Don't Eat Beef Eat Deer Gif

I'm often amazed at the people, deer hunters included, who tell me they but don't like venison. That statement is usually followed by a qualifier: it's tough; it's gamy; it's dry. And and then on.

I've eaten a lot of proficient deer meat. But I've eaten some really bad deer meat, too. I'thou only a self-trained butcher, but I've been processing five to six deer a flavour for the better office of twenty years. When it comes to cooking, I'm no Scott Leysath or Michael Pendley, either, but my wife, kid, and I do eat venison in some class two or three meals per calendar week, year-round. I call back we eat pretty skilful.

Some things consistently make venison really tasty. And some things will ruin the flavor, too. Here are a dozen of the worst offenders.

1. Poor Field Care

In the real world of hunting, things happen. We all make bad shots on occasion. And while we know not to "push" a deer that's been hit marginally, realize that the longer information technology takes for the animal to die and the farther it runs, the more than adrenaline and lactic acid builds up in the creature's system and muscles. Ever had a glass of good-tasting acid? I didn't think so.

The faster a deer hits the basis and can be field-dressed, the ameliorate the meat will be. Some of the best-tasting deer I've e'er had have been shot in the head with a gun. The animal is killed instantly, and the meat is uncontaminated by claret and entrails from the chest cavity. That said, head shots are risky. The lungs remain the best place to aim.

2. Failure to Absurd Quickly

Internal bacteria quickly takes over after death, expelling gases and causing the animal to bloat. That's the showtime step in decomposition. This procedure is accelerated in warm weather. Learn how to field-dress a deer, and get to it ASAP. Removing those organs is the showtime pace in cooling the animal down.

On a cold night — in the mid-30s or lower — a deer can be left hanging skin-on overnight. In especially cold atmospheric condition, some hunters like to age a deer in such a manner for several days (more than on crumbling in a scrap). I live in a warm climate, and nigh of the deer I shoot in a season's fourth dimension are during early bow season, and so I don't have that luxury. When I find my deer and become it field-dressed, I plan on having information technology skinned, quartered and on water ice within the 60 minutes.

iii. Shooting the Wrong Deer

Mod deer hunters are in tune with deer herd management. We've learned of practices that contribute to the wellness of a herd, including which deer to shoot. Given the risk, almost of usa want to shoot a mature buck with large antlers. Me included.

Old bucks are perfectly edible but rarely the all-time. Muscles get tougher with use and stringy with age. An old buck that'southward spent a total fall fighting, rubbing, scraping, and chasing does volition be lean. Wait chewy steaks. Aforementioned thing goes for an old doe that'southward burned all her summer calories producing milk to nurse fawns. I usually brand hamburger, sausage, and hasty out of such animals.

For steaks, y'all tin can't vanquish a immature, crop-fed deer. Deer that spend a summer munching on corn and soybeans have an easier life — and more fattening food sources — than those that spend a lifetime wandering the big timber in search of scattered mast and browse. The tastiest venison I've ever eaten came from a one ane/2-year-quondam forkhorn shot through the neck near a picked cornfield during early on bow season.

That immature deer had nil to exercise all summer except get fat. Am I saying to whack every young buck that walks by? No. But I am saying if a deer for the freezer is your goal, young bucks from the early on season are ordinarily skilful eating and have more meat than does to boot. If y'all want to shoot one and information technology's legal, become for it. Y'all don't owe anyone an apology.

4. Failure to Age / Purge

I've been told that aging venison on water ice is a mistake, but I don't buy it.**

The mercury rises above l degrees on near days of deer season in my surface area. That'southward too warm to permit a deer hang, so icing them down is my simply option. I line the lesser of a cooler with a layer of ice, add my deer quarters on tiptop of that, and then cover them with more water ice.

I go on the cooler in the shade with the drain plug open and on a downhill incline. That'south very important. The thought is to let the ice slowly melt and bleed from the cooler. This not only keeps the meat cold, just purges an amazing amount of blood from it. Do this for at to the lowest degree two days, checking the ice a couple of times per twenty-four hour period in peculiarly warm weather. (Note: If you do this without a drain plug, you'll get the reverse consequence — deer quarters that are essentially marinated in bloody, dirty water. Does that audio tasty? Didn't recollect so.)

v. Dirty Knives and Power Saws

A deer's legs are held together simply like yours: with ball-and-socket joints and connective tissue. Learn where these are, and you tin cut an entire skinned deer autonomously inside minutes with a skilful pocketknife. Laying into a deer'southward legs and spine with a power saw puts bone marrow, os fragments, and whatsoever mess was on the saw blade into your venison. Would you season your steak with os fragments and wood shavings? Didn't think and then.

