Ollin Magnetic Digiscoping System

Taste test results

Irrelevant

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I consistently eat various critter for lunch here at work, usually offer a bite to anyone that wants to try it, I don't think anyone has ever said it wasn't good. But there's a couple guys that do some limited hunting or eat some wild game from time to time that made the claim one day that they prefer beef because of the gamey flavor of wild game. I called BS and invited them to try to Pepsi challenge. I'd cook four critters, beef, mule deer, elk, and antelope, all the same, plain ground patties, and we'd see if they could tell them apart.

We did it Monday. I had 12 people participate including myself, my wife, and both kids.

The two people guessed two of the four meats correctly. Me and one other co-worker (who acknowledged it was a total guess). I have no idea how, in less than 24-hrs, I managed to forget which where in each container, but based on the flavors I though I got all four right, the Key I created the night before said I only got 2 of 4 right (beef and deer).

More than 50% of the people didn't get any correct. And several people refused to believe it wasn't all beef.

Some caveats that you might wonder about. The antelope was a mix of buck and doe, mule deer was a very young road kill salvage, elk was a young cow, beef was 4% fat. All of the wild game were mixed with approx 10% pork fat.

The moral of the story for me is that if you think YOU can tell the difference, have someone cook up some plain patties (no seasoning) with several different critters and see if you can. I thought it would be difficult, but that as tough as it ended up.
 
I wonder if this didn't have something to do with flavor profiles
Possibly, but in my mind that doesn't affect the actual validity of the results. Most people cut some fat into their burger. It would be pretty easy to decipher beef from wild game in steak format from texture and look alone. I still feel this was a fairly valid exercise in getting people to recognize it's mostly in their heads.
 
Possibly, but in my mind that doesn't affect the actual validity of the results. Most people cut some fat into their burger. It would be pretty easy to decipher beef from wild game in steak format from texture and look alone. I still feel this was a fairly valid exercise in getting people to recognize it's mostly in their heads.

I believe I could distinguish 80/20 beef with any wild meat with no fat added. However if you cut 10% pork fat into the meat then yeah I don't think I'd notice the difference. I don't add in fat with mine, my dad never did so it's something I just grew up on.

As far as tasting the difference between game animals, impossible. "Maybe" someone could, say if you did steaks due to tenderness (granted that could be flawed due to meat aging) but you'd have to keep a control of a mature bull/buck across the board of elk, deer, moose, and pronghorn.

With all that being said, I still will not ever let anyone have my pronghorn meat ha!
 
When I mix pork with anything It's hard to distinguish Meats.
Now mix pork with Javelina... GAME ON!
It does make great sausage. 🔥
 
I consistently eat various critter for lunch here at work, usually offer a bite to anyone that wants to try it, I don't think anyone has ever said it wasn't good. But there's a couple guys that do some limited hunting or eat some wild game from time to time that made the claim one day that they prefer beef because of the gamey flavor of wild game. I called BS and invited them to try to Pepsi challenge. I'd cook four critters, beef, mule deer, elk, and antelope, all the same, plain ground patties, and we'd see if they could tell them apart.

We did it Monday. I had 12 people participate including myself, my wife, and both kids.

The two people guessed two of the four meats correctly. Me and one other co-worker (who acknowledged it was a total guess). I have no idea how, in less than 24-hrs, I managed to forget which where in each container, but based on the flavors I though I got all four right, the Key I created the night before said I only got 2 of 4 right (beef and deer).

More than 50% of the people didn't get any correct. And several people refused to believe it wasn't all beef.

Some caveats that you might wonder about. The antelope was a mix of buck and doe, mule deer was a very young road kill salvage, elk was a young cow, beef was 4% fat. All of the wild game were mixed with approx 10% pork fat.

The moral of the story for me is that if you think YOU can tell the difference, have someone cook up some plain patties (no seasoning) with several different critters and see if you can. I thought it would be difficult, but that as tough as it ended up.
mule deer was a very young road kill salvage- are you a hillbilly or what??
 
I believe I could distinguish 80/20 beef with any wild meat with no fat added. However if you cut 10% pork fat into the meat then yeah I don't think I'd notice the difference. I don't add in fat with mine, my dad never did so it's something I just grew up on.

As far as tasting the difference between game animals, impossible. "Maybe" someone could, say if you did steaks due to tenderness (granted that could be flawed due to meat aging) but you'd have to keep a control of a mature bull/buck across the board of elk, deer, moose, and pronghorn.

With all that being said, I still will not ever let anyone have my pronghorn meat ha!
I can’t tell the difference between steaks. But I can pick out antelope burger every time, I don’t know why the steaks are great and the burger is a bit disappointing. I never add any fat to any of my wild game burger either, I like knowing that I’m eating 100% whatever I killed.
 
mule deer was a very young road kill salvage- are you a hillbilly or what??
Washington legalized road kill salvage a few years ago, I haven't come across a good one yet, but I saw some people loading one in the back of a Lexus a couple months ago! Eastern Washington yuppies.
 
BBQd a bunch of game meat and homegrown poultry and pork for a big family reunion this summer, and my cousin's wife told me how good the steaks were. When I asked her if she had deer or elk, she couldn't believe it wasn't beef and wouldn't have eaten it if she knew it was game.
 
My brother and sister in law make a shitload of money, and eat at a lot of higher end restaurants. We made burgers a while back. Mix of deer and elk, I don’t separate it, ground with 20% beef fat. She said it was hands down the best burger she’s ever eaten.

Thankful it wasn’t ruined by the hair I pulled out while I was grinding.
 
I had passed some bear around the office a while back everyone thought it was beef.

I'm actually surprised that we given the average MickeyD slamming american any credit when it comes to taste.

IMHO meat is meat, I can taste off-ness from poor meatcare but other than that 🤷‍♂️

Even considering steaks, I could probably use context clues like texture, cut size, fat content, etc to guess what kinda critter it came but as far as flavor. No way.
 
I had a guy at the office tell me he just couldn’t eat venison - there was something about eating a deer that didn’t sit well with him. He knows I hunt a lot and eat wild game. I said no worries, I’m not offended. There’s lots of places in this world where people eat dogs, and I just couldn’t bring myself to eat dog.
 
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