Worst wild game dish

[jtm307]

Osso bucco is the most overrated wild game dish out there. I have made it twice, thinking the first time was a fluke, using two different but similar recipes from well-known wild game food-folk - once with a mule deer and the second time with elk. Just my opinion, but shanks are for burger.

Heresy!

 

[Elkdog]

Growing up the rule was if you shot it you ate it. I shot a sage hen once and Dad made me bring it home. Mom is a great wild game cook but even she couldn’t make that thing edible. It tasted like gnawing on a chunk of sagebrush stem.... I ate it though.

 

[Potsie]

Two years ago a buddy invited me out to his family’s place to help with an over abundance of white tail does. He asked that I take the oldest dry doe that came in on each sit, so I did. Ended up taking home four does, but one was (what we guessed as) 9 y/o judging off her teeth. The back straps basically turn to jerky as soon as they hit the pan, roasts are like shoe leather. I tried all manner of marinate, recipes, soaks, dips, dunks, and finally an exorcism... nothing worked.

Everything that was left was turned into burger with a 20% mix with pork fat. I swear, I can tell a package of that burger from others.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Snow goose. Some birds are decent, while others from the same flock are worse than poison. Don't understand why this is...

Some of the best: Canada goose heart and liver, muskrat

 

[IdahoPotato]

At times, especially early in my culinary exploration, I made some dishes that looking back on it now, I think "Well of course that failed!". Chicken fried duck breast without pounding the meat thin equates to a raw interior and bloody, soggy breading.

Similar to npaden, one time I had the bright idea to smoke some turkey legs. I am pretty sure the sharpest teeth in the animal kingdom would not be able to chew that result.

Finally, I tried my first liver dish last year following Hank Shaw's recipe. I do believe that will be the one and only time I ever keep a liver.

My Dad loved beef liver and onions fried in cast iron when I was a kid. Would wash it down with a glass of buttermilk. I now keep deer or elk liver on hand for a little nostalgia. I might be numb to the taste, it's not bad every once in a while.

I tried a glass of straight buttermilk a while back but that just causes an involuntary dry heave. Must be an old man thing.

 

[kansasdad]

Prairie chicken was an eye opener for me. The breast meat was darker red than any duck I've ever eaten, and had an intense dark meat flavor that wasn't bad, per se, but was closer to tough liver (and I like a well prepared liver, when I'm in the mood for liver). If I ever have Prairie Chicken again, it will be breasted, pounded flat and chicken fried steak prepared, with mashed potatoes with a creamy gravy.

And for all y'all hating on geese, break out a pastrami recipe in Hank Shaw "Duck, Duck, Goose", or search for a Rinella YouTube demo, which is similar to Hank's. Waterfowl hating folks end up raving!

 

[gouch]

When I was a kid my older cousin shot a bear on a hot August day. It dressed out at 607 lbs. He didn't even skin it for a couple of days. I won't say he couldn't even give the meat away but he sure couldn't give it to the same person twice.

 

[Scott85]

I have never had a bad wild game meal that I've made. I love puddle duck and geese breast on the grill and cook to rare or med rare. I think the secret there is to soak them overnight in salt water and vinegar.

 

[rtraverdavis]

I made the mistake of mixing venison burger with chopped pineapple. I thought pineapple and jalapeno burgers sounded great. Little did I know the enzymes in pineapple turn meat to goo, and the burgers ended up with the consistency and look of a beer-and-pastrami-sandwich-vomit.

 

[hank4elk]

Vancuver Island blackbear. during the salmon & dead seal season. Nothing made any part edible, by anyone @ the lighthouse. Damn thing kept breaking into the houses with kids around.

 

[TwistedSage]

Some of my worst have been ducks, some of my best have also been ducks. Wooduck to be specific, maple glazed wooduck is probably by favorite duck prep.

I think so much of this has to do with the local at which the animal lived or was taken.

Some of my favorite meat was the first Canada goose of the season(back in NJ). But these were resident geese that stopped at the farm at the end of migration to breed or grew up on the farm until early goose conservation order where we would make quick work of them and the rest of the flock would fly south. Those first geese of the year especially from the particular property I hunted was some of the best game meat I've had. You could grill them and pass as a lean beef steak.