I keep three sharp knives handy when I'm cleaning a deer. One is for field-dressing. This one will exist a stout knife with a driblet indicate for prying through bone. Another is for skinning. Though a skinning blade with a gut claw is nice to have, I've been using a long-bladed fillet knife the last couple of seasons, and information technology works beautifully. These knives can exist honed to a razor's edge and speedily resharpened. Other than quickly dulling a knife's edge by slicing through hair, skinning is not taxing on a knife'due south blade, and so a flexible fillet pocketknife works fine. Finally, I bandy over to another knife — over again, with a heavier blade — for my quartering. The point to accept from all this is to go along your knives dissever and so you reduce contamination of the meat with blood and hair.

half-dozen. Poor Trimming

Dissimilar beef fat, deer fatty does non taste good. Neither does the sinew, silverish pare, and other connective tissues holding the various muscle groups together. Venison, whether destined for steaks or hamburger, should exist trimmed free of annihilation that's not rich, blood-red meat.

7. Burger Is Likewise Lean

Ironically, because fat needs to exist trimmed away for the best flavour, venison often becomes as well lean for hamburger purposes. Patties made for grilled double cheeseburgers often fall autonomously before long later on hit the hot grate. The solution is to add together some fat, either beef or pork, when you're grinding venison. Nosotros employ cheap bacon, mixed at a rate of v:i (v pounds of venison per pound of bacon). It makes our patties stick together, and the bacon adds a great flavor.

8. Using a Cut-Rate Processor

Some commercial deer processors practise a great task. But some practise non. I in one case took a deer to a processor, filled out my paperwork, and watched him disappear to the freezer room. He weighed my animal and returned with a corresponding amount of packaged, frozen venison. "Nosotros mix all our meat together and bundle a lot of burger at one time," he said.

For all I knew, the deer I was getting could've been gut-shot, left to hang in 90-degree oestrus, and so dragged along a blacktop route en route to the processor. No thanks. Insist on getting your own deer back when you have processing work done.

ix. Marinade Problems

"First, soak for 48 hours in Italian dressing …"

It'southward enough to make a venison lover cringe. Look, Italian dressing and BBQ sauce taste fine, but you'd meliorate be a ravenous fan of them if you're using them to soak venison steaks for two days. At the end of those two days, your steaks will gustation just like … Italian dressing or BBQ sauce.

In that location's nothing incorrect with a piddling splash of flavor enhancement, but try lighter flavors that complement the flavor of deer meat, and go along the marinade time brusque. My usual maximum is iii or four hours. A favorite marinade for grilled venison steaks is a mixture of olive oil, a spoonful of balsamic vinegar, a spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, some minced garlic (with the juice), a eject of mustard, and salt and pepper to gustatory modality.

10. Cooked Too Cool, for As well Long

Venison recipes, especially grilled recipes, often telephone call for removing the meat subsequently a couple of minutes per side. For many, the result of that is "This is raw and gross." And and so they place it back on the grill. Afterward a while, it turns gray, chewy, dry out … and all the same gross.

Grilled venison is best when eaten with a medium-rare interior, but the outside needs to be cooked. In order to do that, your grill needs to be hot enough to instantly sear the meat surface and lock in those flavors and juices. Flip your venison steaks i fourth dimension. If you lot don't have squeamish grill marks after three or four minutes, the grate isn't hot enough.

11. Improper Packaging and Freezing

Freezer burn doesn't aid the flavour of water ice foam or anything else, deer meat included. Modern vacuum packaging systems are handy and save on space, but I've used some that resulted in freezer-burned meat after a few months. If yous're ownership a vacuum-sealing unit, go a good 1.

We package our deer the onetime-fashioned fashion, first wrapping each portion in clear plastic wrap, and so roofing that with heavy-duty freezer paper. Every package is clearly labeled, so we not but know what cutting of meat is inside and when it was killed, simply also which deer it came from. If 1 animal proves especially tough, we know to use that meat for wearisome-cooking recipes.

12. Getting Too Fancy

There's no large mystery or secret to cooking venison. Treat it as y'all would care for very lean beef, and you'll go outstanding results twenty-four hour period in and out. We substitute deer burger for beefiness hamburger in virtually everything — chili, tacos, sloppy Joes, burgers on the grill, spaghetti, and who knows what else. Nosotros never plan on a "wild game nighttime" at the house. We just plan to cook dinner, and that usually means wild game by default.

(**Editor'south Note: We originally posted this commodity in Oct 2012. It's been updated with some new photos. I all the same stick to all the advice hither, as well — except that I have come to prefer dry-aging venison in a refrigerator or walk-in cooler whenever possible, over aging it on ice in a cooler. All the same, dry aging is not always an choice, and when information technology's not, deer meat on ice tastes simply fine. — Volition Brantley, author)

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Source: https://www.realtree.com/deer-hunting/articles/12-reasons-why-your-venison-tastes-like-hell

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