Strong game taste in Elk

[Clrems77]

A brine mixture of 75% cold ice water with 25% salt will draw that blood and gaminess out. Ive done it on several animals and its very cost efficient. Fill your cooler with ice, top it off with water and pour your table or rock salt in. Submerge the meat for a minimum of 12 hours and itll come out without that gaminess.

Sausage as mentioned earlier is always a great idea as well.

 

[HuntWyo]

I’ve never heard of or experienced stress causing meat to taste more gamey usually stress will cause the meat to become tougher because it dies with all of its muscles contracted. Aging the meat and allowing it to probably drain and not freezing it is the most crucial part of having good tasting meat IMO

 

[fatlander]

Honestly, I think the biggest problem is cutting through the tarsal/wallow piss stained hide with the same knife that you cut meat off the animal with. Tarsal stink is impossible to get rid of. I do my absolute best to avoid it like the plague and still use a different blade for cutting meat off the animal. I use a havalon for skinning and a fixed blade for cutting off the meat. YMMV.


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[SaltySailor]

My friend shot a cow Elk but it took him 2 hours to find it, it was till alive so he dispatch her. He now has meat which has strong game taste. Not sure if the fact that she was till alive and stressed cause the issue but I was told that can be a problem. He has been told to soak it in either milk or buttermilk and that will draw out that flavor. Has anyone tried doing that? I know for fact it works on fish. We once caught some Walleye that had a muddy flavor and some old timer told us to soak it in milk, it made all the difference in the world.

I've eaten a few ungulates now that died some pretty horrible and slow deaths. Hang the meat for at least 4 days, a week is better if temp allows, and they all tasted just fine. IF stress was a cause for poor tasting meat, a few animals I've quite enjoyed after hanging would be inedible by that standard.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I want to thank all the guys who had input about removing game taste from Elk. My friend tried the milk, and olive oil with salt and pepper and he said both removed all the game taste and the Elk was fantastic. I'm going to try the butter milk on mine. First I'm going to cook up a small piece with just S&P to see how it is. then if needed I will try one of the mentioned methods. Thanks again.

 

[MJB]

Just get the blood out as was said before.

 

[corey006]

Best use would be jerky, pepperoni, chillis, burittos and tacos.

Spicy seasoning is best way to hide "gamey" flavour.

 

[Jn78]

I shot an elk a few years ago that died a long and stressful death and then my meat care was not good and it tasted pretty gamey. I watched a group of hunters on private shoot about 50 rounds into a moving herd of elk at like 800 yards at 8am. Two and a half hour later I found an injured cow on limping around on the adjacent private. Unfortunately I did not get an ideal shot opportunity - frontal shot at an extended range and I did not have a good rest, but the elk was feet from going back onto private and it appeared to be injured badly. Well, the elk went onto private. So, I found the land owner and he allowed me to look for the elk, without my gun. I found the elk at 2:30 and it was still alive, but barely. So, I went back to the landowner and got permission to take my gun in to finish the cow. I killed it at like 4:30. The landowner didn't want me on his land into the night, so he loaded it up into a UTV and dumped it in the back of my truck after I gutted it. My truck bed was where had been sleeping, so having no place sleep, I drove home - like 4 hours. It was cold, but still. . . By the time I had it quartered and hung, it was like 2am. Not ideal to say the least.

Also, I called the warden on the guys that were shooting into the herd. As it turned out, 4 guys were hunting on private with 3 landowner tags they had purchased. They killed 4 elk, wounded 3 elk that we located, and one hunter trespassed on another ranch to retrieve a dead elk.

 

[Indian Summer]

I shot what I think was a lead cow a couple years ago, she did not eat very well. She was stinky/musty from the time I walked up on her. She was quartered right away and hung up over night (it froze) before pack-out. I think you just get some that don't eat as well, for what ever the reason. Some stronger seasonings can help, The McCormick marinade seasoning packs are good- Mojito lime, Baja Citrus, and Chipotle are all good for fajitas/tacos.

