Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Eating and cooking game.

Don't shoot caribou in the rut.

Do take care of them properly in the field.

Do take care of the meat properly at home.

You will discover they are about as fine eating as there is!

Can't help you with the opposum or the geese.

Ted

There can only be two explanations for that: either, you are a vegetarian (which other selections suggest you’re not), or you’ve only eaten it in poor condition.

Soak a filleted goose breast in saltwater for 4 hours before cooking then season lightly and grill to rare like a beef steak. Don't let the blood bother you just close your eyes and enjoy it. Cook it any longer and it will be gamely as all hell.

yep in my experience those that dont like goose cook it like chicken or turkey to well done.....cook it like beef(rare/med rare at most) and most love it....with most wild game if you have to have well done either use moist cooking techniques(stews/casseroles/braising/ect) or if you want a grilled steak, cut them thin and cook them hot and fast and you can get them well done without the gamey taste or making them tough....my ex could not stand blood so we cut her steaks real thin(1/4-1/3 inch thick) and they cooked all the way through without turning into liver tasting shoe leather...

my favorites:

nilgai
feral hog(not an old boar)
pronghorn(if i shoot it and take care of the meat)
goose
pheasant
bison


ok/no problem eating:

deer(mule deer or whitetail havent noticed much difference)
elk

cant stand:
pronghorn(if not properly cared for like most seem to do)

Wow, what great advice.

It's quite a welcome learning experience for me. Great tips, thanks.

On the matter of caribou last hunt the scenario was that the guides disgorged, skinned and dismember the animal on the spot and took back only the basic legs and some carcass not including ribs. Apparently they only carry what they can as about 100 pounds. I specifically asked that the ribs be also transported and the guide said OK but never did it.

There were 6 in camp. The cook prepared caribou ribs that were absolutely delicious. At home I was never able to duplicate that flavor ????? I saw him cook it. We were in a closed cabin in close quarters. But I don't know what he did.

I have to concur with the valuable advice here.

Again Thanks for the input. Very much appreciated.

Plus 1 on aging. My wife and I usually hang our big game 6 to 14 days weather permitting. I think it takes some of the toughness out so to speak. One or both of us usually shoots a rutted up, run down buck every year. Out of countless animals only ever had one that I couldn't eat.

As far as not tasting gamey, WHY?

Game animals taste gamey, isn't that the point. If a person didn't want to taste game, eat farm critters.

An iced saltwater brine, as mentioned, goes a long ways twds good tasting game meat.

One of the things I notice the most in regards to game meat taste is the area and habitat they are killed in. I used to think Antelope was disgusting until we killed some on farm lands. Deer are similar. Hogs also can have a big variance in flavor depending on their diet.

Caribou has already been covered here. I've eaten it and is was as tasty as any moose I've eaten. It was shot in early rut and looked after properly.

The last time I had CDN good, the fellow had some boneless breasts browned on the BBQ and then into a crock pot for the day with water, red wine, salt and pepper. They were delish. The next good I get will be cooked the same way but the drums and thighs will go in too.

I've never eaten mule deer, but can tell you that when I get WT deer, I hang it hide off for a week, remove ALL fat from the cuts and do not cut it with a saw. All meat is filleted with a knife to avoid yucky bone dust on the muscle.

Trust me ...... It works.

What would a professional meat cutter from New Brunswick know about any of this?

I do well remember enjoying that caribou with you and your daughter on the lake shore. That was some good eating!

Ted

Yes it was, and the fish was some good too.

i guess there is gamey and then there is gamey...dont mind how deer and such usually tastes without doing any of the soaking in milk ect some do..i dont try and make it taste like beef or any of that.....but also dont like the heavy livery taste when you over cook wild game or when the meat hasnt been properly cared for(cooled down quick ect).....if you did to beef what alot of people do to wild game before you butcher it it would prolly not taste all that great either....i cant believe what i see some people do to pronghorn in our usually warm first few weeks of the season and then complain when it tastes like an old goat smells.....

My wife killed a great big cow caribou one winter that was absolutely the toughest creature I've ever laid teeth too. Literally could not chew it, even the tenderloin. It was an ancient old toothless gal and tasted just fine, we just couldn't eat it in a normal fashion. Every bull we've killed since then, we have been kinda trophy hunting, was really good table fare. All have been pre rut, in fact all but one has been in velvet though most were beginning to peel. And they have been really good. Out of 8 head not one has been tough or the slightest bit gamey. I'm still working on the 5 sets of back straps we put in the freezer last fall and they are still dang good. They were killed in late August and hung in the shade for 7-9 days before we were able to trim and slice them. Carved the rind off and sliced about 1" steaks, frozen in two layers of Saran Wrap and then butcher paper.

About once a week I pull a package out and thaw them for supper. I sprinkle sea salt, a dash of creole seasoning, and fresh ground black pepper on the cuts before quickly grilling them on a super hot grill. When I say quickly I mean about 1:30 per side, 2 minutes if you're faint hearted, and pull them off. Melt a thin slice of real butter on them while the rest for a couple minutes then get after them. They're a little bloody this way, but being aged like they were and coming from late summer animals they are fork tender and flat out delicious.

