A Complete Waste of Space

There is a chunk of land we own by the Chesapeake Bay. Generally not productive, but it's been in the family for a good while, so we keep it. The taxes are paid by a hunt club out of Central PA. All of the deer they harvest live in scrub timber bordering a swampy marsh.
Thus, my swamp buck comments. The meat is sort of an acrid sort of gamey taste. Similar taste from bucks taken from swampy stands in CT by other friends. I'm purely a consumer, as opposed to a hunter, and gladly take the word from you folks as to preparation of fresh kills and the like affecting taste. What you say makes sense, but it does seem that forage plays a role in the venison I've had. I can take or leave the stuff, as a rule, probably eat it 4 or 5 times per year. It is supposed to be healthy for you.....

Now, one of my dear friends is a Maine native, and hunts moose when his family gets the draw in the lottery.
That's a 'different' sort of taste.......I'll leave it at that.

What they eat does matter Slick, but even if they eat the best food, bad preparation will make it taste much worse than what they eat.

Buzz wrote:What they eat does matter Slick, but even if they eat the best food, bad preparation will make it taste much worse than what they eat.

Agreed.

Buzz wrote:What they eat does matter Slick, but even if they eat the best food, bad preparation will make it taste much worse than what they eat.

that makes perfect sense. Also, as I thought about Dawg and Wullies dismissal of it(and believe me, I take both of your words seriously), it might be possible for a deer living beside a cornfield to be both eating a high caloric diet(producing fat) and not having to move much(sedentary, creating more fat storage throughout the tissues), hence my description of 'marbled'. That term was used in animal science to describe the better cuts of beef which have fat flecked through the muscle. As I say, I'm a consumer only, not a hunter, so I'd have to defer to the hunters on this one.

As for preparation, Buzz.....agreed. What was posted about immediate field prep makes sense, as does cooking/seasoning. I have a couple of pals up north who could turn any dead creature into a marginally edible dish, at least.

That's how some get around bad prep. They just spice it up. I eat a very bland diet. I hate spiced food.

My meat has nothing but pepper on it, and still taste good to me. I can hardly tell it from beef. I do notice that I need to cook it well. If there pink showing it has a gamey taste. the good part is even though it's cooked well, it's still tender.

Dawg, Wullie:
Have either(or both) of you ever bagged an out-of-season deer? I was just wondering, as several of my better tasting venison meals(as noted above) were the produce of farm owners who shot the things mid-summer in grain fields. Is it possible that time of year affects fat storage? It would seem possible, as they aren't chasing mates or fleeing hunters at that time of year......

callmeslick wrote:Dawg, Wullie:
Have either(or both) of you ever bagged an out-of-season deer?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away. I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has expired by now

Biggest difference I remember was during the HOT time of year down here, they were skinnier, pretty much fat free and usually had a lot of ticks. However, they're still pretty much fat free in this part of the world any time of the year. Not much corn raised around here. They eat grass mostly, as they were designed to do. we don't see the big assed monsters that roam the alfalfa and corn fields like they do in the midwest. 100 lbs on the hoof is pretty good sized pasture rat for this part of the world, UNLESS they are on some fancy schmancy private reserve where they are culled and fed all the antler enhancing shit.

The big buck "pro" hunters put up a corn feeder that goes off twice a day and then they set up a nice cozy deer blind/stand in easy gun range. Then they sit back and watch satellite TV until the set of antlers they like strolls up to be shot. The next move after the BIG KILL is usually to haul the carcass some place and spend big $$
getting it "processed". That usually entails dumping it in a cooler with 40 other deer and hoping they get the one they dropped off. Most all they care about is antlers anyway.

Quite a racket down here these days. You could eat New York strips and ribeyes 7 days a week, 52 weeks out of the year for what most of these "hunters" spend on shooting a couple of pasture rats.

Those guys are funny to watch on TV. They have a mic on and you can hear their heavy breathing like they just got attacked by a bear. then they start jumping around screaming like a little girl. Cmon!

Wullie wrote:

callmeslick wrote:Dawg, Wullie:
Have either(or both) of you ever bagged an out-of-season deer?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away. I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has expired by now

Biggest difference I remember was during the HOT time of year down here, they were skinnier, pretty much fat free and usually had a lot of ticks. However, they're still pretty much fat free in this part of the world any time of the year. Not much corn raised around here. They eat grass mostly, as they were designed to do. we don't see the big assed monsters that roam the alfalfa and corn fields like they do in the midwest. 100 lbs on the hoof is pretty good sized pasture rat for this part of the world, UNLESS they are on some fancy schmancy private reserve where they are culled and fed all the antler enhancing shit.

The big buck "pro" hunters put up a corn feeder that goes off twice a day and then they set up a nice cozy deer blind/stand in easy gun range. Then they sit back and watch satellite TV until the set of antlers they like strolls up to be shot. The next move after the BIG KILL is usually to haul the carcass some place and spend big $$
getting it "processed". That usually entails dumping it in a cooler with 40 other deer and hoping they get the one they dropped off. Most all they care about is antlers anyway.

Quite a racket down here these days. You could eat New York strips and ribeyes 7 days a week, 52 weeks out of the year for what most of these "hunters" spend on shooting a couple of pasture rats.

That's the best and most accurate description I have ever read on this subject. I totally agree. I quit hunting deer 23 years ago...of the twenty or so, that I harvested in the past, maybe 4 were bucks.... The biggest buck I killed was with a 4 Barrel........1981 chevy. From the shot to the freezer, no other person ever touched my venison... No one outside of my family ever knew that they were eating venison....90% of it is preparation and preservation of the meat. Maybe, 10% in what they eat.....my two centavos....

Wullie wrote:

callmeslick wrote:Dawg, Wullie:
Have either(or both) of you ever bagged an out-of-season deer?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away. I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has expired by now

...wasn't necessarily trying to get a confession. My friends, who have had the consistently richest tasting venison, are small-medium farmers, houses on the farm type. All the deer were plugged on a permit the CT grants to such types to remove deer that are eating paying crops. Thus, a lot of late summer kills.....