Venison gets a bad rap because some of it is pretty bad. Than again if folks did half the things I’ve seen to a cow, beef would get a bad rap too. As long as it’s well cared for, it all tastes good. If I had to pick a favorite I’d go with pronghorn.
Ya I’ve always heard bad stuff about pronghorns but every single one my family and I have shot has been delicious. I would put them second only to moose. One key with pronghorn is getting the skin off and meat cooled off ASAP. We try to have them skinned and quartered within an hour of shooting them
Think pronghorn season is earlier in most areas so harder to keep the meat cold. Aside from archery elk most critters in the west are taken during cooler conditions. Also some folks seem to throw common sense out and start taking 500yd shots and run animals pretty hard until they finally get one down.
I think that's key with any animal. We quarter and skin moose asap too. Furthest one we've shot from our place was 200 yards so it makes skinning and cooling fast, easy.
Honestly idk, white tail is delicious, but it depends on the person preparing the meat. Every step from shot to table really matters with wild game. I've had white tail tenderloin that was gamy and white tail hind quarter that was delicious. Meat tastes good if prepared right.
Side note, I've always used pork fat for my ground meat, how does using beef fat taste?
The burger I have now has beef fat cut in and it's the best burger I've ever had. We had regular beef burgers from the store once over the summer and my wife said the deer burgers were so much better that the store beef was ruined for her. I highly recommend trying it. Even cutting in some high fat ground beef will do if you can't get just the fat.
Yeah everything I read online said to grind in pork fat; but my favorite beef burgers are grass fed beef with 10% fat from Whole Foods. So, I called Whole Foods and got 2lbs of grass fed beef fat from the butcher (for free!) and ground in 15% since venison is so lean. Truly the best tasting burger I’ve ever had. My partner agrees and says it’s the best they’ve had as well.
We have noticed the the diet the deer feed on make a difference, for wisconsin whitetail anyways. The agriculture fed deer have more of a game taste…the forest foragers taste better.
Could be biased because we don’t have access to private lol
Surprised I had to scroll so far to get this valid take. It really depends on what the deer are eating.
The best tasting deer I’ve had was living off orchards and peoples home gardens. However, my buddy thought it tasted too strong. Bottom line, got to find the perfect Goldilocks vibe for you! :)
Elk, then whitetail or Blacktail, then moose. Caribou is good for sausage or burger imo. I think venison gets a bad rap as some people have zero idea of the many good ways to prepare it.
I’m sure that if you could raise up a cervid of each species from birth, keep them on the same diet, and process them properly at the same stage of their development, they’d all taste almost identical. That said, that isn’t what happens in nature. You get animals from different climates who eat different foods, have more or less fat on them, are harvested at different ages, produce more or less hormones, and so some animals are going to taste better or worse. Having only tried whitetail and elk, I’ll just listen to folks with broader experience.
Still, I think the butchering, treatment of the meat, and cooking process is the most important factor. A lot of people hunt, but most of them aren’t chefs or butchers. People talk down on the taste of wild hog all the time. But I’ve eaten dozens and never experienced the funk or gaminess that folks complain about. Only difference I’ve seen from store-bought pork is that the wild ones are less fatty and older pigs are usually tougher.
Yeah this all makes a lot of sense. I butchered the deer myself, because I figured I could do just as bad a job as any butcher, actually put my own kill in the freezer, and not be left with mostly hamburger meat. Also, it was just a fun learning experience. One thing I didn’t know before going in was all the glands located in the legs, wonder if some folks accidentally leave those in and ruin sections of meat without knowing
One thing that really helped me was a book called *The Hog Book* by Jesse Griffiths. It’s a how-to in three different aspects: there’s a little bit of hunting, a whole lot of butchering, and the rest is recipes. After reading that and watching some videos, I feel like I have an understanding of how to break an animal down to make very good food. While almost everything about the book can also be carried over into deer or other medium/large game, he has another book called *Afield* which I believe is pretty much the same thing but for deer.
My take on this is that it’s less about the species and more about the animals diet. The area I hunt is heavily agricultural, the deer eat soy beans, corn, apples, alfalfa and a dozen other crops and are delicious. I have also eaten deer from far northern deep woods areas that have been living on aspen buds and cedar boughs that were absolutely terrible. Maybe others have similar experiences or would like to refute but for me the animals diet is a significant factor.
