Who else doesn't care for venison?

[MaryB]

It is all in how they are cleaned and processed. We would field dress them and as soon as we had them home they got washed with the hose, skinned, washed again to make sure as much dirt and any nasty stuff was washed off, fecal matter, stomach contents... anything that was on the hide and fingers while skinning. Then it was cut and wrapped. We never let them hang because without proper temp control it is a total toss up as far as outcome. Now if you have a local locker plant with an aging room then yes hang it for a week!

And yes deer here are corn fed and big!

[toallmy]

I generally take the little ones out of grain fields , get them skinned within a hour or so wile still warm wash down with water then hang for at least 24 hours in the walk in before the cutting . The nasty taste is in the silver and fat so the meat has to be trimmed carefully . I am the only one in the house that eats wild game , the little darling has a bamby complex . Then it all goes through a grinder , I go through 50-75 pound of ground a year , with sausage mixed in for fat content . But don't get me wrong I love a nice piece of beef and there is a difference .

[Hickory]

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa has some of the best tasting venison anywhere.
They feed on soybeans and corn along with acorns and other fodder.
The very best tasting venison are the ones that been harvested unsuspectingly standing still and have not been run to death.

[44man]

Guys are correct, age, sex, food they eat and get everything off the meat before freezing.
Never overcook it, took time to get Carol to get away from shoe leather. She will not even eat an egg unless it is a hockey puck.
We love venison and most that don't had some bad stuff once or it is a state of mind.
We had guests once and I blackened some. The woman was loving it until someone said "deer." She pushed it away and got angry about being fooled.
Once in a while I try a different way to cook it and it got a little tough but flavor was still super. Simple is always better. Sous vide does wonders. I use a big foam cooler Omaha steaks came in, yes we love beef too and even on sale the meat is expensive but we live it up once in a while. One day I will break the bank and buy one of those heaters.
I have had beef that dogs would not eat, neighbor in Ohio gave me some from a cow that was an old milk cow that got old. It was so bad it must have died a month earlier.
I have had moose, elk and bear to die for. But there is nothing wrong with deer if done right.
We can't stand any wild taste in our house, will never eat goat or sheep. A taste and smell I will never get used to. No wonder Muslims are angry! Lamb chops my limit.
A deer with wild taste can't be fixed, I have piles of books that tell how---forget it.

[fourarmed]

Probably the best way to ruin a deer steak is to bandsaw it without first removing the bone. The marrow gets smeared over the meat and is rancid within a week. This was brought home to me this year when I cut out the strips of fat and meat between the ribs of my deer and salted them overnight. I grilled them over an open fire, and ate them like bacon. The first day they were great, the second day they were still OK, but the third day they were getting rancid.

Deer round steak is every bit as good as deer loin when properly prepared. Just don't take it to a processor who uses a bandsaw. Bone it out yourself, trim it brutally, and double-wrap it. Bon appetit.

[w5pv]

When you trimming the meat from the silver skin always look for the lymph nodes that are hidden in between the muscles thyey will ruin the taste for me.

[Skeet06]

Absolutly agree the all fat, bones and silver skin must be removed. My deer processing is different than most. After the deer is down, I skin it on the spot and remove the quarters with out disturbing the entrails. No chance of urine, feces or glands touching the meat. The hide and majority of the bones are left in the woods. Dragging a carcass thru the woods and dirt seems counter productive to me.

[Mr Humble]

Best way is to corn it like corned beef. Except for the absence of fat, you'll never know it's deer meat.

[NoAngel]

Maybe it's just me but the meat is fine...it's the NAME that I can't stand. Venison? What a stupid ***** sounding name.

Cow gets BEEF. Pig gets PORK. How did such a magnificent and majestic creature get such a retarded sissy name for it's flesh? I refuse to say the word in conversation.

[Blackwater]

So many good observations! And all true. The biggest factor in getting deer to taste great, is simply contained within the little tidbit of advice, "Take your time in processing, except for field dressing." They should be gutted ASAP, then taken to the skinning site, and washed out thoroughly with a water hose. Then skin, being sure to keep hair from falling on the skin. Get hair on it and that stuff .... well, have you ever smelled burning hair? If you have, you know why ALL the hair HAS to go! Then trim all the fat away, and anything that's not good, solid red meat, including the silver "skin" (ligaments). Bone it all out, and if you REALLY want good venison, separate out each muscle and cut it @ 1/4-3/8" thick, rinse it COMPLETELY so no blood or hair or other stuff gets on it, then wrap it, and freeze it.

If you ever get one that smells "gamey" to any degree, label it as such, and when you take it out, let it soak overnight in whole milk. This often removes all or just about all the gamey smell and taste, but some taints are beyond help. This is always worth a good try, and usually works.

