"Gamey" Flavor

[Lukem]

I didn't want to hijack Jager's thread over in Elk, so I thought I'd ask here. Can anybody explain to me what they mean by wild game meat having a "gamey" flavor? I've eaten wild stuff my entire life and the only conclusion/definition I can come to is "not like chicken or beef"

 

[2ski]

I've been sitting here for a few minutes trying figure out the words to describe gamey, and the only word I can come up with is gamey. I guess its kind of like how say Mahi mahi is a less "fishy" tasting fish than say a trout. Or the way people would rather eat walleye than other fish. It tastes less fishy. Kind of the same as beef versus venison.

 

[littlebuf]

personally I think meat is described as "gamey" by people that don't eat much wild game, so it has to be described somehow. my family eats so much its just meat. my daughters were raised on venison/elk/bear and I don't think they would know what your talking about if you said something had a gamey taste. to them it just tastes like deer,or elk, or bear....

 

[Matt Cashell]

Same in our house, littlebuf. A few weeks ago we had some beef burgers off the grill. My son took a few bites, and said, "This tastes weird, can I have some moose?"

 

[bigeasygator]

Wild meat can definitely taste gamey. I'm sure there's a lot that goes into how a meat tastes -- how the animal was cared for in the field, what it has been eating, how it's been stored, how it's been prepared. All of these can impact the flavor of the meat, which is why you can get such a variety of taste from game meat -- I've had wild game that I couldn't stomach and I've had wild game that would beat filet mignon. As far as describing the word gamey, I think it's both a flavor and a texture thing. When I think of gamey, I think of tough (or "tougher" anyway) texture and to me, gamey flavor tastes faintly of liver. That's about the closest flavor I can compare it to.

 

[littlebuf]

Same in our house, littlebuf. A few weeks ago we had some beef burgers off the grill. My son took a few bites, and said, "This tastes weird, can I have some moose?"

my 15 year old did that at a BBQ a while back over at some friends. took a bite of her burger and then whispered to mom "is there something wrong with the meat?" just not used to eating processed genetically modified meat. you know your brining um up right then. one of the things I had to get used to when we moved down here for Alaska when I was a kid was not having moose on the table. that was a tough one

 

[fillthefreezer]

ive eaten wild meat from people who arent diligent with trimming fat and silverskin and ive noticed a definate difference. wild fat does not taste like the fat on a pig or a ribeye....

 

[Liv2HntBigBullz]

"just not used to eating processed genetically modified meat"

Not to be confrontational, but what is the above supposed to mean? I'd like to know how to get genetically modified meat. Also I'm sure you eat game sausage and jerky, which believe it or not is "processed".

Anyway the "gamey" flavor has to do with the flavor in the fat likely deviating from corn fed beef. If any of you try grass-fed beef you would notice a similar flavor. The corn fed fat gives beef its "buttery" flavor. I would agree that "gamey" is just a deviation from corn fed. I too have had rancid game meat that got that way because it spoiled through lack of proper care. Chicken on the other hand has no flavor (hance why everything tastes like chicken) and tastes like whatever you season it with.

 

[Hardstalk]

ive eaten wild meat from people who arent diligent with trimming fat and silverskin and ive noticed a definate difference. wild fat does not taste like the fat on a pig or a ribeye....

Taste like sagebrush and fermented algae. I was given the honor of some buffalo jerky a few years back that was untrimmed, unspiced, and air dryed. I was gagging before it hit my tonsils.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

I have noticed a difference between wild game animals, some being gamey and others not so much. Some have a particular tang that hints, mind you it just BARELY hints, at spoiled meat. It isn't bad meat, but the smell of spoiled meat is one which always reminds me of that gamey flavor and vice versa.

We hang our meat up to a month if the weather is cold enough, and people who don't eat wild game never cotton on that the meat on the table is deer. Gamey flavor goes away if you take good care of the meat. This includes trimming carefully, getting it cooled quickly, and keeping it clean.

 

[littlebuf]

Not to be confrontational, but what is the above supposed to mean? I'd like to know how to get genetically modified meat. Also I'm sure you eat game sausage and jerky, which believe it or not is "processed".

.

its amazing whats put in our food supply. beef and chicken on steroids, look up some info on the average age kids are hitting puberty since the surge in genetically altering food/meat .i never said I don't eat jerky and yup ill still swing by micky d's from time to time, but when buying beef and chicken we make a point to spend the extra for grass fed/free range. wild game though is about as organic as it gets

 

[Brock A]

its amazing whats put in our food supply. beef and chicken on steroids, look up some info on the average age kids are hitting puberty since the surge in genetically altering food/meat .i never said I don't eat jerky and yup ill still swing by micky d's from time to time, but when buying beef and chicken we make a point to spend the extra for grass fed/free range. wild game though is about as organic as it gets

Ever watch the movie "Food Inc."? Its pretty bad. You are spot on with this.

 

[larryschwartz]

IMHO, I think that the term "gamey" can have two meanings and two reasons for it.

First, as noted above gamey can mean that it doesn't taste like what you are used to, different but not necessarily bad. Chicken and pork and beef and shrimp and sea bass all taste different and if you normally only eat ground beef and chicken then the others might not taste "normal".

Second, what meat tastes like, whether it is domesticated/commercially raised beef and butterball turkeys OR venison and wild turkey has a lot to do with a) how it was taken care of after it was killed and b) what it ate. Leaving a deer out in the sun or worse strapping it to the hood of your car for the trip back home will ruin any meat. The same with not trimming off the fat and such when you are processing it. Also, a cow that ate corn all its life will taste different from one that ate acorns and pine needles for its normal diet; deer are the same.

