Venison Vs. Beef Controversy

This is from the SigArms556.com hunting forum. Not sure if it belongs here, but it seems to "settle" some lingering questions and is hunting related:

Venison vs. Beef: The controversy ends

From the U.S. Venison Council


Controversy has long raged about the relative quality and taste of venison and beef as gourmet foods. Some people say venison is tough, with a strong "wild" taste. Others insist venison's flavor is delicate. An independent food research group was retained by the Venison Council to conduct a taste test to determine the truth of these conflicting assertions once and for all.

First, a Grade A Choice Holstein steer was chased into a swamp a mile and a half from a road and shot several times. After some of the entrails were removed, the carcass was dragged back over rocks and logs, and through mud and dust to the road. It was then thrown into the back of a pickup truck and driven through rain and snow for 100 miles before being hung out in the sun for a day.

It was then lugged into a garage where it was skinned and rolled around on the floor for a while. Strict sanitary precautions were observed throughout the test, within the limitations of the butchering environment. For instance, dogs and cats were allowed to sniff and lick the steer carcass, but most of the time were chased away when they attempted to bite chunks out of it.

Next, a sheet of plywood left from last year's butchering was set up in the basement on two saw horses. The pieces of dried blood, hair and fat left from last year were scraped off with a wire brush last used to clean out the grass stuck under the lawn mower.

The skinned carcass was then dragged down the steps into the basement where a half dozen inexperienced but enthusiastic and intoxicated men worked on it with meat saws, cleavers, hammers and dull knives. The result was 375 pounds of soup bones, four bushel baskets of meat scraps, and a couple of steaks that were an eighth of an inch thick on one edge and an inch and a half thick on the other edge.

The steaks were seared on a glowing red hot cast iron skillet to lock in the flavor. When the smoke cleared, rancid bacon grease was added, along with three pounds of onions, and the whole conglomeration was fried for two hours.

The meat was gently teased from the frying pan and served to three intoxicated and blindfolded taste panel volunteers. Every member of the panel thought it was venison. One volunteer even said it tasted exactly like the venison he has eaten in hunting camps for the past 27 years.

The results of this scientific test conclusively show that there is no difference between the taste of beef and venison...

 

As much as I would like to age my venison in a proper temperature cooler prior to butchering, that is not at all possible for a number of reasons where I now live. From the time I down a deer right here on my 20 acres, until it is in the freezer, a lot of work and 5 hours elapse. Very little goes to waste. It tastes just fine thank you. I did learn at the hand of my maternal grandfather who was a butcher by trade.
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Yes I understand the original post was a joke.

 

I chalk it up to how you cook/prepare it. Of course, when you wait in sleet for nearly 2 solid days with freezing temperatures, not even Outback can compare to that flavor of victory...

Happiness is fried deer liver and onions the morning after.

 

Hehehe! I laughed myself silly for two minutes after reading this......

It's so TRUE!!

Here at work, a lot of people say they hate venison, would NOT care to try it.
Once for a holiday dinner, a buddy brought several pounds of venison sausage - those picky individuals tore into it and couldn't get enough!!!

I sent this story to some hunting buddies - they'll get a kick out of it!

 

You can say that again. Truth is you want a shocker, freeze a deer liver, eat it next week. Prepare it just like you do fresh. It just wont be the same. Fresh liver, whether goose, beef, calves, rabbits, chicken, turkey, deer or whatever. Taste MUCH stronger, and is tougher when cooked the same as fresh. Fresh is soooooooo MUCH better there is no way to compare and consider them the same meat. Next time cook half fresh, save half frozen for a week then thaw and cook it. Taste it. You will see.

 

BWAHHHAAAHHAAA
thank you, that was funny.

 

Some don't like meats such as heart, liver and kidneys. Thats okay. Others do. Good well prepared fresh liver is a treat for the taste buds. Others totally disagree. I really don't mind. It's my gain. At the hunting camp when I go I always have an ice chest ready because I know I can easily glean what others might otherwise boil and feed their dogs.

