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The yearling bull we got this fall is by far the best tasting moose that I’ve ever eaten. I’ve given some away to friends and they’ve said the same thing too. Funny how similar-aged moose can be gamey and others not. It sure is easier to serve it at home when it tastes so good.
I have found that the "gamey" taste has more to do with how the carcass was treated after the kill than where it was living and what it was eating. The deer in the Ottawa valley from the camp were always thought to be gamey deer, but the hides were left on for at least a week and a half and the inside washed out with water, essentially the worst thing you can do. Once we started skinning them right away, covering with cheese cloth and in some cases butchering with a day or two due to temperatures the gamey taste went away.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Menard
I concur. back in the day(NB) when Deer season was cold, the drill was to knock the gut out of it, drag it, register it, skin it, hang it. All within a few hours. Let it hang for a week or so, cut wrap. Can't do it today as the temps are too warm, so you need a butcher with a cooler. And they are getting harder to find. Care after shot is always the key to decent meat...
There’s no question younger animals make for better table fare, but I can honestly say, our group has taken probably 80 plus moose in the past 40 years or so, I don’t recall one ever being “gamy”... we got a monster bull years ago that had the rattiest set of horns we had ever seen. Just from the size, we knew it was an old boy. The MNR aged its teeth, or lack thereof, at in excess of 13 years old. We figured even the gravy would be tough, but it was some of the best moose meat we ever had. We figured the old boy was so old, all he did was lay around!!! With the crappy horns he had, he sure wasn’t a scrapper any more !Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Menard
Have a buddy in WinPeg..shoots all his deer in the Whiteshell Park...Deer there live off Jake Pine..
When he was here, he shot a deer out back. The property is surround by cornfields, soy and wheat...he was astounded on the difference in taste..he said ours taste like beef.
There is a saying "you are what you eat"... The deer out there are far more gamey
Totally agree Mike. For many years I hunted in pure bush and the deer were certainly stronger tasting, not that I minded at all. Then we did more hunting close to home in mixed farmland and there was a noticeably milder flavour to the meat. So yes what they eat makes a big difference in the flavour.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePal
As for skinning right away we have never done that, including the deer shot close to home. When we were away at camp for a week we'd leave our deer hanging at a buds cottage on the lake sometimes for a whole week and the last thing I'd want to do is have them hanging there skinned and exposed to all the weather. Another benefit of not skinning is that if you leave them hanging for any length of time the meat never dries out with the hide on. In fact when we were using a butcher he would always praise us with how nice the meat was and that he wouldn't have to spend any time trimming off the dried out meat. It certainly didn't make the meat taste stronger as we could tell from the local deer that were still hung in a shed or even outdoors for well over a week.
As for rinsing out the body cavity Fox, the only time that can be an issue is if one was to use swamp or maybe even lake water. Clean well water from home works well and is not a problem at all, in fact it's required if there is any chance of contamination from stomach contents or even feces from a nicked colon or intestines. I've talked to butchers about it and have seen plenty enough videos too where a butcher recommends doing it, but again with clean potable water. So to each their own, you'll never convince me that it's better to skin right away, so long as it's cooled quickly it will be fine.
Cheers
weve never used a butcher, that said since we broke off from the main group, processing and eating the meat harvested in the past 2 years has not tasted gamey at all to us, all mature white tail bucks too
once we gut in the field we bring it back to my uncles shed were we hang it, bunch of sticks on the inside spreading the carcass out. they will stay there anywhere from Monday - friday or less then about a 2 hour drive home, then hang at home in the garage and skin on friday or saturday, then the day after we process them.
In the case of this moose, I think that the way it was killed and handled afterwards had a lot to do with the taste. I shot it just after 11:00 on day 2 (Sunday) and because it was quartering away, I managed to hit it in the heart without breaking any bones (very lucky shot). It died pretty quickly and also bled out into the chest cavity. We had fresh snow and the temperature was just above freezing so getting it back to camp went really well. We got it home later that day and hung it up outside. Because of the shot angle, the bullet went through the ponch (not the intestines) which resulted in some of the stomach contents spilling into the abdominal cavity. We wiped down the entire cavity with a water/vinegar mix to remove blood, hair and debris. Afterwards we wiped out any dampness with clean paper towels. The next day (Monday), we skinned, quartered, and did a general clean up and then re-hung it in a garage where it would be protected and allowed to cool further. The quarters were butchered on Wednesday afternoon, 3 days after being shot. The butcher said it was the one of the cleanest moose that he had ever seen.
'Taste' and 'Gamey' can be two different things, maybe why there are different opinions. As the definition suggests, the flavour is in the fat, so mishandling the carcass won't cause that. But how well you butcher it (or cook it ) will...a lot of guys spend an inordinate amount of time cutting off ALL the fat. Their meat would be less 'Gamey' that someone who's left more fat on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Menard
Gamey : The 'wild' flavor is directly related to what the animal eats. Corn fed deer will have a milder flavor than those that eat acorns or sage. The 'gamey' flavor is more noticeable in the fat. Removing the fat, connective tissue, silver skin, bone and hair during processing lessens the 'gamey' taste.
We gut, skin and hang right away. If the weather is hot or if the carcass will freeze, we bone it out on the hook , right away. Trim up cuts, remove most of the fat. Store in a cool spot till it cools out Then process usually in a day or so. No frozen or sour meat this way.
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