Venison is one of the "cleanest" tasting meats I've ever eaten, IF it's prepared with the care it deserves. It's so common today for everyone to seem to be in a hurry to git-r-done, that this, I believe, is the biggest source of less than stellar tasting venison and much other wild game. Patience and determination is a HUGE virtue when preparing wild meats, every time. The rinsing in particular is often crucial, and just noticing what falls on the meat. Fresh processed venison is awfully "sticky," and anything that falls on it - hair, blood, whatever - tends to stick, and it often has to be picked off with a knife or a good, stiff (often metal) brush. But it HAS to get gone, by whatever method seems best at the time.

Prep it right, and it comes out absolutely great. Short-cut the prep, and .... well, you know. It's the same as the old adage about computers: "Garbage in, garbage out." And what really great meal (and many of them) isn't worth a little extra care in the prep? Sure does make a huge difference!

[MaryB]

Best venison I ever ate was a buck that made the dumb mistake of walking past the kitchen counter deer stand. Friend had a house looking over a ravine that was a deer highway. Nice 8 pointer that was just ambling along sniffing the doe that was about 50 yards in front of him. I slid the patio door open, stepped on the deck in my stocking feet, fired and dropped him on the spot. Pulled my boots on and grabbed the tractor and had him gutted and hanging before the guys came in for lunch. I was cook that day so I got the comfy warm house deer stand! Served up BBQ shrimp in creole seasoning with butter for dipping, wild rice casserole as a side. One of the guys who hunted with us came up from Mississippi and he would bring a cooler of raw shrimp on the plane to eat the next day for lunch. Guy from MS went nuts over how I did the shrimp! Laid foil on the grill, tossed shrimp in butter, pored them on the foil and spread to a single layer, gave them a healthy coating of seasoning then cooked on medium heat with a foil packet of hickory smoking away.

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa has some of the best tasting venison anywhere.
They feed on soybeans and corn along with acorns and other fodder.
The very best tasting venison are the ones that been harvested unsuspectingly standing still and have not been run to death.

[Idaho45guy]

Laid foil on the grill, tossed shrimp in butter, pored them on the foil and spread to a single layer, gave them a healthy coating of seasoning then cooked on medium heat with a foil packet of hickory smoking away.

My favorite Summer grill treat is cooked shrimp, wrapped in bacon, then take a mixture of honey and Italian dressing and brush it on the shrimp, then put them on foil with some butter on the grill. Cook until the bacon is to your liking.

[MaryB]

Serve with lots of beer and bread to mop up the butter!

[Blackwater]

You folks just KILL me with these recipes! Here I am trying NOT to eat any more than I just HAVE to, and ... THIS???? I can resist anything but temptation when it comes to food! I just have to keep the VOLUME down nowadays, and great taste actually makes this both easier and harder at the same time! Easier to quit when I feel I've had a very good meal, but harder to stop when I know I need to. It's a delicate balancing act, and you all make it both harder and easier at the same time. I'm hungry now, but it's time for lunch! Gotta' go!

[Lead pot]

There is nothing wrong with corn fed Iowa beef, also there is nothing wrong with Illinois corn fed Deer. There is a difference when snow gets deep during the season and they start eating pine needles up north unless they find a hay bale left in the field.

I think why people say they don't like deer is the Bambi thing. They see the 1940's Bambi. If they don't know that they are eating deer they will clean off their plate.

[kmrra]

We have started letting it bleed out and Ice it down for about a week in an Ice chest , change the water and Ice out every day or so and when you do this you cant tell the difference in this and beef, before I was told to do this I didn't care for it either , was too wild tasting , but If you will do that you will be supprized in the difference .

[Traffer]

I have the bad leg thing also. Haven't hunted since 84. But my friends and relatives that do hunt know that I like it so my wife and I end up with at least some every year.

[shdwlkr]

Most people over cook wild game meat, don't know enough to add some sort of fat for it to cook in(think butter, bacon, etc.) and way to many leave to much fat with the meat when butchering making it taste strange many times.

[flyingrhino]

I hate butchering deer. It's a pain to get the fat and tallow off and always seem to have hair that I miss. Doe taste the best but they need to go down quick. If they run they get the adrenaline taste.

My favorite is hog. Easy to butcher and tastes better than store bought. Just stay away from the ones with the grapefruit sized nuts. They are pretty gamey. Choice cuts from these do make some pretty good sausage if it's really spicey.

[Lloyd Smale]

I make and like corned venison but only a little gets used that way. I LIKE the way venison tastes and kind of shake my head a recipes that have so much spice the venison could be replaced with dog meat and you wouldn't know the difference. Fry it in butter with a bit of salt and pepper or lightly season it and throw it on the grill and baste it with butter as you cook it. I want my venison to taste like venison not beef or a bunch of spices that overpower the flavor. About the only thing id use on venison is maybe a light sprinkle of garlic powder or light sprinkle of montreal steak seaonsing. NOTHING I would use on a good beef steak.

Best way is to corn it like corned beef. Except for the absence of fat, you'll never know it's deer meat.