Conducted a taste test tonight with my wife and two kids home from college. Conditions weren't perfect considering the animals, but it might be as close as I'm likely to get anytime soon.
Backstrap steak from a whitetail buck and backstrap steak from a mule deer doe. No real way of knowing age of each animal, but I'd guess the buck was around 3 years old and the doe could have been older than that.
Buck killed 11-20-18 and doe killed 12-1-18. Both deer died within 250 yards of each other, so they were living and eating in the same habitat. Both died quickly and neither moved from where they stood when shot. Both gutted within 15 minutes. Both skinned within 3 hours. Temp for hunting and hanging was in the 30's. Both were hung in my shop for 4 days in temps that never got above 40 degrees. Both backstraps from each animal were previously frozen before cooking.
After thawing for a day in the frig, I cut steaks 3/4" thick and gave each side a few "whaps" with a meat mallet and they were probably 1/2 inch thick after that. I lightly salted and peppered each of the steaks. I wanted anything that might mask the true flavor to be minimal.
I knew the real judge of the four of us would be my wife, because she has a nose like a bloodhound and would pick up anything even slightly different.
I was the only one who knew which meat was which.
Steaks were cooked on the grill to medium rare. Maybe 2 minutes per side.
2 of the 4 picked the mule deer doe. 2 said they couldn't tell the difference. My wife picked the MD doe because she said it had more flavor, but not in a seasoning sort of way, just slightly more flavorful tasting. I had to agree. But it was very close between the two. WT was more maybe slightly more mild, or should I say just less meat flavor.
If I had mixed them up on the plate though, it would have been a challenge to tell one from the other.
For what it's worth?