I've had some ducks shot off big water that stunk the whole house up and you would eat pieces like you were taking shots, had to get yourself worked up to pop a piece.

Ducks seem to he the most inconsistent meat to cook. Some are decadent, some are awful. I dont know if there is a prep to counter that off putting fishy/muck taste and smell of those "off" birds

 

[El Jason]

Goose makes the best pastrami I’ve ever had

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Snipe , the lab wouldn't even eat it.

I went on many of a snipe hunt at night growing up in Pennsylvania at deer camp. I'll never forget the night playing eucher with the old timers and figuring out every time I went on the "snipe hunt" with my buddy tretty it was nothing but a wild goose chase.
As for dishes I've never had a good tongue. Someone please cook one right for me.

 

[HSi-ESi]

My brother got a mulie doe during archery, it was a nice cool early October day and I quartered it in the field. Pulled the heart and liver like normal, sliced up some of the liver to test that night. It was a bit strong, but fresh was pretty good. The meat was great by the way.

I saved some of the liver to make pate during the holidays. Everything was coming together great, until that liver hit the pan. It was very, very strong. I went through half a bottle of bourbon trying to tame it.

After I finished the other half of the bourbon, the pate seemed pretty good.

I only shared a little with one friend in a holiday gift set. I did tell him that if that wasn't his bag to toss it.

I ate what I could, but I finally had to dump rest of it, which wasn't much but still. It was either that or go broke buying whiskey to finish it off.

 

[Nunyacreek]

I once had a hunter shoot a dall sheep on a guided hunt and he clipped the guts getting that fine green slurry oozing out of the abdomen. It was a slippery shale spot and as I took off the rib racks whole I got a fair amount of gut glaze on them. The traditional first evening meal after getting back to camp were the ribs on an open fire..
We had a few cocktails, watched the ribs sizzle while telling involved tales of how great dall sheep meat is...then passed out chunks of rib rack. I had washed and scrubbed the heck out of them and my first bite tasted like I was licking the hocks of a rutting ram. I looked up as everyone at the fire processed their first bite and I stood up and calmly stoked the fire to consume the rest of the grilling ribs. Everyone solemnly tosses the remnants of their platefulls in the fire and we each took a healthy swig and wondered how a noble tradition could be so violently arrested by such an assault on the senses...
It was so amazingly incredibly bad I remember the taste to this day.

 

[Brittany Chukarman]

Spoonbill duck,never again. Sage hen until I learned how.

 

[R.K.]

An ancient male squirrel, pan fried. Took days to air out the house, and I even considered running that cast iron through the dishwasher. Occasionally take a chance with a mature (not ancient) one, but usually end up regretting the smell.

I've eaten a lot of duck and whitetail, and some goose on occasion, plus fish most people would turn their nose up at. Big fan of braunschweiger. I've tried goldeneye, bluebill, and a hooded merganser. And a rutted up whitetail that my cousin shot a little far back, recovered the next day, and then drove around to the bars after field dressing. But that old male squirrel with what looked like a walnut between his hindquarters is hands down the worst.

 

[Lv2hnt]

So, having consumed several great-tasting mountain lions over the years, I thought we'd try cooking fresh back straps over some coals when a hunting compadre shot a bobcat while hunting mule deer on the North Kaibab years ago.

Turned into a tasting rather than an eating experience --- that tom bobcat was the worst piss-flavored meat I've ever put into my mouth ... go figure???

 

[el unit]

Pickled Carp. My grandpa and grandma in eastern Nebraska made it all the time. Not for my taste buds.

 

[bobbydean]

pretty much in agreement with duck. Tried a couple of times and could not get it down. What is worse, fed it to the dog and dog would not eat it.

Last Barbary hunt had arranged to give the animal to a local minister. I had tasted barbary ram in the past and it is inedible. Could not kill the big ram both myself and nephew killed young ewes. The meat was probably tender and good. Hope the minister enjoyed..