The worst game or fish you've eaten

[Owenst7]

Caribou and it isn't even close.

Funny. My family had withdrawals going back to beef and pork after we ran out of caribou last time. It's probably the best meat I've ever had.

I've tried to eat hoary marmot a couple times. It reeks of marmot BO and tastes just as bad as it smells. I was told they have scent glands that contaminate the meat if you're not careful, but not matter how we handled them, we all got the same results. Porcupine isn't much better.

Jackrabbit from N. NV isn't too bad. I've stewed it and fried it. I'd prefer beef instead by a longshot, but it was edible. I haven't tried it with the method from Rinella yet.

 

[16Bore]

Hmm....that sounds interesting.

(The boiling goose meat first trick)

 

[Brodie]

Merganser breast, tried to marinade it and it still tasted like rotting fish
Wild turkey legs that were grilled instead of slow cooked were pretty bad too, it was like chewing on erasers


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[Shooter19802003]

pigeon...no kidding. guess they are close to Eurasian doves.

I shot a bunch outside of my grain bins a couple years back. Tasted pretty good, but they were 100% corn fed.....lol.

 

[Elkhunter777]

Spring Brown bear from Admiralty Island disgusting!

 

[Jason Snyder]

Spring Brown bear from Admiralty Island disgusting!

Same.

Close second was a spring boar from the Taylor Hilgard in SW Montana.

 

[black dawg]

couple falls ago we brought home a big black bear and a moose on the same night, made burger out of both, and mixed most of it together. Both batches of burger tasted good, and the mixed stuff tasted good...until after about 4 months in the freezer. I dont know what could have changed in the freezer, but it was just flat awful. The burger that was just bear still tasted good, and the moose burger still tasted good, but the mixed stuff after time in the fridge i flat couldnt eat.

Had bear burger tonight from a bear we killed 2 nights ago, mmmmm good

 

[Beendare]

FWIW, I usually do a glove change from skinning and handling a hide to the cutting meat part.

After some of the rutting animal comments, I wonder if handling of the hide then touching the meat might be why it tasted bad.

 

[530Chukar]

I wouldn't say it was bad... but I killed a muley in Colorado in 2012 during 3rd season and the meat was full of tape worm cysts. Kinda nasty but still tasted great

 

[jmez]

Everyone has different taste. My caribou was shot in late Sept, they weren't really rutting yet. It was deboned within 1/2 hour of being killed. I shot it on the morning we flew out so it basically went immediately from the field to a cooler in Anchorage.

I tried it three different times and way. Just nasty to me. I couldn't even stand the smell of it when cooking. Gave it to a friend of mine and he thought it was the best thing he'd ever eaten.

On the flip side my favorite wild game is antelope. Most of my friends won't eat it.

 

[Dameon]

The worst game animal I ever ate was the first one I killed, a rabbit I shot with my bow when I was 7 years old by the oil pipeline running through the backside of Eielson AFB in Alaska. My dad was so proud of me and he made a rabbit stew out of it the next night and it was just awful. The taste wasn't so bad, but the smell was unbearable. My mom and sister refused to eat it, so my dad and I ate as much as we could. We did not save any leftovers.....I knew we should have grilled it.

When we were stationed there, my dad tagged out on one moose and two caribou. The moose smelled like the muskeg that it was shot in. We let it hang and age in our basement for a week and the meat still had an off smell to it after that, but the meat tasted pretty good. My neighbor totaled their Suburban hitting a nice sized bull. We went out and helped them salvage and the warden let us keep some meat. Evidently, a moose that wasn't killed in a muskeg does smell nowhere near as bad and is pretty tasty. The two caribou did not have a off smell, but I just didn't care for it. I don't remember it tasting bad, but I also don't remember it being one of my favorites. As a kid though, you stop caring for any meat when that is all you eat day in and day out. I felt the same way about salmon. We had two deep freezers in our basement, one full of game meat, the other was filled to the brim with salmon. I got to the point where I just hated salmon. I like it now, but I refuse to pay for some chef's idea of bastardized farmed salmon and just prefer to get it fresh if I can find it here in MO, or just eating it raw at the local sushi joints. I sure do miss fishing for them during our annual summer vacations off the banks of the Gulkana, Chitna, and Valdez. Dang I miss living in Alaska.

The absolute worst food I have ever had was a Chinese delicacy made out of deep fried sea slug that I had at a 5-star restaurant in Inchon, South Korea when my dad was stationed there when I was in college. It tasted exactly like what I would imagine deep fried crispy green snot would taste like. It took everything I had to keep that down. This is coming from a guy who thinks raw live octopus (sliced or whole) and sea cucumbers (basically a sea slug that you can slice up fresh and alive like a cucumber) with some GoChuJang (spicy korean paste) is next to heavenly on a hot day fishing on the beach.

 

[SLDMTN]

Kokanee from a lake outside of Laramie, WY. I cooked it just like I cook salmon at home and it was gnarly. My buddies from WY and a couple other states thought it was primo. I thought it tasted like

Grizzly is an interesting experience. The smell from cooking isn't necessarily offensive but it doesn't make you hungry. I don't need to eat grizzly burgers but it works well in tacos and spaghetti.

One I hear a lot of negativity about from people up here is mountain goat. We loved it but I didn't shoot it late in the fall.

 

[Eagle]

I shot a bunch outside of my grain bins a couple years back. Tasted pretty good, but they were 100% corn fed.....lol.

Same here, all the pigeons/squab I've tried have been very similar to dove, which is excellent so long as it isn't over cooked.

 

[kda082]

Doves. Flying liver. My mom swore she could cook it perfectly. I remember ordering lots of pizza on dove nights.

What?? My favorite meat period. I think they taste like little beef filets. Soak in marinade, wrapped around jalepeno pepper and wrapped with bacon, cooked on charcoal. Best game meat ever!

 

[Beendare]

Pretty serious crowd here....almost 100 posts and nobody yet has said; Bald Eagle.......grin

 

[carter33]

Pretty serious crowd here....almost 100 posts and nobody yet has said; Bald Eagle.......grin

Heard they taste like freedom.

 

[boom]

so far, i have made everything taste pretty bitchin.

carp, collard dove..hell, even a dairy farm pigeon.

i am going to try to tip a javalina over soon. figured that might be my game food kryptonite.

 

[Jason Snyder]

I shot a Hooded Merganser one day because hunting was slow and I wanted my dog to do a retrieve. With a lot of trepidation, I cleaned it and threw it in with the mallards and Gadwalls. I cooked it and ate it, and can honestly say that aside from being a little tougher than the other two, the taste was not markedly different in any way. It was actually surprisingly good.

Duck is excellent table fare when prepared properly.

 

[desertcj]

Hunting was slow a few years back so I shot a marmot with my bow after stumbling upon a small colony. I figured what the heck, gutted the thing and hauled it home. It smelled ok, kinda like a deer and I was planning on grilling it up for dinner. My wife flipped out when I pulled it out of the Jeep and after many colorful words.....I still wonder what Marmot tastes like. Fish? I hate carp. Nothing but bones and mush!

 

[idig4au]

Boiled Mutton or any traditional Mongolian dish. Marco Polo ranks a close second. Camel is a distant third