Hunting & Fishing What to Do With Gamey Venison

[Snipe260]

For deer/Elk

1. as soon as it’s skinned we put on ice and salt each quarter heavy including back straps
2. Keep on ice for about 3 days or until the blood is mostly gone
3. trim off all the fat and silver skin
4. soak in butter milk in fridge or cooler on ice overnight then rinse off
5. season with what ever flavor you plan on using I like Teryaki (for jerky) to cover the gamey taste
6. seal up in bags with seasoning and freeze

This!

 

[mountainman308]

Taste test 1 results: back straps soaked in whole milk for 24 hours, then marinated for 24 hours in an olive oil and vinegar base marinade, then butter fried with garlic.
I think it mostly neutralized the gamey taste. Definitely neutralized the smell while cooking. My wife has a hell of a nose, and she was fine with my pan frying it in the kitchen. Still had to serve with sriracha to totally mask the gamey taste, but it went from inedible to edible but not to be served to guests we like. Next up, buttermilk.

 

[Alabusa]

Taste test 1 results: back straps soaked in whole milk for 24 hours, then marinated for 24 hours in an olive oil and vinegar base marinade, then butter fried with garlic.
I think it mostly neutralized the gamey taste. Definitely neutralized the smell while cooking. My wife has a hell of a nose, and she was fine with my pan frying it in the kitchen. Still had to serve with sriracha to totally mask the gamey taste, but it went from inedible to edible but not to be served to guests we like. Next up, buttermilk.

Damn, I would have thrown it away if it took that much to make it edible.

 

[mountainman308]

Damn, I would have thrown it away if it took that much to make it edible.

I took a life. I’m responsible for not wasting it if it’s salvageable.

 

[myronman3]

You only need a case of food poisoning once to know you never want to go there again.

I’ll be damned if i subjected my family to anything questionable. Your butcher seriously fucked you on this. But, all butchers will.

 

[knuckleballz]

I'm suprised no one mentioned soaking/marinading in soy sauce. I use kikkoman soy sauce and leave the meat in it for 2-6 hours. It removes gamey flavor and tenderizes at the same time. I pour off the soy and then I marinade in some worchister sauce for flavor. You can get to salty if you leave in soy for to long. I had enough bad experiences with taking deer to the butcher and seeing the nasty smelly carcasses others were bringing in. You will be amazed how much more meat you end up with when you butcher your own!

 

[mountainman308]

I'm suprised no one mentioned soaking/marinading in soy sauce. I use kikkoman soy sauce and leave the meat in it for 2-6 hours. It removes gamey flavor and tenderizes at the same time. I pour off the soy and then I marinade in some worchister sauce for flavor. You can get to salty if you leave in soy for to long. I had enough bad experiences with taking deer to the butcher and seeing the nasty smelly carcasses others were bringing in. You will be amazed how much more meat you end up with when you butcher your own!

I’ll have to try soy sauce after I try the buttermilk, powdered milk, and brine techniques.

 

[Wyfox]

Check out the Bearded Butchers on Youtube for butchering tutorial on your own game. They cover deer field care to butchering it up on your kitchen table. As for gamey meat... it's best grounded up and turned into chorizo and italian sausage. As already stated quality field care is the best way to mitigate it.

 

[GONE BAD]

I love wide game. That being said who really knows what 'gammie' is?

To most people, if it doesn't taste like beef it's bad.

I would say deer is more like goat, it has its own taste.

If I'm fixing deer I cut all the fat off, except the ribs. I love deer rids bbq.

Anyway if you want to make the meat more mild, thaw it out then rub straight salt all over the meat, rub it in good!
Set it aside for a few minutes then rinse it off with cold water. Cut anything off that isn't pure meat. Cut off any membrane, fat, bone etc.
SALT is the key.
Also use the term 'Venison'! Just saying that will make your mouth water?!

And remember; never say ' it's what your mother calls your daddy'. They'll think you're eating 'asshole'!?

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

Marinading any tough or wild tasting meat over night in Coke a Cola has never failed me.

 

[ken4570tc in WY]

Taste test 1 results: back straps soaked in whole milk for 24 hours, then marinated for 24 hours in an olive oil and vinegar base marinade, then butter fried with garlic.
I think it mostly neutralized the gamey taste. Definitely neutralized the smell while cooking. My wife has a hell of a nose, and she was fine with my pan frying it in the kitchen. Still had to serve with sriracha to totally mask the gamey taste, but it went from inedible to edible but not to be served to guests we like. Next up, buttermilk.

Mountainman, you can get ride of 90% of the smell and strong game taste simply by browning in good quality olive oil. No other oil we've tried does the trick. None of the other tricks mentioned here were as effective. After browning in EVOO, finish cooking and seasoning as desired. As mentioned above, any game with a tendency to be strong odored is best cut, packaged and frozen as fast as possible.

 

[mountainman308]

Marinading any tough or wild tasting meat over night in Coke a Cola has never failed me.

Thanks Gunfighter. Another one to add to the taste test.

Mountainman, you can get ride of 90% of the smell and strong game taste simply by browning in good quality olive oil. No other oil we've tried does the trick. None of the other tricks mentioned here were as effective. After browning in EVOO, finish cooking and seasoning as desired. As mentioned above, any game with a tendency to be strong odored is best cut, packaged and frozen as fast as possible.

Which brand of EVOO do you use? I use Bertolli in my marinades, but have small batch stuff (labels printed in Italian and Spanish) for pasta, pesto and bread.

 

[ken4570tc in WY]

Thanks Gunfighter. Another one to add to the taste test.



Which brand of EVOO do you use? I use Bertolli in my marinades, but have small batch stuff (labels printed in Italian and Spanish) for pasta, pesto and bread.

Bertolli is good! We stumbled on this by accident when we lived in Alaska. We had started to use EVOO for it's health benefits. When we were given Caribou meat that someone needed to get rid of to make room in their freezer. We had used a couple of packages and thought it was OK. I came home one evening and opened the door to the apartment and almost gagged from the smell. Come to find out, when the wife was getting ready to cook the Caribou she found we were out of EVOO and didn't think anything about substituting good old fashioned Crisco oil. Bad idea, the dog wouldn't touch it, we threw it out and took the kids to Burger King while the house aired out. We were a bit reluctant to try another package for a couple of weeks but when we got some more EVOO. That's when we found out just how much better the olive oil was than the Crisco crap. Believe me, we've experimented over the years trying to soak in milks and marinades only to always fall back on the EVOO.

 

[HeavyAssault]

Drop it into a slow cooker. Add whatever you like for BBQ sauce.....No one will know it's venison.
Grind it into hamburger....add it to pasta sauce...No one will know it's venison.
Pound it into cube steak.....flour to your preference, use Hunter's gravy or jaggerschnitzel gravy....No one will know it's venison.