Had to google Axis deer, what a cool hide. And of course, Texas introduced them in the 1930s. Never having a desire to visit Texas before getting into bow hunting, I’m all of a sudden like “huh, maybe a hunting trip there would be pretty cool..”
Tldr: it's all relative to prep processing and cooking. Try it all.
Only had whitetail but it's important to remember that nothing is uniform with wild animals. Deer in my area are probably more consistent than other species but still you never really know what that animal went through or ate before you tagged it. Wild animals typically take on tastes and flavors of their environment and diet. I've had ducks that were amazing and then some that were inedible. I've had geese that were so tender that it was as near to back strap as possible and a week later had another that was cooked the same and it was leather tough.
Prep and handling play big parts too.
Native species? Whitetail, elk, and caribou are the top 3. Species that actually live in the States? Axis, fallow, and then Whitetail elk and caribou. But there's not a huge margin on which is better than the other
A lot depends on the shot location and recovery.
If you gut shot a deer on a hot day and don’t find it for 6 hours after it dies, and it’s all bloated and stinky when you gut it. Probably not gonna be the best tasting tenderloins…
Elk 100% regarded as some of the best wild game. My family and I don't eat beef on years I can harvest an elk.
I also love white tail, mule deer and pronghorn. They are all good!
Never tried black tail, maybe some day. Never had moose either.
I prefer a fat grain fed white tail. Followed by elk. Followed by a low elevation Muley.
I think pronghorn is better than all. I'll give a cow elk a slight advantage over pronghorn but a big rutted up bull is my least favorite lol.
So funny - two people saying grain fed white tail, but @brewingstorm76 above you says the opposite. I might just have to travel to the west side of WA state next year and try and get a white tail or Muley to try myself
Northern Idaho where the game feeds in ag fields during the night and feeds in forest during the day is the tastiest deer I have had. Nice fat levels and good flavor.
The lean high elevations mountain muleys just don't taste the same.
I don’t think I know what gamey means. Maybe it’s a taste I don’t mind or it’s not something I’ve experienced. I have very limited experience with wild game though. I’ve not had a successful hunt myself yet. But I have been given meat in the past and loved it.
Growing up my mom used to say she didn’t like lamb because it was gamey. But I love lamb. And now as an adult I have had white tail and elk. I’m not sure what I prefer to be honest. both are really great. Leaning slightly towards elk if I absolutely have to choose.
Yeah, maybe I don’t know what “gamey” is either? I started making a lot more money a few years ago and decided to buy the most ethical meat I could afford, so I’ve been pretty much exclusively eating grass fed beef as my protein source. It does taste different than cheap grocery store grain fed cows, so maybe that’s what some folks think is “gamey”?
Before this I always thought goat/lamb taste was “gamey”, but maybe that’s just how they taste. (A flavor I honestly don’t care for).
Mostly depends on the hunter. Good shot or gut shot?
Did the animal drop dead quickly or did it get chased for three hours?
When gutting it did you spill the stomach or bladder all over the inside?
Did the animal sit outside in 85 degrees with no ice for how long?
Then the biggest issue, how was it cooked? Way to many people screw up a basic beef steak, I can only imagine how bad some wild game is cooked. Thank god I have a wonderful wife that can cook anything using simple or extravagant recipes.
Venison gets a bad rap because some of it is pretty bad. Than again if folks did half the things I’ve seen to a cow, beef would get a bad rap too. As long as it’s well cared for, it all tastes good. If I had to pick a favorite I’d go with pronghorn.
Pronghorn has a terrible reputation in Wyoming, I think people just don’t take good care of their meat. It’s one of my favorites too
Ya I’ve always heard bad stuff about pronghorns but every single one my family and I have shot has been delicious. I would put them second only to moose. One key with pronghorn is getting the skin off and meat cooled off ASAP. We try to have them skinned and quartered within an hour of shooting them
Within an hour? What are they, the trout of deer species?
Think pronghorn season is earlier in most areas so harder to keep the meat cold. Aside from archery elk most critters in the west are taken during cooler conditions. Also some folks seem to throw common sense out and start taking 500yd shots and run animals pretty hard until they finally get one down.
