What are the best tasting muleys eating?

Andrew12gauge said:
I’m not gonna lie, I think my favorite thing about mule deer is the hint of sagey flavor in the meat. I had a whitetail and a mule deer last year, muley was first into the freezer and I rotated when I put the whitetail in. Finished the mule deer, switched to whitetail. It was really mild eating and then I found one last package from the muley that didn’t get rotated. I cooked up those steaks and took a bite and all I could think was wow that is some good venison, it had a hint of sage to it and just tasted different but in a really good way. Most people don’t like “gamey” meat, I prefer a little gamey flavor to it. I don’t want my game to taste like beef


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Andrew, I'm like you. I actually prefer a little "gamey" taste. Something about it that is unique.
 
lif said:
No offense OP. Just making a joke I should rephrase. All wives would prefer lobster. Hard to please them in general. Don’t forget you asked for advice on this. Don’t take offense to suggestions. If you follow my reply’s on here I have been offering the little info I’ve still got in my head. Just trying to help and have fun at the same time. Smile. Your on rokslide talking about hunting.
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lif, I asked a pretty specific question about whether folks have noticed the food their muleys are eating makes a difference in the flavor of the meat. You chose to assume I don't know how to take care of venison, ignoring the fact that I'm a lifelong whitetail hunter who raised his family on venison. So that tells me you're not really paying attention to the post and would rather just make assumptions that if it doesn't bother you, then nobody should have a problem with it, or if it bothers them, then the must be doing something wrong. I'm not sure if that sounds like "help" in your world, but it doesn't in mine. If you have something constructive to say about the actual question I asked, I'm all ears however. And yea, the wives are off limits. Thanks.
 
Here's some things that may help.

I've eaten mule deer my whole life and quite a few white tail. I prefer mule deer, my wife prefers white tail, and we both like elk. I have come to respect the fact that not everyone has similar preferences when it comes to meat. However there have been some mule deer that have tasted better than others and I'll try to describe why I think some taste better than others.

I don't know if it has as much to do with what the deer are eating as how they are eating. The best mule deer I have eaten were on the gain, and I think that is more important than what they are eating. Most were killed on early seasons in September or early October, some were in the low country eating bitter brush, others in the high country eating forbes, but all of them were putting on weight.

I had some meat science classes in college, and in all of those classes it was shown that the best meat flavor came from animals that were at a high rate of gain. The further you get into the rut the higher likelihood that a buck is no longer gaining weight and may even be losing it. The same goes for deer in the late season eating sage, most of the time at that point they are maintaining, not gaining.

One other thing I have noticed is that when I started skinning and boning all my mule deer out in the field, it really improved the flavor.
 
Newtosavage, you did make this pretty weird. Ignore comments that you don't think are relevant and chill out a little bit.
 
Macegl said:
Here's some things that may help.

I've eaten mule deer my whole life and quite a few white tail. I prefer mule deer, my wife prefers white tail, and we both like elk. I have come to respect the fact that not everyone has similar preferences when it comes to meat. However there have been some mule deer that have tasted better than others and I'll try to describe why I think some taste better than others.

I don't know if it has as much to do with what the deer are eating as how they are eating. The best mule deer I have eaten were on the gain, and I think that is more important than what they are eating. Most were killed on early seasons in September or early October, some were in the low country eating bitter brush, others in the high country eating forbes, but all of them were putting on weight.

I had some meat science classes in college, and in all of those classes it was shown that the best meat flavor came from animals that were at a high rate of gain. The further you get into the rut the higher likelihood that a buck is no longer gaining weight and may even be losing it. The same goes for deer in the late season eating sage, most of the time at that point they are maintaining, not gaining.

One other thing I have noticed is that when I started skinning and boning all my mule deer out in the field, it really improved the flavor.
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That is some interesting food for thought right there, although I will say I got 3 deer in mid December in Montana when they did that CWD hunt last winter and those were all super mild and good eating.

1 thing I will add, as long as weather allows I will dry age my game for up to 3 weeks. Even with my muley this year the daytime temps were in the mid 50’s but I kept him in the garage and closed the door during daytime hours to trap the nights cool in.


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Macegl said:
Here's some things that may help.

I've eaten mule deer my whole life and quite a few white tail. I prefer mule deer, my wife prefers white tail, and we both like elk. I have come to respect the fact that not everyone has similar preferences when it comes to meat. However there have been some mule deer that have tasted better than others and I'll try to describe why I think some taste better than others.

I don't know if it has as much to do with what the deer are eating as how they are eating. The best mule deer I have eaten were on the gain, and I think that is more important than what they are eating. Most were killed on early seasons in September or early October, some were in the low country eating bitter brush, others in the high country eating forbes, but all of them were putting on weight.

I had some meat science classes in college, and in all of those classes it was shown that the best meat flavor came from animals that were at a high rate of gain. The further you get into the rut the higher likelihood that a buck is no longer gaining weight and may even be losing it. The same goes for deer in the late season eating sage, most of the time at that point they are maintaining, not gaining.

One other thing I have noticed is that when I started skinning and boning all my mule deer out in the field, it really improved the flavor.
Click to expand...
Idaho, here's an example of a helpful post. :D
 
My high country buck hung for a few days, and i gotta say the leg steaks are freaking awesome. Meat prep trumps all.

Next point i wanna make is how does meat aka blood and flesh take on any sort of flavor aka sage. So in other words my whitetial should taste like brush and peat moss....
 
Southforkguy said:
My high country buck hung for a few days, and i gotta say the leg steaks are freaking awesome. Meat prep trumps all.

Next point i wanna make is how does meat aka blood and flesh take on any sort of flavor aka sage. So in other words my whitetial should taste like brush and peat moss....
Click to expand...
I don't know the answer to that one, but we all know that different species carry a different flavor and some animals are stronger than others. I was just hoping to learn whether folks have figured out which wild diet seems to produce the best flavor mule deer meat, being as my sample size of one isn't much to go on.
 
First mule deer buck I shot was this last fall. The backstraps are THE toughest I have ever had on a deer. Almost like leather. I am trying to convince myself it was how I cooked them and if the next steaks are similar they are going to be jerky. Not sure I would say it had a different taste at all. But how tough it was, it was an eye opener.
 
I haven't noticed any of mine or families MD bucks tasting very different than each other. Maybe if I had them next to one another cooked the same way I could tell you a difference? I like it all, MD tastes pretty similar to whitetail to me, maybe a bit more gamey? I like gamey taste personally. One thing that I will say about MD is they have lots of that silverskin and sinew/membrane stuff more so than other deer, but it breaks down when cooked.
 
mule deer grown from sweet milk to corn and protein blend supplements....behind a high fence!

Thats about the only way a mule deer tastes good to me....
 
Here my two cents ,
I’ve shot about 25 Colorado mule deer,
5-6 Idaho
15 or so Utah
6 or 7 Arizona and 2 from California
Most all from sage areas,
Once I learned how to cook and prep the deer, I have neighbors that tell me how much they hate venison until they have mine I cook. I learned a lot from using and reading
3ba64877c469325214eb567d09320292.jpg

I’m no chef. I have no worries at all taking a sage buck and cooking it for me or friends. But of all I do prefer antelope.
Hope this kinda helps



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