the definition of "gamey"

[Alley Oop]

Upon reading a thread on bear meat I started thinking about the actual definition of "gamey" tasting meat.
It seems to be riddled with interpretations.
I was taught long long ago that gamey flavoured meat only occurs during the rut season and that it's an effect of raging hormones in the blood.
Some say it's just the taste of wild animals.
There are others if you look online.

What definition do you know or believe to be true?

[Lefty-Canuck]

If your meat tastes like how the base of the antlers from the animal smell....it's gamey :)

LC

[LKILR]

If your meat tastes like how the base of the antlers from the animal smell....it's gamey :)

LC

Lmao. But true

[elkdump]

an animal that has been "stressed and adrenalin-ed up, heated up" example, shot,wounded ,chased, bedded down,startled,once again stressed and finally killed will taste pretty damm " GAMEY "

[elkdump]

or like British Fowler s practice, hang your freshly shot/killed fowl in a wood shed or barn by the neck with a piece of string near the head, when the neck bones.tendons and skin has degraded to the point the bird carcass falls to the ground ?? this can take weeks

it is considered "Ripe" and ready to cook and consume,,,

yummeee !, go British ,go ! :happy0180:

[hunter1993ap]

I would think that for the most part gamey meat is from people who don't take care when field dressing and skinning. getting **** and dirt on the meat, or when gut shot, and not hosing the animal down. it takes some finesse to handle an animal properly.

[catnthehat]

I think it was Warren Page that commented once in an article about
" gamey"meat " If it was beef you would say it stinks !":thinking-006:
Cat

[krthegunslinger]

Any wild game you eat will have a wild (gamey) taste if you are eating any fat or close to the bone. We do all our game boneless the last 20 years, previous 20 bone in. We've taken big rutted up bucks and while they may be a little stronger tasting than a doe, if you do it boneless the meat is not wild (gamey) tasting at all. I've had people refuse to eat wild meat due to having eaten it elsewhere and hated it. After much convincing they try ours and absolutely love it. Now some people prefer the gamier taste you get when cooking with bone in. Hope that helps.

[Big Daddy Badger]

an animal that has been "stressed and adrenalin-ed up, heated up" example, shot,wounded ,chased, bedded down,startled,once again stressed and finally killed will taste pretty damm " GAMEY "

Lactic acid build-up.... yuck.

[Alley Oop]

Any wild game you eat will have a wild (gamey) taste if you are eating any fat or close to the bone. We do all our game boneless the last 20 years, previous 20 bone in. We've taken big rutted up bucks and while they may be a little stronger tasting than a doe, if you do it boneless the meat is not wild (gamey) tasting at all. I've had people refuse to eat wild meat due to having eaten it elsewhere and hated it. After much convincing they try ours and absolutely love it. Now some people prefer the gamier taste you get when cooking with bone in. Hope that helps.

I also have experienced people that have had negative taste tests until they try well prepared meat. Then they love it.
Yes your comments helps thanks.

[curtz]

I would think that for the most part gamey meat is from people who don't take care when field dressing and skinning. getting **** and dirt on the meat, or when gut shot, and not hosing the animal down. it takes some finesse to handle an animal properly.

x2

[buglebull]

Gamey meat is every animal that runs wild in the bush, mountains or prairies other than "Beef." In my opinion, all meat is compared to the standard taste of beef. In other words. . . . . beef is the taste by which all others are judged because lets not lie to ourselves . . . . . it tastes the best. By the way . . . I together with my little family consume an elk about every year and enjoy it. We like the meat and are thankful for it, but when my father in law (Rancher) gives us some beef I think we like it more.

I just got back 4 varieties of deer sausage from the butcher and like it . . . . there is a gamey taste for sure that is unique to wild meat.

[Alley Oop]

Buglebill

Your definition is the most common.

And I would much prefer wild game over beef.
I'll even take seafood or trout or even chicken over beef.
But I do like beef too.

[jungleboy]

For many , gamey is meat that doesn't taste like supermarket beef,because that is what they are used to eating. I always go back to when my kids were young and we had roast beef for supper one night, The thought it tasted funny and didn't want to eat it.they were so used to eating venison they turned their nose up at beef.It's mostly perception.That being said I have had some wild game that is stronger tasting than others.

