The right knife can make all the difference when handling a downed big game animal. A poorly-designed knife handle is dangerous, especially when it gets covered in blood and other body fluids.
Field dressing: Kill an animal in warm weather and it is a race to take care of the animal. Look on Youtube for field dressing techniques, or better yet, learn from an experienced hunter. Meat cooling: The sooner the meat is cooled, the better it will taste. In warm weather, get a good, big cooler , and ice down the meat as soon as possible. I like one of those huge 65 to quart coolers — they will hold a lot of meat and ice. Improper aging: If meat warms up, it starts to rot. Keep the carcass in a cool place.
In hunting camp, hang the meat in the shade and cover it with newspapers and a sleeping bag to keep it cool during the heat of the day. Or if there is room, quarter and ice the meat down. Dirty knives and power saws: One of my pet peeves is unsanitary meat handling.
In my hunting group, everyone wears latex gloves, aprons and baseball caps when cutting meat. There is little time saved by using power tools. A Sawzall is quick for splitting a hanging carcass, but bone dust, dirt and hair may get in the meat.
Cut rate processor: If you must take a carcass to a processor, make sure the place is legitimate. It should have USDA certifications posted. The guy working out of his garage may do a wonderful job, but he may also have cracked hands and a runny nose because of the cool weather. These two knives were all I needed to completely process a whitetail buck.
Do your own meat processing: I like cutting and processing meat. All you need are several knives, a picnic table and some time. My wife and I rarely buy meat from the grocery story, instead opting for the variety of game meat and fish stored in our freezer. I hate the word for a variety of reasons. One is that it assumes all game tastes the same. Most folks can agree that besides being meat, these two proteins have nothing in common. In fact, animals of the same species from different habitats often taste completely different.
There are so many variables, including age, diet, physical activity, time of year, stress, and how the animal was handled during processing that affect taste. This nuance in flavor enriches the experience of eating what you hunt and is something to be discussed and celebrated, not paved over with a word like gamey.
So why has everyone, from children to food critics, come to use the word without thinking about its implications? Another reason I despise the word is that it inherently implies that game meat, in its basic form, tastes bad. Gamey has become a pejorative term that suggests game meat requires elaborate preparations, powerful marinades , and overpowering sauces to make it palatable. I would argue the opposite is true.
One of my favorite ways to eat venison is by making tartare , a raw preparation originating in northern Europe and popularized in French cuisine. Lightly seasoned and served raw, you can taste venison in its purest form. Humans have been eating wild animals far longer than domesticated ones. So where did the term come from? One theory suggests the word originally referred to meat that had slightly spoiled. At the beginning of the 19 th century, market hunters, particularly bison hunters, shot animals en mass.
Often, market hunters shot so many animals the commercial take in the mids is estimated at 2,, bison per day it was impossible to butcher them in time to preserve their meat if commercial hunters bothered with the meat at all.
In the heat of summer, a single bison would have been a chore, even for a group of seasoned professionals. As you can imagine, by the time people got around to eating it, the meat would have started to decompose and spoil, giving it a pungent smell and slightly rancid taste.
Yet, these off-putting characteristics were from poor processing, not from the animals themselves. Corn fed deer will have a milder flavor than those that eat acorns or sage. The 'gamey' flavor is more noticeable in the fat. Removing the fat, connective tissue, silver skin, bone and hair during processing lessens the 'gamey' taste. However, undesirable strong flavors are due to inadequate bleeding, delay in field dressing or failure to cool the carcass promptly.
Rub a roast with oil, butter, margarine, bacon fat, sweet cream or sour cream to add moisture, richness and flavor. Always include a high-acid liquid like lemon or tomato juice, vinegar or wine to soften the muscle fibers. No time to marinate? Cover the meat with vinegar water 2 tablespoons vinegar to a quart of water and place in the refrigerator for about an hour before cooking.
Garlic salt, salt and pepper to taste. Add equal parts of Worcestershire sauce and two of your favorite steak sauces. This gives a blend of flavors and also is excellent for basting game roasts or thick steaks during cooking. Place in the refrigerator overnight. Marinating meats for more than 24 hours breaks down the meat fibers making it mushy.
Big games animals tend to exercise more than domestic animals. Their muscles are relatively lean so venison tends to be drier and less tender than beef.
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