Removing game taste

Common soaking liquids include saltwater, milk, buttermilk, vinegar, or lemon juice. This is also a useful technique to use if you are trying to save particularly bloodshot meat, but sometimes even soaking it in yogurt is not enough for the worse cases.

You went through all the effort to properly prepare the meat, so what a shame it would be if it ended up getting all freezer burnt. This often happens when you try to freeze a lot of meat in one container or package. Put in the extra effort and individually wrap or vacuum seal each cut so that no air will get trapped in there and cause the devastating tragedy that is freezer burn. Vacuum sealed packages work the best, but even wrapping meat well in plastic wrap or butcher paper can keep it fresh for over a year.

On the grill, it takes just seconds for steaks to go from perfection to overdone shoe leather. How long you cook your venison makes way more difference than the age of the deer, how long it was aged while hanging from the oak tree in your front yard, or pretty much any other venison variable you can think of.

With a slow cooker, no worries. After prepping the meat as best you can, giving it a good soak, and freezing it properly, there should be little to no residual gaminess, depending on how practiced you are at processing. So, what is the best way to cover up that remaining wild game flavor?

While venison benefits from marinades that help keep it moist, a number of wild game recipes require marinades beforehand since the stronger flavors go a long way to completely remove gamey flavor from the meat. This will age and tenderize the meat, giving it better flavor.

Freeze the leftover meat for up to a year. Write the contents and freeze date on the outside, then store it in the freezer for no longer than a year to maintain the quality of the meat. Part 2. Cut the meat into pieces that will fit in a large bowl. Decide what size bowl you'll be using for the soak, and cut your meat down to fit it.

You can cut it into steaks for grilling, small cubes for stew, or any other configuration that you like. Soak the meat in buttermilk overnight. Place the meat in a glass or ceramic bowl and pour in buttermilk until it covers the meat. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. The lactic acid in the buttermilk will tenderize the meat and draw out some of its gamey flavor. If the meat was frozen, let it fully thaw in the fridge before you start soaking it.

Choose an acidic marinade. The buttermilk soak can serve as a marinade, but if you prefer to do a more traditional marinade, choose one that contains an acidic ingredient like vinegar, fruit juice, or wine. These acidic bases will counteract the gamey taste of the meat. Look up recipes online for marinades that go well with your particular type of meat.

Marinate the meat for at least three hours. Pour enough marinade into a sealable plastic bag to cover the meat inside, then let it sit in the fridge for at least three hours. The longer you soak your meat in a marinade, the more flavor it will absorb, so let it sit longer if you want to further mask the taste of the meat.

Part 3. Bring the meat to room temperature before cooking. Pull the meat out of the fridge and out of the marinade or buttermilk soak. Place it on a plate and let it sit on the counter for a few hours to come to room temperature.

Use a meat thermometer to avoid overcooking it. Check the internal temperature of the meat periodically with a meat thermometer. Stick to an internal temperature of about to degrees Fahrenheit 60 to 65 degrees C. This will keep the meat from getting overcooked and becoming dry. Fry or brown the meat as quickly as possible. Allowing the meat to cook slowly on a lower setting will cause it to lose a lot of its juices, and you could end up with dry, gamey-tasting meat.

Let the meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Once you remove the meat from the heat source, place it on a plate and cover it with tin foil. Then let it rest in its juices for 10 to 15 minutes. The wife on the other hand — yeah, his flavor is a deal breaker. I did two samples for each method I tested — one sample was aged for one day, the other for two days. At the end of each waiting period, each piece of meat was rinsed in water, and patted dry with a paper towel.

Next I removed from the oven, covered with foil, and let rest for 5 minutes. I was a little surprised by some of the results. As it turns out, of all 12 methods tested, plain old milk was by FAR the best for giving a non-gamy steak with no flavors added.

There are some methods I will likely never try again, like vinegar or lemon juice. Following is the breakdown on each method. Just keep in mind: these were thin slices — if you have a large roast you want to treat, you should consider soaking it longer, slicing it, or poking holes in it so the fluid can reach more surface area. I was sadly disappointed. Come on! But no. The champion of the test.

And it truly works — the best of all 12 ways we tried. We used whole milk — I may need to do further testing to compare the various fat contents of milk, but the result was great.

There was no gaminess left in the cooked steak, and it did not alter the taste of the steak. The only downside was the result was slightly less tender than other methods. If you use milk, you will want to additionally use a chemical or physical method of tenderizing the meat before you cook it. We used vanilla yogurt — which may not have been the best choice. It was fairly effective at removing the gamy flavor, but it did impart a vanilla flavor to the meat that was not that enjoyable.

Vanilla flavor is good for ice cream. Not steak. It did have a better tenderizing effect than plain milk though. I like pickled heart. The result here was about the same.