OT-beef vs. venison

[jnyork]

*VENISON VERSUS BEEF
THE TASTE CONTROVERSY ENDS
FROM THE UNITED STATES VENISON COUNCIL

*Controversy has long raged about the relative quality and taste of
venison and beef as gourmet foods. Some people say that venison is
tough, with a strong "wild" taste. Others insist that venison's flavor
is delicate. An independent food research group was retained by the
Venison Council to conduct a taste test to determine the truth of these
conflicting assertions once and for all.

First a Grade A Choice Holstein steer was chased into a swamp a mile and
a half from a road and shot several times. After some of the entrails
were removed, the carcass was dragged back over rocks and logs, and
through mud and dust to the road. It was then thrown into the back of a
pickup truck and driven through rain and snow for 100 miles before being
hung out in the sun for 10 days.

After that it was lugged into a garage, where it was skinned and rolled
around on the floor for a while. Strict sanitary precautions were
observed throughout the test, within the limitations of the butchering
environment.
For instance, dogs and cats were allowed to sniff and lick the steer
carcass, but were chased away when they attempted to bite chunks out of
it.

Next a sheet of plywood left from last year's butchering was set up in
the basement on two saw horses. The pieces of dried blood, hair and fat
left from last year were scraped off with a wire brush last used to
clean out the grass stuck under the lawn mower.

The skinned carcass was then dragged down the steps into the basement
where a half dozen inexperienced but enthusiastic and intoxicated men
worked on it with meat saws, cleavers and dull knives. The result was
375 pounds of soup bones, four bushel baskets of meat scraps, and a
couple of steaks that were an eighth of an inch thick on one edge and an
inch and a half thick on the other.

The steaks were seared on a glowing red hot cast iron skillet to lock in
the flavor. When the smoke cleared, rancid bacon grease was added along
with three pounds of onions, and the whole conglomeration was fried for
two hours.

The meat was gently teased from the frying pan and served to three
blindfolded taste panel volunteers. Every one of the members of the
panel thought it was venison. One of the volunteers even said it tasted
exactly like the venison he had eaten in hunting camps for the past 27
years. The results of this scientific test show conclusively that there
is no difference between the taste of beef and venison.

[gamekeeper]

Sounds about right

[crs]

[Chuck 100 yd]

......................................

[AJMD429]

Hey - we don't use old plywood - we use part of an old plastic shower stall...! (but it stays outside in the rain and sun all year long, so is probably more sterile than most operating room tables after a quick bleach-water wipe before the season's butchering).

[brucew44guns]

I always laugh when I hear about "gamey" meat, or strong taste with elk or deer. You go kill a deer on a 80 degree day, sun beating down, gut shot, bladder bursted, dried blood everywhere in the cavity, and finally get it skinned 8 hours later and put in a cooler. Some people won't waste a pound of meat when they cut it up for fear it's too costly, and freeze the tainted urine soaked and bloody pieces in the same pack as the good stuff, wow, that sure is "gamey" when it hits a skillet later.

[Griff]

I always laugh when I hear about "gamey" meat, or strong taste with elk or deer. You go kill a deer on a 80 degree day, sun beating down, gut shot, bladder bursted, dried blood everywhere in the cavity, and finally get it skinned 8 hours later and put in a cooler. Some people won't waste a pound of meat when they cut it up for fear it's too costly, and freeze the tainted urine soaked and bloody pieces in the same pack as the good stuff, wow, that sure is "gamey" when it hits a skillet later.

8 hours? That's on the quick side for some that I hear tell of. I always decline when offered vension by one fellar... he likes to hang his outdoors, for at LEAST 4 days, before butcherin' it. And he prefers days over 80º! I wonder why he ain't gotten sick yet... much have a much stronger stomach than me.

[Mike D.]

SHEESH!! Thankfully, we have the facility to hang deer and pigs in a 42º walk-in box and are able to get these animals there within a few hours at the most. We usually hunt in temps exceeding 100º, so this is extremely important to insure quality meat. Up until a few years ago, we had to work our animals in a 100 yr old basement skinning shed where the average temp was over 80º. Still, we lost very few game to spoilage. They were taken into "town" for hanging and precessing. Now, they can hang 'em on the ranch for a week before they are butchered.

[Old Savage]

I like beef and I don't care what you like.

[mescalero1]

Hang in there O.S.
Hard to get venison done right.
The Brazeros that used to work for my mother solved the problem by making it into chili.
But it was so hot that two bites and your taste buds were shot.

