Can you tell Elk meat from......

[Pathfinder76]

I’ve said many times (including here) that wild game is almost impossible to pinpoint when tasting. I’ve cooked moose and deer in the same pot and no one at the table can tell which is which. I’ve done the same with Elk and deer. Anyway, here is a blind taste test.

https://youtu.be/UFJnW3ZYOGg

[Kurt505]

I can tell the difference, even in chili or spaghetti sauce.

[AndrewM]

It would be interesting to see two meats side by side rather than having 6 to choose from. Just by guessing the odds were 16.7% yet 20% was the outcome. Scale that to two meats and the results would be 60% of people would get it correct. Not significantly better than guessing but I suspect the results could change if it was just two meats compared.

[koothunter]

I'm pretty sure I could pick deer out in nearly any form (steak, sausage, pepperoni, jerky, etc.). Not sure I could tell you what species of deer, but could definitely differentiate between deer and anything else.

[Mastercaller]

Originally Posted by chuck

I’ve said many times (including here) that wild game is almost impossible to pinpoint when tasting. I’ve cooked moose and deer in the same pot and no one at the table can tell which is which. I’ve done the same with Elk and deer. Anyway, here is a blind taste test.

https://youtu.be/UFJnW3ZYOGg

depends what part of the province the critter was shot. An elk eating "prairie wool"/grain in the claresholm area tastes a whale of a difference from an elk shot in the Nordegg country. Same for moose. I have shot moose in Rainbow and Sylvan...they even smell different.

[sns2]

Grain of the meat is one of the things that gives things away for me, particularly deer (dense) and moose (more open). Elk is tougher for sure.

[Husty]

The day I cant tell when I'm eating mule deer will be the first, they have a certain flavor, especially when they are not grain fed. Harder to tell moose/elk/beef apart for me.

[Lefty-Canuck]

Usually I can tell what it is as it is cooking, especially if it’s ground meat in a frying pan.

LC

[Talking moose]

I can tell. Especially burger in chilli or spaghetti sauce. It’s more chewy. I like wild game steaks and roasts but a good quality beef steak such as a ribeye, trumps any wild game steak.

[The moose]

I shot a bull elk and a cow elk the same season in 212 2 yrs ago from the same property. I labeled everything carefully and cooked both , same cuts same seasoning side by side. of the 8 people to eat them. 7 chose the bull as preferred cut. Had more flavor. Both were eating the ranchers oats for some time but believe the bull had been eating them longer. The cow was a small young cow likely 1 1/2 . the bull a spike I believe to have been around 2.5 or maybe 3.5

[dfrobert]

Roasts and steaks yes! Burger, stew, chilli, etc not usually. Moose steak for the win.

[Remi3006]

[QUOTE=Lefty-Canuck;3952954]Usually I can tell what it is as it is cooking, especially if it’s ground meat in a frying pan.

Yep, the frying pan is usually a dead giveaway.

[obsessed1]

I hunt bush country critters. I can definitely tell the difference between moose, deer, and elk. All have distinct flavours.

[DiabeticKripple]

i can definitely tell when there is deer in a recipe. especially the bush deer i hunt.

Elk is just very lean beef to me. Steaks and roasts need a little extra care.

[roper1]

I can tell wild game from beef(steaks or roasts) but have trouble one species from the other. Actually prefer our homemade game sausage, except compared to beef. Beef trumps!

[3blade]

Post rut bull moose (and supposedly caribou) can have a funky flavor, due to long term fat metabolism and eating willow buds. Everything else usually tastes like meat. How it was handled and prepared makes the biggest difference.

Ex: the mental giants who grab a rutting mulie by the tarsal glands and then complain of a “wild” taste

[bessiedog]

I can totally tell the difference.

Every time.

Just invite me over... cook me up some steaks... n I’ll enlighten ya.

[nimrod]

I cook for my wife for when she comes home, I don't tell her what Im cooking, she does notice something is not right, but I still tell her it's beef, still together.

