Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer meat smells like rut

I sort of like that flavor.

If you want to cover it, use low and slow in the crockpot. Mississippi roasts, barbacoa, etc.

With the ground, I would add other things, bacon, blue cheese, etc.

Thawed a smaller pack- loin, and rinsed em off in the sink.
Smell is still there but way less.
Got em soaking.

In 1979 I shot a big rutting Whitetail that smelled pretty rank, not unlike a billy goat which can be pretty rough. Eating the meat caused all kind of trouble. My jeans got to where they were tight and binding which was ok but the girls voices got a deeper tone. Actually what happened was the meat was so rank it would stink up the house when I attempted to cook it. I had a poor black elderly neighbor that wanted it so I gave it to him. He said it was good.

hookeye,

There are some good solutions to this, a few already mentioned here--but even more in one of my wife's game cookbooks, TENDERIZE THE WILD: marinades, brines and rubs for wild game. In it Eileen not only includes over 100 recipes, but explains some of the chemical reasons for gamy or tough meat. It can be ordered from www.riflesandrecipes.com.

Thats how I feel about Pronghorn Antelope...too goaty and swells up while you chew it, yuck. Try alot of spices and use a slow cooker? Hope you can use it. Good luck to you pard!

Make hash.
Big pot
Equal weight chopped sweet onions to meat 10 pounds)
Teaspoon of smoke
1 jar mustard
1 jar BBQ sauce
1 head garlic
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 table spoon black pepper
Salt to taste
Carmalize onions
Toss in meat stir on low heat with wood spoon toll meat tears apart east 4-5 hours.
Add the rest and cover, weight the cover with 15# on the lowest setting for a couple more hours.
Serve over white bread, rice, grits.

the best way i have found to cure a nasty old rut`n buck smell is put all the buck meat in a large enough cooler you can shut the lid all the way down. you can do just the quarters too then debone afterwards.so put all the buck meat in the cooler boned or quartered,add cup of salt, 1/2 cup of vinegar fill with cold water and ice ,shut lid takes 3-5 days keep it cold . drain water, rinse meat with cold water ,cut and bag meat up and freeze,this well make a difference. this method also works on a nasty gut shot deer too.

Jim,
I'm surprised at this. My one and only experience with pronghorn was one I got last Oct. in the Texas panhandle. Some of the best game meat we have had. Super tender and delicious. Did I just get lucky?

Blacktailer,

You didn't get lucky in our experience. My wife and I have killed a bunch of pronghorns over the years, in four states from New Mexico to Montana, including bucks in the rut and after the rut. The only one that didn't taste great was a buck I shot in Wyoming, while hunting with a couple of friends.

One of the ranch workers volunteered to take it back to the ranch headquarters and hang it up to cool in the shade, so I could stay with my friends. It turned out later that he did not go directly back to the ranch, due to having to make a drug deal--and it was a warm, sunny day, with my buck in the rear of his Jeep Wagoneer. That buck was almost inedible, though we eventually found ways to use the meat. (Eileen has been dealing with a wide variety of big game for a long time.) Antelope are probably the big game animals most easily ruined by poor field care.

One other possibility, however, is that a few people may have taste buds that react weirdly to something in pronghorn meat, somewhat the people to whom cilantro tastes like soap. I say this because of knowing maybe 3 people that thought antelope everybody else really liked was awful. One of them even said it tasted like dog food--though I dunno how he knows that!

when my kids were younger and still home both my son and daughter liked antelope over all the other game i brought home like elk,whitetail,mule deer,caribou,but they did like buffalo too. but i have always been very fussy with my antelope and all game animals,i skin and quarter my antelope right away and all the antelope meat gets put in cooler full of ice,i also always butcher my own antelope.if you put your antelope in the sun or up on top of a vehicle in the sun to show off don`t expect it to be tasty,. when i worked at the wild game processing place i seen some really poorly taken care of animals.some people never even wanted their game meat back in Wyoming but paid for processing by law ,most of that went to the food self all processed and froze.

Goes for any and all game/fish.

A buds mother in law will not eat deer her kid or husband kills but loves my buds deer.

It's all in how it's taken care of from field to freezer.

Are you talking about tarsal glands on the hock or glands up in the rear hams?

If tarsal glands, those are the first thing to come off of either a doe or buck before I open em up.

Peel the hide off as soon as possible and get glands off right at neck/shoulder intersection.

We have a rule about antelope. The meat's far too good to ruin, so it's guts out, hide off, and into the cooler in less than 30 minutes... or sooner.

The hair is tubular with a pungent lanolin-like oil inside, and cutting through hairs and letting them sit on the meat surface ruins meat. Lazy hunters and slob hunters are the principle reason many don't like antelope.

Ive only eaten pronghorn once and it was a bit sage flavored, but fine.
JUst cooked up the loins, they still stunk but way less.
Could taste it, but even lesser in power than smell (pre cook).

I dunked it in hot sauce. Had some new Taco Bell Diablo.
Belly full, nose is clear.

LOL

Its usable, at least the thinner bits.
I shot a 131" 9 pointer a couple yrs ago,
Had some summer sausage made (processor does a great job there)
but they screwed up and ground the whole deer.
I gave it away.
So did not taste any steaks off it.
175# dressed.
I dunno how old he was, 2nd day of gun season, full rut, but he was NOT as stinky as this yrs, neck not as swollen.
And when I shot him he ran 50-75 yards and piled up.

Age, rut, drop or run.........processor.
Dunno what variable is most in effect.

I'll go back to cutting my own.
Not had a prob with any of them.

Interesting idea. I process my own too and don't recall ever having a funky smell on the meat with careful preparation.

1-1/2 year old does are good eating.

I've seen more than one soak boar hog meat in baking soda and water...

When faced with a stronger-than-usual bunch of venison, I go for the long and slow recipes.

With grind, we'll make Cincinnati-style chili.

With a steak or a roast, I'll throw it in the crock pot with a bottle of cheap Russian dressing. This makes EXCELLENT bbq-ish stuff.

After about 2 hours of cooking, the kitchen fills with the dead buck smell and it stays for about 2 hours more. By the time dinner's read-- say 4-6 hours-- the smell is gone as well as the taste. Another tip I use a couple TBS beef suet in a recipe like this. It makes it more beef-tasting.

If one skins around the tarsals and continues using the same knife for rest of the chore without cleaning it, that's when trouble happens. Same for handling meat with your hands when in contact with the tarsals.

I've never had a bad whitetail taken during the peak rut.
Runner or not. 300 lbs or 150 lbs. 170" or 90". 8.5 y/o or 2.5 y/o. 12 provinces and states - they all taste good.