Are old bucks just good for sausage?

Taste Removal

Well there's always the buttermilk trick, soak it overnight in a bowl of buttermilk, and prepare it how ever you like the next day and all the gamey flavour will be gone. FS
 
Thanks to all who responded on this one ... I got my buck about 3 weeks ago. I figure about a 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 yr old judging from the small 8 pt rack. He sure tastes good. I wasn't going hesitate when I saw him. First the 4 does ran out into the field, then looked over from where they came. Then he arrived, proud as anything, lowered his head and chased one or two of them around.

I grunted, he stopped and the .30-30 did its job. He tastes great. I'll be trying the salad dressing recipe just to see what it's like. Nice to fill the freezer.

cheers to all
 
As to Old deer, one of the guys shot a buck that was so old it hardly had any teeth a few years ago. It was a little on the thin side as well. Big rack, small deer. A ministry friend figured it at seven to eight years old. The meat was just fine.
 
I laid out a mule deer later in the season and upon inspection the back teeth were worn down to the gum line. Some of the nicest deer meat I have eaten. Mind you it was bedded down and simply relaxed in it's bed when I shot it. It never knew I was in the country and never heard the shot that killed it.
 
I wouldn't ruin any deer meat by turning it into sausage.

The butchers add pork fat and make it all taste like Safeway garlic ring.
 
My family likes Pepperoni a lot, so the trim goes to that on any deer shot. I also always get some Jerky made up, but the best cuts always end up as steaks and roasts. I have never eaten a truly "rotten" deer, some were slightly gamier than others, but none would create a stir in our household. Now, if you want a stinky animal, try a big bull Caribou in the rut!!
I shot two bucks ( one Whitetail, one Muley) in the rut this fall, and neither was stinky at all. Meat properly cared for will make great table fare. Regards, Eagleye.
 
Amen to the rutting caribou! Looks wonderful, has no smell, but as soon as it hits a hot pan, you can't stay in the tent, never mind eat the stuff.

The dogs won't even eat it! :eek:

Ted
 
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There is more to the taste of a wild creature than age. You have to look at everything from what it eats, time of year, to how it was harvested. I have harvested mature, large antlered bucks, that were better eating that small spikes. I believe the majority of the bad eating is a result of us, the hunter. Quick humain shots, rapid dressing of the harvest, along with careful skinning, proper aging and butchering of said buck should yield some great eatin from most.
 
MD said:
I wouldn't ruin any deer meat by turning it into sausage.

The butchers add pork fat and make it all taste like Safeway garlic ring.
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What else do you do with the trimmings and small pieces of venison after cutting several deer? Part can go as stew meat. Part goes as sausage.
Four deer will give fifteen to twenty pounds of trimmings that are not suitable for stew or anything else.

You might be going to the wrong butcher. Most butchers will add beef fat, or no fat at all if you ask. Not to mention you can request a salami cure, pepperoni cure, or most any cure that butcher does. Sausage makers sometimes welcome the opportunity to experment but will warn you it may not turn out as good as you expect.

Or you can do it at home and make the sausage with a commercial cure or a homemixed cure. Just be careful of the commercial cures as some have way more nitrates per pound of finished sausage than the health standards suggest.
 
BCWILL said:
I've shot and eaten Bucks and does before the rut during the rut etc.
I see NO diff in taste between them, I've had some socalled "gamey" spikers and some Big Stinky rutted up Mulies that were delicious :)

How the Meat was Cooled, cleaned & cared for (transported) etc. Has WAY more to do with the End Flavour then simply "When" it was shot ;)
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Cooling is, IMHO the biggest thing. One reason I get the hide off as fast as possible. I don't even gut animals much anymore...Just skin them on site, cut off the hams, shoulders and loins and leave the carcass.

This year we packed out part of a moose at last light, and went back the next day (About Nov 3, pretty cold. A skiff of snow that night) The animal was skinned out except for the head and upper neck. When we returned and started skinning that to remove the antlers, the meat was warm and steaming!!