[Mountain Guy]

I find that a gut shot rutted out deer tastes similar to a gut shot rutted out moose or elk.. Slight different yuck but more or less the same.

[Smokinyotes]

I shot a 50” stinking rutting bull moose. I made my half into sausage. My nephew got his half cut and wrapped. He gave me some steak and I couldn’t believe how good it was. Another time we got a 5 point bull elk in the rut and my wife bbq’d some rib steak. I thought they were beef steak.

I think a lot of it depends on what they have been feeding on, how well they are bled out and getting the guts out and hide off immediately after killing.

Deer are another story, rutting buck usually tastes like well rutting buck unless marinated in vinegar and apple juice.

[Smoky buck]

I can tell majority of the time but there is certain recipes that can make it tough if someone wants to hide the kind of meat taste wise

[calgarychef]

I “think” I can always know when I’m eating moose. I’d far rather have an elk in the freezer than a moose.

[Roderek]

Sorry I didn't watch the video, however, when doing something like this it should be a blind triangle test.

3 plates labeled 1/2/3
2 plates are the same
1 plate is the other

you need to do your best to not have a visual difference.

Taste from each plate then give your answers.
1 and 2 are the same 3 is different, I prefer 3.

If 1 and 2 are the same that means you were able to distinguish the difference

If 1 and 3 are the same then I got it wrong and couldn't tell. doesn't matter if you picked one of the two plates, as they are not the same.

If you think back to the old Coke Pepsi taste test challenge people doing the test were just trying to pick pepsi and you had a 50/50 chance. if they did it this way it would have been a lot more accurate.

[Wrongside]

Fun video, chuck. Neat premise and well done.

As for telling wild meat apart, for me, I'd have to say 'sometimes'. Depends a lot on where the critter lived, how it died and how the meat was cared for, IME. We almost always cook wild red meats rare to medium rare at the most. Cooking to medium would make it harder to tell them apart, for me.

[happy honker]

I can tell deer meat apart easily. I can even tell you what sex, species, what part of the province it was taken in, with a bow or gun, AND if it's not too overdone I can also tell you within 5 points, what it scored.
If it's cooked just right, I can also tell you the color of the truck it was shot from, or the camo pattern worn in the stand when it was taken.

[wildwoods]

Originally Posted by happy honker

I can tell deer meat apart easily. I can even tell you what sex, species, what part of the province it was taken in, with a bow or gun, AND if it's not too overdone I can also tell you within 5 points, what it scored.
If it's cooked just right, I can also tell you the color of the truck it was shot from, or the camo pattern worn in the stand when it was taken.

Oh my. Good chuckles lol

[CNP]

My wife seems to now the difference. She says she doesn't like deer but everything else is good. I can't tell if I'm eating WT, Mulie, antelope or sheep. The only way I can tell moose or elk from all of the above is from the size of the steaks

[ATF]

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...enison+council

[whitetail Junkie]

Only thing I can tell the difference with is Antelope...I love it.

Some animals are just Rank...

last year 4.5 year old whitetail buck shot dead in his tracks is the most Wild/rotten deer ive ever had....2017 ,8.5 year old buck shot dead in his tracks...best deer I’ve ever ate...both bucks shot in the same field a year apart.

[JD848]

I shot a small bull moose for meat some 35 years ago,i knew it was to big to be a calf when I first saw it and it had 2 small legal spikes,I noticed he had very large knee after I shot him,must have busted it and that was why he was smaller.

It was one tough bugger to chew on,made all hamburger with it and sausage.

I ate elk a few times and it was ok,deer I can tell right away and the same with moose.A guy gave me some buffalo meat to try and holly snappers was that one tough chunk of meat ,but I never asked him for any more,dead drunk I may of eat it,but no way sober.I think he chased that thing to Manitoba and back to Alberta non stop then shot it.
I never asked where he shot him it the body,but if he never lunged him and tried a frontal shot,he would have needed a 50 cal to penetrate that junk of metal with hide on it.I did ask his brother how he like eating ten ply tires and he started laughing.

Cheers
JD