[twofifty]

Gamey meat is every animal that runs wild in the bush, mountains or prairies other than "Beef." In my opinion, all meat is compared to the standard taste of beef. In other words. . . . . beef is the taste by which all others are judged because lets not lie to ourselves . . . . . it tastes the best. By the way . . . I together with my little family consume an elk about every year and enjoy it. We like the meat and are thankful for it, but when my father in law (Rancher) gives us some beef I think we like it more.

I just got back 4 varieties of deer sausage from the butcher and like it . . . . there is a gamey taste for sure that is unique to wild meat.

I guess to some if it doesn't taste like chicken or beef it's gamey, even if it isn't weird tasting or smelling.

The thing about paying a butcher to cut/wrap or make sausage is that you're never sure that you're getting your own well cared for deer or elk. Particularly with sausage, which is made in big batches, you can easily end up with some of this mixed in with "your" sausage:

- a stressed lactic acid tainted animal, as described by elkdump & big daddy.
- improperly cared for or overheated carcass as described by hunter1993.

I was lucky in that my first ever kill was gutted and cooling within 15 minutes, skinned & hanging in a cool garage within 1.5hrs. Bonus, a few days later my mentor showed me how to butcher it. This little spike buck is almost sweet tasting, or so it seems.

Re: sausage making. Tip I was given is to hold off on the sausage order until mid-winter, when the butchers are much less busy. Bring in your frozen sausage meat and it gets done in a single batch, just for you, without the addition of overheated lactic-tainted mystery meat. Mmmmm.

[Smokinyotes]

We have been eating the two year old alfalfa fed cow moose that my son shot on nov. 2. It is absolutely the best moose we have ever got. Last week the wife BBQued some beef rib steaks from Costco. My son said what kind of steaks are these, they taste gross. I like good moose and good elk but we got a big bull elk one year on sept 17. He was rutting hard. Stunk the house up pretty good when cooking it. We ended up making it all into sausage.

[Xiph0id]

I shot a doe this fall.
Gutted in field after about 30 mins.
Hung in unheated garage for 1 day in about -10 weather.
Cut up next day and removed almost all fat and bones.

Steaks and roasts tasted just like beef, if not better.
Maybe that was the satisfaction taste? :)

No wild/game taste at all.

[Flight01]

A friend once said about moose meat..." The best beef would taste gamey if it was shot 3 times in the guts then processed 10 hours later , hanging in the garage next to the quad and gas cans, barely washed and when its chunked up it sits on the concrete for the cats and dogs to pick at. ". Lmao... No wonder my moose aren't gamey....:sHa_sarcasticlol:

[het4human]

If wrapping it in bacon or chasing it with beer can't kill the taste - its gamey.

I have only been served wild meat once that was so bad I couldn't get it down - found out later it might have been the 7 300wm rounds that were used to tenderize it that may have ruined the taste.

Kinda makes ya wonder if they shoulda just waited for a good shot, or let it walk?

[HunterDave]

Gamey is a taste all by itself.....an off taste to some. I like a little bit of gaminess in my wild meat because it makes the taste unique to what you buy in the store. Although I think that proper care of the animal field dressing, cleaning and cooling it plays an important role in not having it taste too gamey, I think that the biggest factour is what the animal has been consuming. Since coming to Alberta in '96 I've become spoiled by eating grain fed deer. Before that I was hunting bark chewing, acorn eating, bush deer in Ontario. I had to marinade everything over night before eating it, it was so gamey.

The two does that I got last fall had almost no gamey taste to them at all, they'd been eating barley all summer. If it weren't for the lack of fat in the meat you wouldn't even know that it was wild meat.

I've never noticed a difference in the flavour of a rutting buck of a deer that has run a bit after being shot. They may be tougher but to me they don't taste a lot different. I suppose that it also has something to do with my tolerance to the gamey taste though.

[HunterDave]

If wrapping it in bacon or chasing it with beer can't kill the taste - its gamey.

I've heard this a lot and the bad taste has turned people off wild game. If I can convince someone to try eating my meat they've always liked it and had a completely different perspective.

[covey ridge]

Gamey can mean the unique flavor that makes it different from beef or pork or other game animals.

Gamey can also mean a bad or an off taste which can happen for various reasons. I prefer to call this type of meat spoiled meat.

BTW as much as I like and enjoy game meat, Alberta beef is number one in my books. Thank you beef producers:)

[J D]

I would think that for the most part gamey meat is from people who don't take care when field dressing and skinning. getting **** and dirt on the meat, or when gut shot, and not hosing the animal down. it takes some finesse to handle an animal properly.

