Favorite Tasting Deer

1 year old whitetail is pretty tough to beat.

Arkansas Paul, perhaps are opinion on medium rare or well done are not all that different, as my wife still thinks my culinary skills are too rare even in the wild game department.

AKElroy said:

Axis deer here in south texas have a well deserved rep for tender tastiness.

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Axis are the veal of deer meat and you can shoot them year round pretty much.

rswartsell said:

In my experience it depends on the forage available in the area. What a specific deer has been eating is probably the greatest factor to your ultimate success in putting good venison on the table.

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Have to agree. Hunted on a lease last year where the white tail eat corn and Soy. By far some of the best meat I've had. Liked it so much I joined that lease. Had dear from south Fla where the eat scrub brush and palmetto berries. Not so good I assure you.

Rare or medium rare only. Why would you say it needs to be cooked well done? Well done white tail tastes like liver due to the higher amount of blood in the muscle.

IMO Axis beats them all for taste and texture, is high in protein, and low in fat and cholesterol. Axis can legally be sold as fat free meat.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Another vote for white tail. Venison pie, much like a pot pie with white tail meat is delicious.

The moose my friend shot up in Canada was probably the best piece of large game meat that I've ever had..., but there ain't no moose for hunting here in Maryland. All I have access to is whitetail, and they are usually into some corn or soybeans around here as part of their diet. So I don't have much choice on what I shoot... and Sitka deer in this state are out in marshy areas well away from where I hunt...never tried them either.

LD

mooner, What's wrong with liver and onions? Every deer I've ever shot, the liver gets saved in a cellophane bag of sorts and gets cooked up the next day or evening, never fail. I do love venison liver and onions.

Any meat from a white-tail cooked by my wife! It`s all in how it`s cooked.

All of the dozens of whitetails I've shot and eaten have come from an area where they had access to corn,soybeans,hay and acorns.From the 50 lbers to the 150 lbers they were all good in my opinion.Some variation between older bucks and young does.I've never tasted any other type of venison.

Diet, the way a deer is handled after shooting, and the know-how in the cooking seem to me to make a big difference between "Yummie!" and "Yuck!".

I like whitetail jerky myself.

It has a pleasant flavor.

How the animal was taken, how the animal was prepared in the field, removed from the field and processed unto the table. Most "bad tasting" animals were severely neglected and abused before they ever made it to the table, however, never having one that tasted bad we always had a tie in our family between whitetail and antelope in SD prairie and draw hunting.

There is a small-leafed growie in Texas, around the area of Uvalde to Del Rio, called "guajilla". Locally pronounced Wah-hee-yah. Deer love it.

When you first start field dressing Bambi, it's pretty strong. There is still some aroma even after skinning. It's not so much bad as sorta pungent. Fortunately, it fades away during final butchering and all, and isn't really noticeable after cooking unless you already know from doing everything yourself.

Sure makes for healthy, fat deer, though.

Greasewood? Great Zot! That stuff is so oily that it will burn when green! And even burned down to coals, it will taint meat! Yuck!

My father defined camp meat as a spike buck, shot in the neck. Slice the backstraps, roll in cornmeal batter, deep fry for a couple of minutes: Wondrous with eggs and toast and hash-browns! And camp coffee, of course.

Is it deer season yet, huh, huh?

Patocazador said:

I thoroughly disagree. Well done deer = tough deer. Medium-rare is perfect and delicious.

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Sir, you are 100% correct. I cook my deer, white tail, in a smoker to about 140 degrees which is medium rare and it is outstanding.

I've barbecued bunches of venison hams, over the years. Rather low heat after the initial sear. I did a lot of basting, used no salt in the basting mix, and always used tongs when turning the ham. So, no loss of moisture. Doing it that way let me get near to well-done but with the meat still juicy and quite easy to chew.

IMO, the key to any game meat is to avoid any loss of moisture when cooking it.

I prefer mule deer. If I shoot a mule deer around where I live, I like it better than whitetail, but if it a buck from the east of the divide I prefer whitetail.

Yearling, doe or spike, is the best deer for table fare in my book. And if it's a Coues, it's better than any other big game except a fat cow elk.

Quail, on the other hand, I will crawl through catclaw to find.