Larry

 

[Liv2HntBigBullz]

its amazing whats put in our food supply. beef and chicken on steroids, look up some info on the average age kids are hitting puberty since the surge in genetically altering food/meat .i never said I don't eat jerky and yup ill still swing by micky d's from time to time, but when buying beef and chicken we make a point to spend the extra for grass fed/free range. wild game though is about as organic as it gets

In the interest of not hijacking the thread I will leave my quick thoughts. We can discuss this elsewhere or start a new thread to discuss it.

I pointed out jerky is processed to put light on the fact that the word "processed" has a negative media connotation but it really is not different than what you do with game meats.

As for beef and chicken on steroids, there is a serious disconnect, as all meat sources (organic and non) are derived naturally from steroidal interaction and gene expression. Is it utilized in the meat industry for gains, sure it is, at the close, diligent, and scientifically based discretion of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and FSIS (Food Safety Inspection Service). Your point about kids hitting puberty sooner due to steroids in meat sources couldn't be further from the truth. Biochemically bovine (cattle) steroids are nothing like that of ours therefore they cannot attach to receptors and be utilized by our bodies, instead they are broken down into simple amino acids which are then used to build proteins based on our gene expression. A strongly defended theroy on age of puberty has to do with the increased accessibility to nutrition and the amount of childhood obesity. The body to reach puberty needs to be of appropriate age (which has remained the same) and body condition (which has manifested in younger children due to nutrition).

Look up some info on the "other" side and take it with an open mind, you might be suprised at what you find. That goes for that ridiculously sensationalized movie "Food Inc" as well.

I will leave it at that, now back to gamey flavor, yum!

 

[Manosteel]

I grew up on wildgame and now my family eats Moose, Elk or Deer 80% of the time at supper. A nice thing about eating fresh wild and free organically grown meat is that we dont have to worry about tinted beef issues or chemically enhanched beef. We had a beef scare this past fall with a tinted beef process plant down south which we were pretty oblivious too untill we had an unsually hight number of friends and family coming over for Barbeques. They all know we rarely buy meat from the store and it was hard to ciome by for a few weeks without worrying about taint.

On the wildgame tast, it is noticble to me when a person isn't diligent with trimming fat, silverskin, miscuis and generally trmining properly. Not necessarily bad but it is their; tougher to chew and noticible gamey (no other way to say it?). I process my meat very clean, taking my time to trim the meat, going with natural muscle lines rather than just hacking away.

 

[Brock A]

In the interest of not hijacking the thread I will leave my quick thoughts. We can discuss this elsewhere or start a new thread to discuss it.

Good idea. I wouldn't mind hearing more about this.

 

[gelton]

diligent, and scientifically based discretion of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and FSIS (Food Safety Inspection Service). QUOTE]

I would never describe the "scientists" at the FDA and FSIS to be dillegent or credible. After the earthquake in Japan and the fallout from the fukishima nuclear plant the "scientists" raised maximum allowable radiation limits by thousands of %. So the folks that we look to to protect us from disaster changed their rules when that disaster happened. Stanford University recently tested blue fin tuna on the coast of California and 8 out of 10 of them tested positive for cesium - the same radioactive material that spewed from fukishima. In fact according to their old rules the FDA raised radioactive limits so that the new normal equates to a lifetime of exposure based on their previous levels that were determined safe.

"Yes indeed, friends, we have reached a moment of comedic insanity at the EPA, where those in charge of protecting the environment are hastily rewriting the definition of "radioactive contamination" in order to make sure that whatever fallout reaches the United States falls under the new limits of "safe" radiation.

The EPA maintains a set of so-called "Protective Action Guides" (PAGs). These PAGs are being quickly revised to radically increase the allowable levels of iodine-131 (a radioactive isotope) to anywhere from 3,000 to 100,000 times the currently allowable levels.

The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is all over this issue, having obtained internal emails from a FOIA requests that reveal some truly shocking revelations of the level of back-stabbing betrayal happening inside the EPA. For example, under the newly-revised PAGs, drinking just one glass of water considered "safe" by the EPA could subject you to the lifetime limit of radiation." (http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1325)

 

[blb078]

I actually think the biggest reason for a difference in taste is the stress on an animal. If anyone has ever eaten beef from a stressed cow you can taste the difference from a non stressed cow. When stressed, the body, whether human or animals naturally produces chemicals and hormones. If you were to take live elk or deer to a slaughter house and have nothing different done to them other than the way they are killed you'd taste a difference between one slaughtered vs one shot from hunting and that's mainly due to the stress the animal doesn't go under when properly taken to a slaughter house. But you'd have to have a tame deer/elk to achieve that. That's one of the reasons why you want a fast/clean kill and not walk up on an animal while it's still waiting to expire.

 

[bigeasygator]

It's funny the direction some threads go in...we start off talking about gamey flavor and now we're talking about cesium levels in tuna and the allowable atmospheric levels of iodine-131 haha

As a scientist (more specifically an engineer), I would say that many "rules" and "limits" aren't put in place with regards to any science to begin with. Many of these limits are arbitrary and have little to no scientific basis at all. When a limit is challenged, I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the people doing that aren't dilligent or credible -- in fact, they may be more dilligent and credible than the people that made the rules in the first place.

 

[gelton]

Changing allowable limits in the midst of a disaster is neither credible or delligent. And on the genetically modified food portion most of Europe has outlawed it. Recently gmo wheat was found in Utah that escaped during testing five states away and Korea along with several other countries banned our wheat imports. Austrian scientists fed gmo to rats and within four generations they couldn't reproduce. When most executives from the fdA are former board members of Monsanto I think that their is little doubt who they owe their allegiance to.