Think how long it takes for a whole carcass, skin on to cool!!:runaway:
 
BCWILL said:
I've shot and eaten Bucks and does before the rut during the rut etc.
I see NO diff in taste between them, I've had some socalled "gamey" spikers and some Big Stinky rutted up Mulies that were delicious :)

How the Meat was Cooled, cleaned & cared for (transported) etc. Has WAY more to do with the End Flavour then simply "When" it was shot ;)
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You smoke don't you?
A buck that has been running does hard, dehydrated and losing condition fast is poor table fare. Stress has been proven to affect the quality in domestic animals also.
I have found that large older buck can be "Okay" depending on whether he is packing any body fat but my wife can tell the difference in seconds flat just as it hit's the frying pan.
Around here if you are going for meat harvest before the first of November.
 
I home butcher and grind smaller bits for burger and I have never gone to a butcher in 40 years of hunting.

Ground game meat is extra versatile for many recipes too.

I did share in getting two moose the other guys got one season taken to a butcher and couldn't stand the imaginative labelling of meat they did nor the "sausage" the other guys had made up.

I have tried sausage friends have made and have had done by over a dozen butchers over the years and I don't like it.

I don't like pepperoni, I don't like "breakfast " sausages, I don't like summer sausage, nor have I liked anything else made by butchers out of game meat. I like my deer, moose, elk and bear to taste like deer, moose, elk and bear.

Why #### it up?

I know many hunters like the sausages they get.

It may be just me, but I don't.
 
MD said:
I home butcher and grind smaller bits for burger and I have never gone to a butcher in 40 years of hunting.

Ground game meat is extra versatile for many recipes too.

I did share in getting two moose the other guys got one season taken to a butcher and couldn't stand the imaginative labelling of meat they did nor the "sausage" the other guys had made up.

I have tried sausage friends have made and have had done by over a dozen butchers over the years and I don't like it.

I don't like pepperoni, I don't like "breakfast " sausages, I don't like summer sausage, nor have I liked anything else made by butchers out of game meat. I like my deer, moose, elk and bear to taste like deer, moose, elk and bear.

Why f**k it up?

I know many hunters like the sausages they get.

It may be just me, but I don't.
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Thank you for clarifying that. You are certainly entitled to your tastes and dislikes. I just happen to enjoy cold cure, cold smoke, jerky made from vension. I also enjoy a salami type (non pork fat) sausage made from venison as well. It is my opinion that it is pointless to take venison and process it is such a manner that it duplicates a product available on a deli shelf. Or maybe it isn't pointless if you like that type of food.
 
Hi 10x, I agree with you on the non-pork vension salmi type sausage.

I found some in the farmer's markets in France 2 years ago and loved it, but have never seen or tried any of that type made by any of my friend's butchers here in B.C.

Besides I'm too cheap to have any processed.

I went back to France this September and couldn't find any of that dried venison or wild boar or duck sausage in any market.

I think there are some new EU food quality regulations that keep it off the shelves.
 
I have a basic butcher shop setup in my shop and we process all of our own meet unless it needs smoked. I have found that most Bucks taste fine but you run in to the odd one that stinks! I usally try and fill my freezer with canadian goose and then grind the buck with the goose and then We have a local butcher make it into a Kolbasa. It is a nice change from typical summer sausage.
 
MD said:
Hi 10x, I agree with you on the non-pork vension salmi type sausage.

I found some in the farmer's markets in France 2 years ago and loved it, but have never seen or tried any of that type made by any of my friend's butchers here in B.C.

Besides I'm too cheap to have any processed.

I went back to France this September and couldn't find any of that dried venison or wild boar or duck sausage in any market.

I think there are some new EU food quality regulations that keep it off the shelves.
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It does not cost too much to set up to process sausage, jerky, or cured meat yourself. A cold smoker can be made for less than you think.

As for some foods not being available in France, farmers markets are seasonal. The food they sell is whatever is in season at the moment you are there, and ususally there is a limited supply. When that runs out it becomes wait until the food comes into season again.
 
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