 

tacmotusn,

wasn't laughing at you.
it was the OP that had me almost spewing coffee all over the keyboard.

having not eaten heart or liver from a fresh kill yet I will reserve judgement.
I just got out hunting this year and scored my first 2 point buck on the 5 of Oct

I have one more tag to fill this fall, and hope to get out next weekend.
Thouroughly enjoying the adventure and the learning. Here at this time of year, we can hang them in the shed for a week and they cool nicely.
I will try the liver as you suggest and let you know.

 

Did someone say ''Gumbo'' or Deer Sausage or spagetti or even better chili ???
That's a few of the thing's we do in Lafayette La.with both deer and cow...

 

At our last gathering we butchered a goat for demonstration. Soon as it was shot we bled it out and started field dressing it. After skinning and eviscerating the tenderloins/back straps/quarters/roasts/ribs/and finally the back bone was cut into sections.
Deer properly butchered tastes quite differently than one dragged,showed off, and finally taken to a processing plant many hours after killing. That is no way to expect good tasting meat.
ASAP after shooting a deer I bleed it by placing on a slope if no other way is possible. Before it cools I have it field dressed and skinned. If the weather is cold I let it "cure" a bit. If not I quarter/cut up and put in the refrigerator out back for a couple of days before final processing and freezing.

 

That would be a big 10-4 good buddy ... My grandmother never wasted one drop of whatever grandpa brought home but I never did develop a taste for organ meats. Her favorite was brains and scrambled eggs for breakfast ... OMG I am getting queasy just talking about it ... LOL

 

Venison has to be good...after all, I once ate some half cooked venison meatballs my grandmother had in her refirgerator! She laughed, my mother threw up and my sister avoided me for at least a week! yeah, it was that good! I have had pickled venison for sandwich spread and loved it.
I'm not a hunter and have never taken any game larger than a rabbit myself....It will be an "interesting" experience having to learn it from start to finish!

 

For me it is easy, after I kill it I gut it then load it up and take the darn thing to the meat locker where they butcher it I get all my meat back in about a week, where then I get to have fun turning it into Sausages, ring balogna, and jerky.

 

Never cared for liver of any type, but a venison roast in the crock pot with onions, mushrooms, a little red wine and a generous amout of rosemary is very hard to beat!

 

for being a joke....
ive seen that happen, pretty much word for word
had an old friend that wouldnt eat venison, said it was disgusting
turns out they never castrated the bucks, ewwwwwwwww
venison does have its own distinct flavor, i think it mostly comes
from the difference in diet. they arent raised on hay and corn like beef
as far as liver, i like mine fresh sliced n bloody, right after i remove it from the carcas
yummy, now theres a taste you wont find anywhere else
we skin, gut and hang ours, how long depends on the temp outside
and it always tastes great

 

I learned long ago that if you dont want the wild taste you have to get that hide off while the meat is still warm and then chill that carcass down to 38 / 40 degrees as fast as you can. I let our venison hang for about a week if the temps are cold enough. This year we will have a refrigerator for early season hanging of quarters. Venison does not taste like beef at least to me it doesn't. I like both and eat both. I cant remember a time in the last 20 years when we didnt have at least one deer in the freezer.

I have always cut up my own into steaks, stew meat and roasts. I dont boil the bones at this time but if the shtf I will use every scrap for something. As it is we dont waste much. Venison stew is one of my favorite dishes during those cold winter days. Kingfish

 

I've found that the deer's diet seems to have a lot to do with their flavor, I'm not sure if anyone has had this experience. Deer bagged far out from civilization, that I assume eat only wild foods, have tasted much better than deers bagged near the suburbs, that often have access to food garbage. Of course, this could be coincidence, as I am working from a small sample size (I've eaten parts of ~half dozen deer, mostly loin & jerky).