I shot what I know was the lead cow once. First half hour of the Montana archery season so before any rutting. She fell over dead in her tracks. I was able to get a 4 wheeler close too so got her on ice quick. I didn’t have high hopes for the meat since I knew she was an older cow. Turns out it was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. I truly don’t believe it’s about age.

 

[35WhelenAI]

Sounds like good ideas help with the flavor of the meat.

For information, was the cow still up and moving or had she bedded down? My thought is if she had bedded down at less than full capacity to carry on life that could have been a contributing factor as lactic acid would not necessarily be removed under those conditions. JAT.

 

[Geewhiz]

A brine mixture of 75% cold ice water with 25% salt will draw that blood and gaminess out. Ive done it on several animals and its very cost efficient. Fill your cooler with ice, top it off with water and pour your table or rock salt in. Submerge the meat for a minimum of 12 hours and itll come out without that gaminess.

Sausage as mentioned earlier is always a great idea as well.

My uncle told me this after I had an experience with a raunchy mule deer last year. He said throw bone in quarters in a cooler. Generously sprinkle course ground salt onto each quarter and pack them with ice. Pull the plug on the cooler and tip it up just a bit to let the water drain as the ice melts. Leave it for a week, checking every day and topping off with ice when necessary.

Well low and behold I shot an old rutty janky smelling mule deer again this year and I did what he said. My week was up on monday so I took it out and cut it up. No gamey smell whatsoever. I have not eaten any of it yet but I will say I already know it helped alot. I will do it again next year.

 

[Idaho_Potato]

Just to add, the meateater boys had a real meat scientist on a couple of times - Dr. Chris Calkins from UNL. Dude is top notch in the beef industry and knows his stuff when it comes to beef and meat science. Well worth a listen as he throws down some science on game meat.

Episode 227:

Ep. 227: Red Cutter | MeatEater Podcasts

Steven Rinella talks with meat scientist Dr. Chris Calkins, Spencer Neuharth, Corinne Schneider, and Phil Taylor.Topics discussed: debunking meat myths; how stress affects the flavor of meat; myoglobin and hemoglobin; why you shouldn't cut into an animal before rigor mortis is complete; muscle is...

www.themeateater.com

Episode 270:

Ep. 270: Nature is Metal is Metal | MeatEater Podcasts

Steven Rinella talks with meat scientist Dr. Chris Calkins, Rick "Nature is Metal," Spencer Neuharth, Seth Morris, Phil Taylor, Corinne Schneider, and Janis Putelis.Topics discussed: An alternate explication of "Arkansasing"; Steve's opinion that the 1980s is too recent a decade from which to...

www.themeateater.com

Tis the season.

 

[spike camp]

Milk does work. I just tried it.. I soaked a roast overnight, and it took the gamey flavor out.

Just curious, how you came to that conclusion?

 

[GringoBling]

I've always heard (and have myself used before) to use buttermilk. So regular milk is just as effective? If so, I'll try that since a gallon of regular milk is a lot cheaper than buttermilk.

 

[eddielasvegas]

I have had this saved from another forum at least two+ years. I do not remember where it came from but it's my go to for gamey meat. Anybody who makes an A+ in OC, I'm listening to especially since I flunked it in HS.

"My wife's the chemist in the family. Made an A+ in organic back in college. She told me that milk is one of nature's best and most effective solvents, particularly for any enzymes and other naturally occurring chemicals in meats. She very early on, when she thought "all wild game tastes gamey," soaked our venison overnight or at least for an hour or two before cooking, and indeed, the venison, if it had ANY "gamey" taste in it at all, came out as delectable as any meat I've ever put in my mouth. And it doesn't matter if it's deer or whatever other game you have. Soak it in milk, put it in a hot pan with a little oil - no spices or any other stuff - and sear it on one side. Don't turn it over until it's gone gray up to the center approximately, then turn and do the same on the other side, and when done, take it off. Pour off the fluids as they cook out of the pre-soaked meat as it's cooking. Any gamey or "off" tastes will go out virtually completely with the fluids (mostly milk) that cooks out. When it's done, add more oil and onions, mushrooms or whatever looks like it might be tasty in the fridge, and season to taste. When that's done, and the onions nicely browned, put the cooked and still warm meat back in and toss it around with some sour cream, or worstershire and soy sauce, and .... you'll "slap yer mamma" it's SO good!