Of course I've heard from guys who've made the mistake that some rutting bulls, the Ravens and foxes at the dump won't eat. If you want caribou for the table go a little early and just peel your antlers and stain them, your belly will thank you.

I still have some 2013 mule deer buck meat in the freezer.... Full on rut and it is a bit rank.

Post rut, late November whitetail is much better.


And we butchered a steer a year too late and some those steaks are a little chewy compared to premo cuts. And too frikken big.

Lately I have been taking two or three muscles from White Tail deer that I killed on my place, and grilling them. Doesn't matter if loin or whole muscle from the ham. I marinate in Dales seasoning, then grill to rare/medium rare. I eat one meal, as is but the left overs are refrigerated and then instead of warming in the microwave, I slice what I want to eat, real thin, and fry in a butter/vegetable oil mix for a short time. I try to just get it hot and not add too much cooking time to it. Being thin, it does not take long. Since I have a hot pan, I then take a few eggs out and fry them, most times. I like this method of reheating better that most. miles

Sorry J G, didn't mean to ignore your mention !!

Thnx and that came from personal experience.

I've been building a partition in my barn and haven't been on here a couple of days.

Not a problem jwall......I still agree with you!

As has been said here, let the meat hang for a few days. One of the big culprits that contributes to toughness is rigor mortis. That sets in within hours of death. It is a physical process that causes the muscle cells to contract and then you're trying to chew a real wad!

So, hang your animal. Skin it as soon after death as you can. For most things there's a bunch of hair that inevitably gets on the meat during skinning. Ever see a wallow? Or smell one? You don't want that on your meat, so after skinning grab your propane torch, but on the spreader adaptor and singe the meat surface thoroughly; you'll crisp up all the loose hairs. Take a clean rag and a 50:50 vinegar:water mix and wipe down the meat surface.

Put the meat into good quality, clean, cotton game bags. Not those cheese-cloth abortions, but a tight weave cloth; you'd be surprised how small a hole it takes for a fly to get its ovispositor into. If it is a big animal, hang it in quarters. With a big animal, you're going to have loose meat; dump that into its own separate game bag. With a smaller animal, like an antelope, you can likely fit it whole into a game bag. Hang it for a minimum of 4 days to let the rigor pass.

Hang it in the shade. Even if its warm, hang it for the full 4 days. On a few occasions when I've had to hang the quarters in the field, to make sure the sun didn't shine on it, I made a "tent" for each bag out of fir branches. If the bags are hung close enough to each other to touch, shove a stick or two in between them as spacers to provide for air circulation.

After 4 days, butcher the animal. As someone else said, use a knife and cut out the individual muscles, don't just saw it up with a band saw. As you cut out the meat, remove all the fat and connective tissue that you can, and make sure you get it all off the bones. Beef is a really mild meat, so it is hung on the bone and with the fat and all on it so that the slow decomposition of that stuff adds flavor to the meat. You don't want that with game because the muscle already has more flavor than beef and if you ramp that up, you get the gamey flavor.

From there, it doesn't seem to matter much whether you package it right then or put it in more clean bags and hang it longer. My own preference is to give it another few days of hanging, depending on the temperatures.

Vaccuum pack it; else you'll get freezer burn. Get a quality electric grinder. Take all the meat trim (the fat and connective tissue can be boiled for the dog) and add bacon at a 3 parts of bacon to 7 parts of meat ratio. Grind that up and it is fine, fine, burger. As the meat hangs, the outside will dry a bit. You can add that trim to your burger meat and you'll never notice it. You can also take that dried trim meat and soak it in salt water in the fridge overnight to soften it a bit, but I don't think it is necessary.

When you grind meat, you want it half frozen, otherwise it will mush up on you rather than letting the grinder blade cut it cleanly. Also, keep the knife and the screen matched. That means that when you buy the grinder, you'll need to buy extra knives; one for each diameter screen you've got. If you don't, the knives won't match the face of the screen exactly, and you'll get more mushy meat.

When you cook it, don't overdo it. Unlike beef, which has a lot of interstitial fat, cervid meat doesn't have that, so it cooks differently. Frankly, game meat makes poor fodder for the grill unless you baste it well as you cook it.

Hope this helps.

I highly recommend Eileen's (Mule Deer's wife) books on game preparation, butchering and cooking. The Big Game book has an excellent discussion, with supporting data, about aging vs non-aging. Very good info and photography. I believe I have them all. Really good books.

Bob

Rupertbear:

I really liked the explicit details. Thanks for making the effort. I'm passing this along to my son and grandson. Really impressive. I'm learning a lot. It's the details and little appropriate procedures that make a difference between mediocre and excellence.

Bobcape:

Thanks too to you !

I spoke to Eileen by phone and ordered two of her books, the Rifle and Sausage. They should be here any day.

What a great bunch of fellows here !