Subject: Beef vs Venison The Controversy Ends THE VERDICT IS IN:
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 its 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.
First a grade-A-choice Holstein steer was chased into a swamp a mile and a half from the nearest road and shot several times. After some of the entrails were removed, the carcass was 'drug' over rocks and logs, and through mud and dust, then thrown into the back of a pickup truck and transported through rain and snow for 100 miles before being hung out in the sun for 10 days.
After that it was lugged into the garage, where it was skinned and rolled around on the floor for a while. Strict sanitary precautions were observed throughout this test, within the limitations of the butchering environment. For instance, dogs and cats were allowed to sniff the steer carcass, but were chased out of the garage if they attempted to lick the carcass or bite hunks out of it.
Next a sheet of plywood left from last years butchering was set up in the basement on 2 saw horses. The pieces of dried blood, meat, and fat left from last year were scraped off with a wire brush last used to clean out the dry grass stuck under the lawnmower.
The skinned carcass was then dragged down the steps into the basement, and a half dozen inexperienced but enthusiastic people 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 cast iron frying pan, 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 2 hours. The meat was gently teased from the frying pan and served to 3 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 at hunting camps for the last 27 years.
The results of this trial show conclusively that there is no difference between the taste of beef and venison.
There, aren't you glad? If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles
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 its 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.
First a grade-A-choice Holstein steer was chased into a swamp a mile and a half from the nearest road and shot several times. After some of the entrails were removed, the carcass was 'drug' over rocks and logs, and through mud and dust, then thrown into the back of a pickup truck and transported through rain and snow for 100 miles before being hung out in the sun for 10 days.
After that it was lugged into the garage, where it was skinned and rolled around on the floor for a while. Strict sanitary precautions were observed throughout this test, within the limitations of the butchering environment. For instance, dogs and cats were allowed to sniff the steer carcass, but were chased out of the garage if they attempted to lick the carcass or bite hunks out of it.
Next a sheet of plywood left from last years butchering was set up in the basement on 2 saw horses. The pieces of dried blood, meat, and fat left from last year were scraped off with a wire brush last used to clean out the dry grass stuck under the lawnmower.
The skinned carcass was then dragged down the steps into the basement, and a half dozen inexperienced but enthusiastic people 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 cast iron frying pan, 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 2 hours. The meat was gently teased from the frying pan and served to 3 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 at hunting camps for the last 27 years.
The results of this trial show conclusively that there is no difference between the taste of beef and venison.
There, aren't you glad? If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles
