transferring elk stink to the meat

[Quadzilla32]

First time hunting and tasting elk,

My buddy shot a cow elk and gave me some meat to try and I think something happened during the processing/butchering. Best way to describe it is the meat has a faint taste of how the hide smelled when it was being packed out. My wife said it taste kind of like goat/ how a goat pen smells. It wasn't that bad that I couldn't eat it but just wondering if that is how elk should taste or if something went wrong. Its going to be a hard sell for the wife if it all taste this way.

cow was shot and gutted pretty quickly. It took a little while to pack it out. started out whole then turned to quartering and carrying out. then placed on ice and taken to the processor the following morning. From the little bit I have read it could of been bad meat, elk hair on the meat, oorrr.....??

 

[bsnedeker]

First time hunting and tasting elk,

My buddy shot a cow elk and gave me some meat to try and I think something happened during the processing/butchering. Best way to describe it is the meat has a faint taste of how the hide smelled when it was being packed out. My wife said it taste kind of like goat/ how a goat pen smells. It wasn't that bad that I couldn't eat it but just wondering if that is how elk should taste or if something went wrong. Its going to be a hard sell for the wife if it all taste this way.

cow was shot and gutted pretty quickly. It took a little while to pack it out. started out whole then turned to quartering and carrying out. then placed on ice and taken to the processor the following morning. From the little bit I have read it could of been bad meat, elk hair on the meat, oorrr.....??

Every animal is a little bit different, but I would say no, that is not normal for elk. In my experience elk meat is right between bison and deer on the flavor scale....a bit more flavor than bison, not quite as much flavor as whitetail/mulie. An early season cow should be even tamer and have more fat so in many cases I find it hard to tell the difference between elk and beef in that case.

That said, again, every animal is different. Depending on what the animal was eating and how it died (animals that linger after the shot tend to not taste as good in my experience) you might have picked up some type of extra seasoning on this girl.

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[Quadzilla32]

Every animal is a little bit different, but I would say no, that is not normal for elk. In my experience elk meat is right between bison and deer on the flavor scale....a bit more flavor than bison, not quite as much flavor as whitetail/mulie. An early season cow should be even tamer and have more fat so in many cases I find it hard to tell the difference between elk and beef in that case.

That said, again, every animal is different. Depending on what the animal was eating and how it died (animals that linger after the shot tend to not taste as good in my experience) you might have picked up some type of extra seasoning on this girl.

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This could explain it then. From what i was told it wasn't the quickest death. Not that it wasn't ethical or let the animal suffer they said she just didn't want to let go.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Not sure what you folks are doing wrong except taking your meat to a processor. I've killed more elk than most of you will ever do and have never had a strong or rank elk and only one deer out of of over 100. I can usually tell a NR kill site as there is usually a pair of rubber gloves on the carcass.

As long as I am bitching I am offended by the amount of meat wasted by people using the gutless method. I'm sure there are people who are more diligent but not where I hunt. I would guess 40-50% is left in the woods.

 

[Ike Carlson]

We can smell buck hormones. Some are stronger than others. A friend shot a mature rutting buck last year and I hung it in my cooler. My wife went in the cooler the next day and freaked out. She thought one of the pigs went bad or something. I checked it out and could not find anything bad. The only thing we could figure was the rutting buck. We cut it up a couple of days later and it smelled bad. I ground up the burger and it nearly drove me out of the house and my wife went somewhere else until the house aired out. It, was, BAD. I packed it up as fast as I could and took it back to him. I told him it was rank. He tried some and said he couldn't taste or smell anything wrong with it.

Turns out the chemicals that cause the smell can only be smelled by a fraction of the population and we are in the "nosey" few. Pigs make a few chemicals too, with the same "nose" factor.

 

[Ike Carlson]

Not sure what you folks are doing wrong except taking your meat to a processor. I've killed more elk than most of you will ever do and have never had a strong or rank elk and only one deer out of of over 100. I can usually tell a NR kill site as there is usually a pair of rubber gloves on the carcass.

As long as I am bitching I am offended by the amount of meat wasted by people using the gutless method. I'm sure there are people who are more diligent but not where I hunt. I would guess 40-50% is left in the woods.

Yep. Many hunters take the loins and leave everything else. I found out a friend of mine was doing that and quickly educated him on how much meat is on a deer. He now donates the carcass to us and takes some steaks in return. I'm ok with that.

We saw an elk while out west several years ago. She was standing ON the shoulder of the road, so we were right up close. As we drove by, I realized how big she really was. We were in a buick sedan and could have driven under her, with only the mirrors MAYBE touching her legs. Her back was at least 7.5 feet high and her head was over 3 ft long. She was beautiful and she calmly watched us drive by. I could never have shot her. She was too majestic. People tell me there is maybe 200 lbs of meat on an elk. I have had that much on a pig. She would have filled at least one full size chest freezer. Her hams must have been over 300 lbs each! She made my uncle's draft horses and mules look small, and they were big. I would feel completely ashamed and incredibly wasteful to leave any of that behind. I don't know if that is a common size for elk, but it should be. It was amazing.

 

[bsnedeker]

We saw an elk while out west several years ago. She was standing ON the shoulder of the road, so we were right up close. As we drove by, I realized how big she really was. We were in a buick sedan and could have driven under her, with only the mirrors MAYBE touching her legs. Her back was at least 7.5 feet high and her head was over 3 ft long. She was beautiful and she calmly watched us drive by. I could never have shot her. She was too majestic. People tell me there is maybe 200 lbs of meat on an elk. I have had that much on a pig. She would have filled at least one full size chest freezer. Her hams must have been over 300 lbs each! She made my uncle's draft horses and mules look small, and they were big. I would feel completely ashamed and incredibly wasteful to leave any of that behind. I don't know if that is a common size for elk, but it should be. It was amazing.

My dude, I think you got a little excited at the sight of an elk ... they are big, but I promise they are not THAT big. A mature cow is usually around 500 to 600 pounds, so yeah, about 200 pounds of meat. You ain't driving a car through the legs of one either!


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[Ike Carlson]

My dude, I think you got a little excited at the sight of an elk ... they are big, but I promise they are not THAT big. A mature cow is usually around 500 to 600 pounds, so yeah, about 200 pounds of meat. You ain't driving a car through the legs of one either!


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I promise, thats how big she was. I didn't think they were that big, but she was. My wife and I both saw her and both of us commented about how we could have driven under her. She was right next to the car with her front feet on the white line and her back feet in the ditch. Her head went over the car as we passed her. I often wish we had stopped to watch her.