I mentioned to my BIL that I would be cooking venison on a regular basis now and he said he did not like the gamey flavor. It is a mystery to me what he was talking about.
I may have grown up in NYC, but I am a decent outdoorsman and an even better cook. Even more so, I am not an idiot. I know that meat has to be cared for in the field, did my research, and made a point of doing everything I could to maintain meat quality after I pulled the trigger. I had to wait a couple weeks for the chronic wasting disease testing results, but after the all clear arrived yesterday I cooked up a section of backstrap for dinner tonight. I kept it simple: seasoned with a Russian style spice blend (salt, garlic, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg), seared in a cast iron skillet to an internal temp of 140F, let it rest 15 minutes, and deglazed the pan with some red wine and a healthy spoonful of homemade plum-Chambord jam. Delicious. The sort of thing people would pay stooped amounts of money for in a snooty recipe. I will try cooking it just a touch less next time as I like it a bit rarer than it came out, but holy cow.
This meat was not heavily seasoned and I could taste it clearly through the pan sauce. I don't care for beef, but I eat bison whenever I can get away with it (like everything about it but the price). This tasted to me like a really lean cut of bison. Not gamey.
So where does the gamey taste people talk about come from? Are they getting half spoiled meat?
At this point I can't wait to try doing sauerbraten, corned venison, stew, etc.