Agree

Only strong tasting game meat I have eaten was shot by others

It is all on how it is processed and cooked in my opinion.

[CountryLife94]

I would have to agree with the majority here in that it all depends on how the game is processed and prepared. I have yet to have a bad experience with having the end product of animals I have harvested taste "gamey"..however, I have noticed the difference in taste between a bush deer and a farmland deer...I much prefer the taste of a farmland deer!!

[u_cant_rope_the_wind]

Upon reading a thread on bear meat I started thinking about the actual definition of "gamey" tasting meat.
It seems to be riddled with interpretations.
I was taught long long ago that gamey flavoured meat only occurs during the rut season and that it's an effect of raging hormones in the blood.
Some say it's just the taste of wild animals.
There are others if you look online.

What definition do you know or believe to be true?

Gamey , tastes wild
is that like pork tastes like pig??? beef tastes like cow???? mutton tatses like lamb????? Kentucky fried chicken tastes like chicken not duck
I say Bull to all that wild taste gamey taste
deer tastes like venison, moose tastes like moose, elk tastes like elk

[hurtin_albertan]

I'm pretty new to the wild meat game (<-- see what I did there?) and have only eaten white tail and muley doe.

Now I was told going in that muley meat is "not nearly as good" as white tail but I have to say that I don't notice a difference between the two.

However I will say that the gamey taste does definitely come out when the meat is over-cooked. Anything more than medium and she gets pretty tough and wild tasting. I found that a little surprising to be honest, as my instinct said that mid-rare deer steak would be way beyond my comfort zone. But it isn't at all. A good sear and a proper mid-rare cook on it and there is little to no game taste whatsoever.

[bridger2010]

I guess to some if it doesn't taste like chicken or beef it's gamey, even if it isn't weird tasting or smelling.

The thing about paying a butcher to cut/wrap or make sausage is that you're never sure that you're getting your own well cared for deer or elk. Particularly with sausage, which is made in big batches, you can easily end up with some of this mixed in with "your" sausage:

- a stressed lactic acid tainted animal, as described by elkdump & big daddy.
- improperly cared for or overheated carcass as described by hunter1993.

I was lucky in that my first ever kill was gutted and cooling within 15 minutes, skinned & hanging in a cool garage within 1.5hrs. Bonus, a few days later my mentor showed me how to butcher it. This little spike buck is almost sweet tasting, or so it seems.

Re: sausage making. Tip I was given is to hold off on the sausage order until mid-winter, when the butchers are much less busy. Bring in your frozen sausage meat and it gets done in a single batch, just for you, without the addition of overheated lactic-tainted mystery meat. Mmmmm.

If true, I would be concerned about CWD contamination...

[propliner]

Fat=gamey.

Your ground meat should be pure red and you'll avoid nearly all of that gamey flavour. Add some pork and you'll fool everyone.

[Don K]

Gamey can mean the unique flavor that makes it different from beef or pork or other game animals.

Gamey can also mean a bad or an off taste which can happen for various reasons. I prefer to call this type of meat spoiled meat.

BTW as much as I like and enjoy game meat, Alberta beef is number one in my books. Thank you beef producers:)

X2

We trim all the bones/fat on animals we process and it make it a lot better too. All animals taste diferent, but it really is touch to beat a good 16oz beef NY or strip loin.

[Alley Oop]

Looks like the statement of gamey having many interpretations is ringing true.
Even on an outdoors forum.
Weird or what?

[Lefty-Canuck]

To me gamey is inedible...it's the meat that didn't cool fast enough or that was gut shot and not cleaned or trimmed properly or the meat that was over cooked.

If you ever taste "gamey" meat in your life time then you never forget it...kind of like if you smell a dead body, it's something that sticks with you forever.

Luckily I haven't had the issue with "gamey" meat for animals I have taken in recent history.

LC

[dmcbride]

Gamey , tastes wild
is that like pork tastes like pig??? beef tastes like cow???? mutton tatses like lamb????? Kentucky fried chicken tastes like chicken not duck
I say Bull to all that wild taste gamey taste
deer tastes like venison, moose tastes like moose, elk tastes like elk

I agree, I think most people who think wild game is gamey just aren't use to the taste of a different animal besides the normal store bought tasteless meat.