But the milk trick to get rid of gamey tastes, if present, is the best way I know of to deal with any gaminess. Vinegar adds bitterness in my experience, and soaking in salt water makes it too salty for me, and toughens it up as well. Milk's the real deal, but remember to pour off the fluids as they cook out. With them will go all the gamey flavor. If it's pretty gamey, let it soak overnight in the fridge for cooking the next day. You'll be pleased, I'm sure."



Eddie

 

[Pokoki]

I've used milk, coke, salt....really milk draws the blood best. I would try heavily seasoning with Johnny salt and let it sit in the fridge to dry age for a couple of days and see how it goes. I do this with all of my steaks and have zero complaints.

I'm eating on our middle 30th elk right now.

I've used milk as well. Descent results. My hunting buddy uses bacon fat as grease when has wild tasting elk or mulley

 

[Pony Soldier]

The worst I ever had was a bull I shot but lost until the next day. He wasn't gamey like deer can be but had started to sour along the larger blood vessels in the hind quarters. I separated them into major muscle groups, trimmed the large blood vessels out and washed the meat down with white vinegar. I lost some soured meat on the bone but trimmed until it didn't smell. Cut and packaged the next day. I don't think there were three bites in the whole elk that was strong. My losses on the whole elk wasn't 5 pounds.

I'm not sure what some of you are killing but of more than 70 elk I haven't had a gamey elk yet.

 

[AaronMColeman]

I don't know what to think about care, packout, and stress. We tracked a badly shot cow for about 6 hours once and it tasted wonderful. I packed out a cow from a couple hundred feet from the road, shot killed her in about 3 seconds and she did not taste wonderful. I've had terrible old bulls and great old bulls. All came from about the same area, so same feed...some even same year so same drought conditions etc.

I don't know what to think anymore. But, I don't see how a quick dressing and packout, along with 7 or so days of hanging could hurt it.

I also love the idea of one blade for the hide that never touches the meat. That's been my antelope strategy for a while, I think I'll start doing that for all animals now.

 

[35WhelenAI]

I'm gonna ask the question, probably a silly one. How does a knife blade that touches the hide/glands going to give gamey taste to every cut of meat on that animal? I can see directly touching the fresh meat with the blade could taint what it touches. It does not compute, IMO, that the same blade touching the outside meat of an elk quarter, for instance, is going to make the whole quarter taste that way. What am I missing? I have never swapped knives, and only time it starts to taste "off" is once it gets a bit long in the tooth in the freezer

Reading through this, my thought is take a few scent free wipes in a Ziploc. When done with the skinning, wipe down the blade, rinse off with a bit of water or nearby snow, good to go. I can do double duty and wipe my butt in the field with extra wipes, can't do that with the second knife, lol.

 

[Geewhiz]

I'm gonna ask the question, probably a silly one. How does a knife blade that touches the hide/glands going to give gamey taste to every cut of meat on that animal? I can see directly touching the fresh meat with the blade could taint what it touches. It does not compute, IMO, that the same blade touching the outside meat of an elk quarter, for instance, is going to make the whole quarter taste that way. What am I missing? I have never swapped knives, and only time it starts to taste "off" is once it gets a bit long in the tooth in the freezer

Reading through this, my thought is take a few scent free wipes in a Ziploc. When done with the skinning, wipe down the blade, rinse off with a bit of water or nearby snow, good to go. I can do double duty and wipe my butt in the field with extra wipes, can't do that with the second knife, lol.

Sounds logical. Make sure to wipe your bottom after you clean off your knife blade not before otherwise I'm certain it will taint your meat...