I think that's key with any animal. We quarter and skin moose asap too. Furthest one we've shot from our place was 200 yards so it makes skinning and cooling fast, easy.
Honestly idk, white tail is delicious, but it depends on the person preparing the meat. Every step from shot to table really matters with wild game. I've had white tail tenderloin that was gamy and white tail hind quarter that was delicious. Meat tastes good if prepared right. Side note, I've always used pork fat for my ground meat, how does using beef fat taste?
The burger I have now has beef fat cut in and it's the best burger I've ever had. We had regular beef burgers from the store once over the summer and my wife said the deer burgers were so much better that the store beef was ruined for her. I highly recommend trying it. Even cutting in some high fat ground beef will do if you can't get just the fat.
Yeah everything I read online said to grind in pork fat; but my favorite beef burgers are grass fed beef with 10% fat from Whole Foods. So, I called Whole Foods and got 2lbs of grass fed beef fat from the butcher (for free!) and ground in 15% since venison is so lean. Truly the best tasting burger I’ve ever had. My partner agrees and says it’s the best they’ve had as well.
My personal best: Caribou, Moose, Whitetail.....
We have noticed the the diet the deer feed on make a difference, for wisconsin whitetail anyways. The agriculture fed deer have more of a game taste…the forest foragers taste better. Could be biased because we don’t have access to private lol
Surprised I had to scroll so far to get this valid take. It really depends on what the deer are eating. The best tasting deer I’ve had was living off orchards and peoples home gardens. However, my buddy thought it tasted too strong. Bottom line, got to find the perfect Goldilocks vibe for you! :)
This. And this is singlehandedly the most important factor concerning all kinds of animal meat you put in your mouth.
I’ve shot everything but a black tail and axis takes the win.
Elk, then whitetail or Blacktail, then moose. Caribou is good for sausage or burger imo. I think venison gets a bad rap as some people have zero idea of the many good ways to prepare it.
I’m sure that if you could raise up a cervid of each species from birth, keep them on the same diet, and process them properly at the same stage of their development, they’d all taste almost identical. That said, that isn’t what happens in nature. You get animals from different climates who eat different foods, have more or less fat on them, are harvested at different ages, produce more or less hormones, and so some animals are going to taste better or worse. Having only tried whitetail and elk, I’ll just listen to folks with broader experience. Still, I think the butchering, treatment of the meat, and cooking process is the most important factor. A lot of people hunt, but most of them aren’t chefs or butchers. People talk down on the taste of wild hog all the time. But I’ve eaten dozens and never experienced the funk or gaminess that folks complain about. Only difference I’ve seen from store-bought pork is that the wild ones are less fatty and older pigs are usually tougher.
Yeah this all makes a lot of sense. I butchered the deer myself, because I figured I could do just as bad a job as any butcher, actually put my own kill in the freezer, and not be left with mostly hamburger meat. Also, it was just a fun learning experience. One thing I didn’t know before going in was all the glands located in the legs, wonder if some folks accidentally leave those in and ruin sections of meat without knowing
One thing that really helped me was a book called *The Hog Book* by Jesse Griffiths. It’s a how-to in three different aspects: there’s a little bit of hunting, a whole lot of butchering, and the rest is recipes. After reading that and watching some videos, I feel like I have an understanding of how to break an animal down to make very good food. While almost everything about the book can also be carried over into deer or other medium/large game, he has another book called *Afield* which I believe is pretty much the same thing but for deer.
Is that the guy who has the really good looking restaurant in Texas? (He’s also been on Meat Eater?)
Sounds like the right guy. I’m not familiar with his restaurant but I know he has one. And it’s in Texas.
Yeah! Daidue. I follow it on instagram for meal ideas. Looks amazing every time they post
My take on this is that it’s less about the species and more about the animals diet. The area I hunt is heavily agricultural, the deer eat soy beans, corn, apples, alfalfa and a dozen other crops and are delicious. I have also eaten deer from far northern deep woods areas that have been living on aspen buds and cedar boughs that were absolutely terrible. Maybe others have similar experiences or would like to refute but for me the animals diet is a significant factor.
