

Knowing how to cook will help

It's the deer fat, esp the ribs that give you that waxy feeling. As others have said proper care of the meat yields excellent table fare, which I will gladly take over beef anyday.

Just a word of caution here, if you cut your own deer up and take it to a locker for grinding some of them will want the silver stuff and all the fat removed before recieving it, I know at ours they charge a pretty good fee if they have to clean up a bunch of meat someone else cut up.

They claim the silvery stuff clogs the grinders up, Ive noticed it on my grinder as well but its just a little one.

The first deer I ever shot went to a butcher because I just wanted it done right. It was shot it the chest and dressed within a few minutes with no mistakes in 34 degree weather. That was by far thestrongest tasting deer (next to a Texas deer) that I have ever had. I have since harvested between 25 and 30 deer (some shot better than others)and processed them all myself with great results. I watched a 7 dollar vidio from Gander Mtn. on how to do the basic steps and the rest was a matter of practice. As said before, trim the meat meticulously and you'll be happy. I like to wash the meat with a clean wash ragunder running cold waterto get the slimey clear stuff off the meat.I've heard that aging the meat makes it more tender but I personally think that makes it taste a little rotton. I prefer to butch the deer and get it vacum packed and in the freezer asap.
Try rubbing meat with olive oil, coarse salt, fresh ground pepper, onion powder and throw it on a 450 to 500 degree grill for oprox. 10 minutes on first side and 6 minutes on the second side (for thick meat). It should have nice dark grill marks and pink in the middle. Happy hunting!

that's basically one of the reasons that I don't really hunt anymore: The taste. I see it this way: If I'm going to pay the money to get all of the permits needed and put in the time to make sure my equipment is right then I should at least like to eatwhat I'm hunting. But I don't. I'll take the worst cut of beef over backstrap anyday. [:'(]

You are a strange one, indeed!