How to Prepare Wild Game Meat

Wild game is usually thought of as any creature killed in the wild for food. In the past, wild game was really the only way to get meat, but since the domestication of animals such as cattle, we can get meat from a wide variety of sources. Wild game has a unique flavor that sets it apart from meat of the farm raised variety. However if you prepare the meat wrong you might never experience the full flavor.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Kill some wild game. This can be anything from pheasant to deer to buffalo. You should do the dressing of the meat at a field site, or somewhere away from your kitchen or cooking area. Dressing the meat quickly will help preserve the meat. You do not want to do it in your kitchen as the process can be quite messy, which might lead to disease.
2. Carry the dressed meat to your cooking area, and if it is going to take more than an hour to get to your cooking area you will need to keep the meat cool. This can most easily be done with just ice, whether in an ice chest, or just an ice-filled bag.
3. Refrigerate or freeze the meat that will not be eaten immediately. This is of course necessary to prevent spoilage. The meat you will be cooking with presently should be placed on a cutting board. The cutting board should not be wood, as wood can soak up the meat's juices which will lead to a bacterial infection of the cutting surface.
4. Separate the raw meat into pieces for cooking. You will also use this opportunity to cut away any unwanted pieces such as gizzards or skin, but again this is up to the cook. Game meat is very low in fat so do not try to cut away what little fat there is, as this will be needed for cooking. The low fat will cause the meat to not shrink as much during cooking.
5. Season the meat as you desire, however with game less seasoning is better in order to not overpower the meat's natural taste. This is also your last chance to double check for hunting remnants such as shrapnel.
6. Cook the meat with whichever recipe you prefer. Wild game will dry out faster than domesticated meats because of the decreased amount of fat, so you will need to monitor the cooking closely and probably remove the game a lot sooner than you would if it was store bought.