| What make some deer taste better or worse
than others is how they were handled during and
after they were harvested. Meat that isn’t
cooled quick enough or is contaminated tastes
bad. Otherwise, I would challenge even the most
discernible pallet to tell the difference from
one whitetail to another. Most Indiana hunters
will likely agree with my exclusion of whitetail
deer from the list of worst-tasting game
animals. Some might, however, feel slighted that
they also did not make my list for best-eating
game.
The five worst-tasting game species:
5. Bears that have been feeding on dead fish.
Unlike deer, bear are what they eat. I have
truly enjoyed both black and grizzly bear meat
when they got fat on a steady diet of berries.
The same bears are almost too smelly to skin in
the fall after a month of eating dead fish,
however. I dare anyone to eat them. The old
saying about eating bears is spot-on when told
in reference to rotten, fish-fed bears: If you
like eating bear, you’re gonna really like dog.
4. Squirrels. Squirrels are hard to skin and
their meat is tough. This why the most popular
way of preparing them is in a stew. I have a
problem eating meat I have to boil for four
hours just to make it edible.
3. Mule deer. I’ve eaten mulies and whitetails
from the same field in Montana and couldn’t
believe how different they tasted. Even the
backstraps on Mulies are tough and gamey.
2. Pronghorn antelope. I really love pronghorn
antelope hunting, but haven’t done it in 10
years. That’s because I can’t stand the way they
taste. American antelopes taste a lot like the
mesquite brush they live amongst and eat. And
despite its fine qualities as tinder for smoking
meat, mesquite tastes like cedar when eaten off
the limb.
1. Canada goose. Even the breasts of Canada
geese are hard for me to choke down. They are
tough and have a distinct, gamey taste. Forget
about roasting or grilling a goose; they need to
be diced small and covered in a lot of sauce for
most folks to consume them.
The five best tasting game species:
5. Caribou. Native Alaskans covet caribou meat
for a reason. It is mild and can be prepared a
thousand different ways. It doesn’t hurt that
there are several million of them running around
Alaska and northern Canada, either.
4. Elk. Elk meat is a bit rich, but has none of
the gamey qualities of mule deer. It is also
more tender than caribou.
3. Moose. Moose meat makes two days of
butchering and packing worth the effort. If
handled correctly, it can be very mild, and even
tender.
2. Pheasant. Though all upland birds are a bit
dry when cooked, I could eat pheasant every day.
They are more moist than wild turkeys and, I
believe, more tender and tasty.
1. Dall sheep. This year in Alaska, I ran into a
dall sheep hunter who wrecked his plane in the
mountains and just made it out alive with his
gear and a fine dall ram. We needed to eat the
sheep or it was going to go bad.
Three of us gorged ourselves on sheep steaks and
tenderloins for hours. We all skipped the
potatoes we had also prepared, so we would have
more room for sheep.
Dall sheep steaks are as tender as good angus
beef steaks and easily as great-tasting. Unlike
most other game meat, dall is so good, it is
still delicious if it is over-cooked. |
