Gross Moose Meat?

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saskboy

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Our neighbor shot a nice cow moose this fall and gave me a frozen steak a few weeks back. So I decided to cook it up on the BBQ, and man was it gross! It just tasted like its hide had smelled when I helped him load the thing. I have gotten elk meat from him too that tasted totally disgusting before, exactly like this moose. I have had elk and moose meat a dozen times and its always terrific. What is up with this meat of his? Is it the butcher letting it sit in a warm area or just some animals taste like wild rotten piss hide. I mean its not like you cant eat it but I rather throw it to the dog than finish my steak. What gives!
 
Either your neighbour doesn't know how to preserve his meat (while maturing or in transport) or he shot the moose in the belly and got poo all over the place (and did not take care of the meat properly after).

If the meat doesn't smell good, it is not proper to eat (by humans, anyways). The meat should always smell like what it is, good meat.
 
It smells normal, maybe a little on the strong wild side. It wasnt chased or gut shot, I was there when he gutted it out. What does meat that got warm taste like.
 
I vote for not cooling properly after shooting. Cooling is very important and a heavy moose hide holds the body heat in like a down parks.
I grew up in a backwoods area where wild meat was the principle item of diet.
Those people would not transport wild meat until it had cooled. I don't know if there is anything to this or not, but it was given. Shoot, butcher and cool one day, haul it home the next day.
 
My cousins husband gave me some deer chops a few years back.....same as your story, tasted like ####. I'm a newb-ish hunter, but something went wrong between the bullet and the plate for it to taste so lousy. I thought my first deer smelled funny last year.......turns out it smells like deer, and not beef.;)

Do you know where he hung it and for how long?
 
There is a lot more to it than just shooting and eating. The best meat is killed quick, gutted ASAP, skinned and cooled. Then hung to age and cut and trimmed properly. I have had people over for supper that thought they were eating beef when it really was venison. There is no off smell when wild meat is cooked in my house. I used to cut up 18-20 deer a year for others, and let me tell you some were brought to me in a mess. Stomach matter still inside the body cavity [not washed out], dirt and lots of hair all over it, and they were proud of their kill. I just got sick of doing it.
 
If a large animal is not cooled quickly enough, the fluids around the joints can go sour. This will result in a greenish colour and a foul smell. It will be most prevalent closer to the bones. We had an elk go this way 20 or so years ago. It was shot at dusk, gutted and left uder a tree overnight with the cavity propped open. Even though there was a good frost overnight, the cavity closed up and the elk didn't cool properly. It was still steaming the next morning and even though we packed it with ice and hung it outside, skinned, the next night in snowy weather , it had gone sour and was basically inedible.
Since that time, we make sure that we hang up our game and get the hide off especially on moose or elk.
 
I agree with the above, poor meat handling is the culprit.
Most likely, not cooled fast enough.
I pick up road kills fairly regularly. If the weather is warm, they can be totally ruined in a very short period.
IMO game animals really should be gutted, and hung ASAP. I even hang my kills at the kill site for a bit if possible for a few minutes, and if not, at least prop open the cavity.
Once cooled, (over night) they should be butchered quickly, and refrigerated or frozen, if the temps are above 40F. If the temps are very much above 40F you may have to find a refrigerated place to hang your meat.
If temps are reasonably cool, I prefer to hang the meat for a week or more.
Working on a Moose in warm temps, pretty much means getting the hide off to cool it.
 
Meat that got too warm tastes like crap. My neighbor got a moose one year and brought some of it over for a wild game dinner we were doing that had goose, duck, bear and deer in it. His moose tasted like you describe and was the only platter of meat that wasn't completely cleaned up by our guests. When asked about it, he admitted that his moose was the first one shot on a week long September trip and hung in the shade for most of the week before it was taken to the butchers. Temps got into the 20's nearly every day of that trip. It wasn't horrible meat it just wasn't as good as the moose we have always had in the past. It was fine once he turned it all into garlic sausage.
 
Same as everybody else.....either cooled to slow, dressed to sloppily, contaminated (urine and/or bile and/or feces and/or bacteria from the trachea), or a combo of the above.

The nice part of unting where I do (the shores of Georgian Bay) in November is that there is always lots of COLD water close by. Shoot animal/dress/send it for a swim. Water at 3-5 degrees cools animals RIGHT NOW and has the added benefit of cleaning up.
 
Im trying to remember about the day he shot it. It was fall but it was above freezing and I think by the time he gutted and skinned it, it was about 2 hours after it was dead. This is prob why it tastes bad. It was hung overnight in a shed then taken to the butcher, but overnight it prob got to freezing level.
 
saskboy said:
Im trying to remember about the day he shot it. It was fall but it was above freezing and I think by the time he gutted and skinned it, it was about 2 hours after it was dead. This is prob why it tastes bad. It was hung overnight in a shed then taken to the butcher, but overnight it prob got to freezing level.
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2 hours with the guts in it could do it. Which is why I never understand how those TV hunters can arrow an animal at 5:30 pm and then leave it in the woods overnight only to track and retrieve it at 8:00 in the morning -- and in TEXAS at that. There is no way that a deer left with the guts inside it for 14 or 15 hours is going to be good eats.
 
Garbage in, garbage out. I can't beleive how many guys spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get a big game animal...and then once harvested handle the carcass like a hunk of garbage. It's a bloody crime IMHO.
 
sjemac said:
2 hours with the guts in it could do it. Which is why I never understand how those TV hunters can arrow an animal at 5:30 pm and then leave it in the woods overnight only to track and retrieve it at 8:00 in the morning -- and in TEXAS at that. There is no way that a deer left with the guts inside it for 14 or 15 hours is going to be good eats.
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I always wonder the same thing!
 
My little brother took a quick shot at a moving deer with his shotgun a few years ago resulting in a gutshot. The slug knocked it down on the spot and a quick follow up shot ended it. It was his first kill and he waited for me to come help dress the deer (maybe 15-20min wait) the insides were a mess, the 2.75" mag slug did some massive damage and the ribs were covered in s**t. I cleaned them several times and hoped for the best, but they ended up in the trash. Only time we lost some meat thus far.

Meat handling is the second most important thing imo, right after safety
 
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How long did you cook it on the BBQ? Game steaks should only be cooked to rare or medium rare max on the BBQ. The do not have fat or the marbling that beef has and therefore dry out very quickly.
 
Poor meat handling is my guess as well. I have left a deer over night with no issues. Manitoba rifle season is last three weeks of november and it is always cool enough to do that, even with the guts in. Moose season is in warmer months. Ive seen people quarter their moose with the hides on for some reason, un covered and the weather in late september can be very mild. gutting it and skinning it in two hours is excellent time, it is a big animal and it is a lot of work.

My guess, did he cover it with big game bags? Still lots of flies around in the fall and it doesn't take them long to find the meat. If they had access to even a little bit that chunk is garbage. you really have to be quick about covering it up. The last one I shot it took at least two hours to gut and skin it plus quartering, got it into bags right away and then canoed the quarters a couple miles back to camp where it hanged for a few days till the float plane came. the weather was extreamly mild, probably close to plus 20 in the day, but it got very cool at night. the blow flies were laying eggs like crazy on the outside of the bags as they were trying to get to the meat. Looked like a fat layer on the outside of the bags. they couldn't actually get the to the meat and the meat was still the best meat ever when it was finally processed. Think of how long it takes a cow to reach the grocery store after it gets killed.
 
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