How to Avoid a Gamey Taste in Venison

People sometimes don’t like venison because they say it tastes gamey, or furry, or waxy. Good venison handling techniques from the hunting field on through serving at the table can avoid those off-flavors, and turn venison haters into venison lovers.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Fresh-killed deer
• Sharp knives
• A clean area to lay out the deer for butchering
• Clean Water
• Large covered pot to put meat and ice water in
• Freezer wrap & freezer &/or canning jars and a pressure canner

1. The hunter should strive for a quick clean kill. The stress of being hurt, struggling or running may make the meat taste strong.
2. Bleed the deer as thoroughly as possible immediately. Field dress the deer soon after the kill. You want to open it up so the blood can drain well from the meat and so the meat can cool. Try not to cut into any of the entrails or organs.
3. Rinse the inside of the carcass with cold water. We hang ours from the crane on our tractor and spray it with the garden hose. This accomplishes two things – it cleans blood and dirt off the meat, and it cools the meat quickly.
4. If you keep the liver, be very careful to remove the gall bladder and discard it with the entrails. You do not want to get any green bile in contact with meat, your knife or you, or it will give a strong bitter taste to anything it contacts.
   
   Do not cut anywhere near the scent glands in the “armpits” at the tops of legs (think about where your armpit is located).
5. Skin the deer now (leaving the skin on a long time also contributes to strong-flavored meat) and with very sharp knife cut chunks of meat off the bones. There is no point in leaving bones in – they are another source of gamey flavor, they take up non-food space in the freezer, and you would need a meat saw to cut them (even with that it’s a lot of work!).
   
   Have a bowl of cold water to drop each chunk of meat in immediately. When you have accumulated a bowl full, rinse each piece under a cold stream of running water, making sure you get every hair off of it (another source of gamey or furry taste).
6. Put the clean chunks of meat into a big pan (I use my big stock pots for this) covered with cold water. In acceptably cold weather (30’s to low 40’s) we keep this on our closed-in porch with the lid tied down. If weather is warmer, or if we have to keep it inside because weather is too cold, we keep ice in the water to keep the meat cool enough.
   
   Age the meat in the icy water several days, changing the water at least once a day. I rinse each piece of meat again when I change water, just to make sure I get ALL the hair off. This soaking in water for aging also removes excess blood from the meat (another source of strong flavor) and ensures a mild flavor to the meat.
7. After the meat has aged, it’s time to cut and freeze or can it. At this point, you need to trim the fat off the meat. Deer fat is not marbled through the meat like beef. It is in chunks or strips along the sides of muscles or between layers of muscles, and can easily be trimmed with a knife or sometimes just picked off with fingers. This is the source of the “waxy” taste people complain of.
   
   Cut and package and preserve your venison either by freezing or canning.
8. Summary of sources of strong, gamey, furry or waxy tastes: dirt, contamination from entrails, leaving carcass too long before bleeding and field dressing, leaving hair on the meat, leaving bones and cooking them with the meat, leaving fat and cooking it with the meat, spoilage due to improper aging.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep your deer meat clean and cool.
• Get the blood and entrails out as soon as possible.
• Remove sources of strong flavor (blood, hair, fat, bone).
• Age and gender affect taste and tenderness of meat, too. A 16-point buck may look great on your wall, but he’ll be tough and strong-flavored, just like a big old bull would be. But you can have a lot of sausage, ground meat for chili, summer sausage and jerky!
• Don’t cut yourself! Proper butchering knives are sharp. I use a chain-mail glove that was made for use with butchering knives. Even with that I use a lot of caution.