[El Chivo]

I tried venison once or twice before I got my deer, and thought it tasted good, just maybe a little dry. When I got my deer butchered and in the freezer, it had been out about 11 hours, much of it cool morning weather.

It tasted very delicate, like fine beef with a different bouquet. Perfect with salt and A-1 sauce, freshly grilled. I tried different marinades and methods, finally got rid of the bouqet by "twice cooking", once in the pan and then steaming it with rice. Got it tender that way, too.

Someone suggested cooking it with green olives, and that worked well.

Eventually it started getting icky with freezer burn. If I get another one, I think I'll cook it all, then freeze that, and heat/cook it again with steam.

This was a nice, healthy looking mulie. Last year I helped a guy load a small buck into his truck, and it was a pathetic animal. Didn't look tasty at all.

[Leverdude]

It aint hard at all to cook venison right if you treat it right. Not whitetail anyway, never ate a long eared mule deer or blacktail. I feed it to people that have never eaten it before & they come back for seconds.
Get it gutted out & chilled soon as possible. If its chilly out, 50 or under but above freezing I'll let it hang a few days, otherwise I cut it up right away & freeze it. Do not cook it near well & I havent found a way to ruin it yet. If someone insists on well done I cook them a hot dog.

[KirkD]

That was pretty funny but, seriously, I like to gut my deer within a few minutes of being shot and then as soon as I've hauled it out of the bush, skin it. One other thing ....... it ain't no 80 degrees when and where I hunt deer! In fact, there are times when it sure is good to get my hands warmed up in that freshly killed deer.

When we serve venison to guests, we don't tell them until after they've eaten it; they always think it is roast beef. For almost all of my roast venison, it is difficult to tell whether it is venison or beautiful lean beef. I did have one gamey-tasting deer ......... something had spooked it and I watched the 300 pound buck run flat out for 1/2 mile before it crossed the frozen river below me where I put one shot through the boiler room and it piled up like a stone. I figure it was the 1/2-mile flat-out run that made it taste fairly strong. We ate the whole thing anyway and enjoyed it.

[Old Savage]

Actually, Mescalero - I have had some excellent elk roast and deer steaks. The deer was cooks hot and fast and tasted very good especially with cold beer.

[FLINT]

yeah, I let em hang, several days if possible, as long as its cold

this past season I shot a little buck and it stayed cold enough (mostly below freezing) that i let the deer hang for at least a week. this is the best tasting, most tender venison that i can remember. even my wife, who didn't grow up eating deer, loves it.

[Streetstar]

I usually keep the backsttrap and donate the rest.

I prefer beef tenderloin on most days to just about any cut of venison.

[Marc]

I hunt in 100 degree weather too and get fine venison. The fact is most of my deer are killed in the morning when it is still relatively cool. Or if it is an evening kill the temperature is dropping. I gut it where it falls and hang it on the nearest tall bush. Then I skin it and bone it out. It cools out very quickly when you take it apart. My rule is to not freeze it before 24 hours but not over 48 hours. Good eating!

[Mike D.]

Gutting the animal as soon as possible after killing it is of the utmost importance. Also, make darn sure that you DO NOT cut the bladder, which is nearly always full. We skin 'em out when we get back to the cooler, then feed the waste to the coyotes and pigs. We use big blue tubs for the scraps and drop those in a convenient gully out in the pasture. Everything is usually gone by morning.

I have never had the pleasure of shooting a Whitetail, either. Got none a them "ouchere", just old Blackies, Mulies and hybrids of both.

[Brant]

I enjoy the meat from the game I take, but I will say that it is hard to beat a good cut of beef. Game normally has very little fat so I rub a little olive oil into roasts and steaks.

I am normally able to get my deer home quickly. I normally hunt within 5 miles of home. Sometimes they are on ice within an hour or so of taking their last breath. We leave them on ice, making sure to drain all water and addding new ice at least twice a day, for about 48 hours.

Also, I am not much of a trophy hunter. I will kill a buck and like the big ones but a nice fat doe with no kids arround is what i like to find.

Brant

[spencer516]

I do not know why people continue to gut animals. It makes no sense to be out in the dark, tired, with a sharp knife flailing inside a carcass. Split the animal down the back and quarter the thing. Once its quartered, throw it in cooler of ice. imho
Thanks,
Tom