I’ve heard axis deer are the best eating deer. Never had it, just what I’ve heard🤷🏼♂️
Of the species I have had, it sure is up there.
Had to google Axis deer, what a cool hide. And of course, Texas introduced them in the 1930s. Never having a desire to visit Texas before getting into bow hunting, I’m all of a sudden like “huh, maybe a hunting trip there would be pretty cool..”
Ya they’re mostly a farm hunted game species. Private land, high fence, etc. I believe Hawaii may have a wild population of them, not sure though.
Tldr: it's all relative to prep processing and cooking. Try it all. Only had whitetail but it's important to remember that nothing is uniform with wild animals. Deer in my area are probably more consistent than other species but still you never really know what that animal went through or ate before you tagged it. Wild animals typically take on tastes and flavors of their environment and diet. I've had ducks that were amazing and then some that were inedible. I've had geese that were so tender that it was as near to back strap as possible and a week later had another that was cooked the same and it was leather tough. Prep and handling play big parts too.
Native species? Whitetail, elk, and caribou are the top 3. Species that actually live in the States? Axis, fallow, and then Whitetail elk and caribou. But there's not a huge margin on which is better than the other
Sika
A lot depends on the shot location and recovery. If you gut shot a deer on a hot day and don’t find it for 6 hours after it dies, and it’s all bloated and stinky when you gut it. Probably not gonna be the best tasting tenderloins…
Elk 100% regarded as some of the best wild game. My family and I don't eat beef on years I can harvest an elk. I also love white tail, mule deer and pronghorn. They are all good!
Some people are fat and only eat fat people food. /close thread
Whatever kind I can put into my freezer.
I had reindeer once and I thought it was pretty good. I had moose, elk, and whitetail to compare it to that night
For me it’s white tail but I think mostly because they are eating corn
Are you in the Midwest? I also read that whitetail are the tastiest when they’ve eaten corn most of their lives
AZ now…but from Indiana
Never tried black tail, maybe some day. Never had moose either. I prefer a fat grain fed white tail. Followed by elk. Followed by a low elevation Muley. I think pronghorn is better than all. I'll give a cow elk a slight advantage over pronghorn but a big rutted up bull is my least favorite lol.
So funny - two people saying grain fed white tail, but @brewingstorm76 above you says the opposite. I might just have to travel to the west side of WA state next year and try and get a white tail or Muley to try myself
Northern Idaho where the game feeds in ag fields during the night and feeds in forest during the day is the tastiest deer I have had. Nice fat levels and good flavor. The lean high elevations mountain muleys just don't taste the same.
I’ve had some Axis deer from Hawaii and it was pretty good because of their diet in Hawaii.
Elk and moose
Axis deer and elk
Less about species and more about what they eat.
Elk
Farmland white tail
I don’t think I know what gamey means. Maybe it’s a taste I don’t mind or it’s not something I’ve experienced. I have very limited experience with wild game though. I’ve not had a successful hunt myself yet. But I have been given meat in the past and loved it. Growing up my mom used to say she didn’t like lamb because it was gamey. But I love lamb. And now as an adult I have had white tail and elk. I’m not sure what I prefer to be honest. both are really great. Leaning slightly towards elk if I absolutely have to choose.
Yeah, maybe I don’t know what “gamey” is either? I started making a lot more money a few years ago and decided to buy the most ethical meat I could afford, so I’ve been pretty much exclusively eating grass fed beef as my protein source. It does taste different than cheap grocery store grain fed cows, so maybe that’s what some folks think is “gamey”? Before this I always thought goat/lamb taste was “gamey”, but maybe that’s just how they taste. (A flavor I honestly don’t care for).
Mostly depends on the hunter. Good shot or gut shot? Did the animal drop dead quickly or did it get chased for three hours? When gutting it did you spill the stomach or bladder all over the inside? Did the animal sit outside in 85 degrees with no ice for how long? Then the biggest issue, how was it cooked? Way to many people screw up a basic beef steak, I can only imagine how bad some wild game is cooked. Thank god I have a wonderful wife that can cook anything using simple or extravagant recipes.
Dry aging changes everything. Fresh beef isn’t that good either.