Too many variables to answer one way for all game. I’ve had great game, I’ve had horrible game.
Don’t like it, but there was no response between Neutral and Disgusting, so I said Take It Or Leave It.
Best game I’ve ever had was in the Alps and my relatives there said “We just shot this today, and got the chef at the hotel to prepare it. So it shouldn’t be too gamey”.
It was the least gamey I’ve ever had…
… which was still gamey.
The game meat I had in Newfoundland was good. And it’s the only place I know of on this continent where you can actually get it in a restaurant (which is where I had it).
I think the only time I might have had wild game as an adult was at a restaurant in Estonia. We were served a variety of sausages, including one made from bear meat, which I assume must have been wild game (I’m not aware of anyone raising bears for meat anywhere). I honestly couldn’t tell which one was bear and which ones were “normal” meats. Of course with many sausages the spices are the dominant flavor and probably masked any distinctive flavors the bear meat may have had.
As a teen we got some caribou meat a friend of my parents hunted in Alaska. My mom prepared it more or less like a pot roast; it looked and tasted almost like beef and I probably wouldn’t have known the difference if I hadn’t known what it was. It was maybe a bit drier and leaner than a typical cut of beef but other than that it was hard to tell.
I had venison a few times as a kid. My grandfather once sent us some venison summer sausage that I assume came from a deer he’d hunted. I liked it, but I think what I said before about spices being the dominant flavor with sausage applies here too. I also once had venison as a kid at a friend’s house. That as I recall was kind of like pulled pork barbecue, shredded bits of meat covered in barbecue sauce. I remember liking that as well, but looking back it may have been because it was covered in barbecue sauce.
I think the only wild game I’ve ever had is moose (which several of my uncles regularly hunt), but I really like that.
I voted “love it”, but I’m throwing in the caveat that no matter how much a person likes wild game and no matter how skilled at cooking it every so often you’re going to wind up with a carcass that tastes bad because wild animals are so much more variable than domestic ones. I suspect one (of many) reasons people domesticated animals was to take some of that variability out of the equation and make dinner time more predictable.
Venison is great.
Squirrels, from what I’ve gathered, have some glands which absolutely must be removed prior to cooking, or you’ll have to evacuate the entire block. Mom apparently did not know how to remove those glands.
You guys are eating Bullwinkle and Rocky! 
Venison many times it’s OK.
Wild turkey. One of the best things I’ve ever eaten was wild turkey cooked very simply on a charcoal grill by experienced game cookers.
Elk once. It was good. Also cooked by people that did it a lot.
Snapping turtle in soup. Too bland and chewy. Same people cooked it. If they can’t make it great…?
Rattle snake. Really did taste like chicken but too much work picking it off the bones.
Squirrel, rabbit. A couple times, would eat again to survive, otherwise pass.
Wild venison from coastal California is delicious. Much richer tasting than NZ farmed venison. I don’t see the point of the farmed stuff, but I did start out eating wild venison, so YMMV. Backstraps are quite tasty, simply prepared with fresh herbs, maybe a little wine to deglaze the pan.
The best tasting wild ruminant meat I’ve ever had was Nilgai that someone brought back from an exotics hunt in Texas. He claimed it didn’t taste much different than the Nilgai he shot somewhere in Southern Africa. Elk can be quite sweet. Believe it or not, so can squirrel.
Love wild ducks, even if I don’t like cleaning them. Pheasant tastes kind of like an older, tougher chicken. With the caveat you have to watch out for bits of shot in the meat.
Wild rabbit is wonderful when prepared properly. Just tough and gamey enough to be interesting and fantastic in a stew or cacciatore. Rabbit is just about the only animal I actually hunt and even then, it’s been a couple of years. I should go before it gets too cold.
Ever year, one of my many, many cousins will drop off a few big sections of Colorado and/or Wyoming big horn sheep. It’s pretty tasty stuff but some of it is extraordinarily gamey. A little goes a long way but I can appreciate it’s flavor.
Alligator did nothing for me. The way it was prepared, I was able to taste little more than breading and the texture reminded me of low grade pork shoulder.
Venison is ok but not worth getting excited about. It makes a decent stew but I’m certainly not going to bother with hunting one to get it.
On a dare, I ate several bites of what I’m told was possum. It was ground up, formed into a patty and too heavily spiced to taste much of anything. Assuming they weren’t just pulling my leg and feeding me ground pork sausage, it was ok but not noteworthy. The same person also offered me some grilled squirrel. I actually saw him clean and cook it so it definitely was squirrel. I’d have to be really hungry to eat another one. Tough as an old boot, not enough meat to matter and smelled rancid minutes after he shot it.
I’ve never actually sampled any wild game bird with the exception of one small piece of pheasant about the size of my thumbnail (not enough to really taste or register any particular qualities). I’ve eaten farm raised ducks and geese. They’re ok but not really relevant to this thread.
And…loving it.
Elk burger used in Hamburger Helper stroganof is delightful!
Oh also, venison back strap is soooooo delicious and tender. Far more flavorful than cow filet mignon.
Yes, delicious. The main animals that get off flavors from diet are supposedly fish eaters, like how coastal bears will eat rotten or dying salmon. Deer, elk, and the often and unfairly maligned Pronghorn antelope are delicious. My whole immediate family likes it, I even found a way (although with other meat ground in) to make antelope liver enjoyable to children.
The first animal I killed and the only one I let lie was a jackrabbit (i.e. hare) because I was told they “weren’t good.” I still regret that but was naive at the time. Next one years later I kept, definitely among the “gamiest” but one I’d try again, otherwise much like pot roast (recipe here).
There is a lot of cultural biases among hunting cultures. Here most people I know take everything home and butcher it themselves into many cuts. In other places out east, they may take it to a processor or turn the entire thing into burger or jerky. I like both of those things but I’d rather have a backstrap, salt, pepper, nothing else, medium rare.
Eh? Nilgai are only native to India. Unless he shot and ate arugby player…
…n/m, I see they do ranch them here - which is just dumb, they are an invasive species if they escape.
I miss the option: I love it, and eat it in restaurants or from a supermarket/butcher.
Nah, they’ve been there since the '30s and have been breeding on their own, ‘gone native’, at the King Ranch and a few other locations for decades. They are very susceptible to cold weather, even in South Texas and the rare freeze will kill off a lot of them. They are impressive looking - I’ve seen a few grazing along the shoreline while fishing in the Laguna Madre, but I’ve never had the opportunity to sample the meat. There are even more free range axis deer(another import from India) in Texas, with a similar history.
I love when a friend or neighbor gives me any kind of game. The diet of the animal and the way it is cooked(and sometimes aged) make the difference between a memorably delicious meal, and “shoulda made stew”.
Some guy brought in shredded bear meat in a crock pot to one of our holiday lunches some time ago. The meat was black. It looked absolutely disgusting and I wouldn’t even get close enough to smell it. Put me right off.
At our grandson’s baptism last year, the other grandparents brought in crock pots of BBQ meat one made from venison, one from beef. Labeled them “Bambi” and “Bessie”. If you’re going to bring game to a potluck, please be kind and label it so the unwitting other guests don’t get sick thinking about what they ate.
It’s fine. I don’t go out of my way to eat it, but if it’s served to me I’ll eat it, and if I see it on a menu I’ll at least consider it, with equal weight as chicken, beef, and pork.