My father hunts deer sometimes, and when he shoots a deer, everything that was beef before, will be deer for the next 3 months. And frankly, I can’t tell the difference.
I’ve often been tempted, when having My Fellow Americans as houseguests, to serve a nice reindeer roast.
With a maraschino cherry on top 
Yummy yummy reindeer…
Let’s see, the non-grocery store variety I have eaten:
Deer
Elk
Goose (you can get them at butchers but never seen them at the grocery)
Buffalo (they recently started selling it, makes great burgers)
Ostrich
Yep, I would say that although it’s not a typical thing to eat deer, I have on several occasions. I have never hunted but have friends that do hunt, but usually the prize is an elk tenderloin.
I like venison the few times I have got to try it. I have never tried buffalo but a local grocery store carries ground buffalo so maybe I will try that now. The ground emu I cooked with looks like very lean beef, and tastes okay.
So true.
I’ve eaten venison from deer that lived in and around an apple orchard. Outstanding.
I’ve also eaten it from deer that lived in a pine forest. Skunky.
In general, I’m fine with just about any wild game. Mostly I’ve found that the problem is that since, in general, wild game has much less fat in it, people overcook it to the point of making leather.
"I’ve eaten venison from deer that lived in and around an apple orchard. Outstanding. "
Did it taste rather apple-ish?
Some friends told me they can tell what an animal ate as it effects what their meat tastes like.
I’ve eaten a lot of wild game and there have been stretches when that was all the meat we were eating. Venison is fine but I would rather eat moose or elk if given a choice.
Agree on all counts, especially the elk. I developed my taste for it when I lived in Pocatello. Medallions served with a nice juniper berry sauce - yummy, indeed!
I had reindeer sausage when I visited a former foreign exchange classmate in Uppsala, Sweden. It was very good!
The only part of the meal I had trouble with was some green stuff. I think it was made of rhubarb, and it looked a lot like that Slime toy that was popular back in the late 1970s through the early 1990s. Green and slimy. But its appearance was not what I was having trouble with; I just didn’t know how to eat it and had to be shown. (Put it in a bowl with some cream, and eat it with a spoon.) It was delicious.
I read a book a long time ago. I believe it was Methusela’s Children. It was about people who, from the 19th Century, were bread for longevity. The Masses thought they had some sort of “life elixer” or “longevity drug”, and persecuted them to find out how to make it – but it was just a long experiment to breed people with long lives and there was nothing to be done for everyone else. So the subjects fled earth. At one point they come to a planet that offered trees that provided food that tasted like Earth food. While most of the people had grown accustomed to bland, mass-produced food, the eldest member ate good food. The aliens who manipulated the trees used his taste memories as a “template”, as no one else had the variety of experience with different foods.
With McDonalds and Taco Bell and people who have never eaten (or had to eat – depending on your point of view) native animals, native animals such as bison (buffalo), alligator and even deer have become “exotic”. People who have no trouble eating “Babe” and “Bessie” are revolted by the thought of eating “Bambi”. While they jog three times a week and go to the gym frequently, and while they spend billions to buy health products, they won’t even consider giving up their hormone-enhanced cattle for a healthier “natural” alternative.
Me? Unless I go to an “exotic meats” store, I don’t have a choice.
With deer, I prefer jerky, not really fond of the steaks or roasts I’ve had made from Bambichops. But the jerky my fathers friend makes is generally pretty good.
I’ve had rattlesnake, and enjoyed it. Aligator was ehhh. Ostrich burger was fine, just like a decent burger, if it was a bit tough. ( I tasted medium well, it felt like it was well done texturewise though. ) Octopus, squid, shark, swordfish, had them all, and all to often it was like eating a shoe, waaaay to tough. Need to try buffalo sometime.
Yep, I like venison, although I don’t eat it often enough to say that I eat it regularly. I would guess I eat it more than the average American, although if I tried, I could probably sit down and make a list of all the times I’ve eaten it in the past five years. To me, that still makes it an uncommon food – I certainly couldn’t remember all the times I’ve eaten chicken in the same time period.
I’m hijacking this thread with a question about buffalo meat. I love love love buffalo, I think I would say it’s my favorite meat. But, aren’t the plains bison an endangered species? The only times I eat it are on a reservation, where tribal members have a special permit to hunt buffalo for food consumption. I’ve always been wary of ordering it in a restaurant because I don’t understand how the buffalo on the menu is the same/not the same as the endangered animal.
If I understand dragongirl’s post right, it wasn’t necessarily deceit but considering venison to be “normal” meat that was behind the cook’s actions. At least, that’s how I would interpret it - if the person had said “I just wanted to be sure it didn’t taste different because I used ground turkey”, would you have felt deceived enough to vomit?
Mind you, I’m a vegetarian. If I were presented with a vegetarian food and told after taking a bite that it contained meat, I would force myself to vomit (in an appropriate and private location) because I know that if I don’t, I’d be physically miserable soon; I’m unable to digest meat any longer.
I consider venison to be a “normal” meat; it’s a common animal, very commonly hunted for meat and for sport in areas of the US that has it living there, and it’s not a species that’s a family pet.
Mr.O, yep, I’m serious. Tasted kind of like beef, sort of.
And it wasn’t snapping turtle, snappers aren’t really common in northern Indiana.
Also, I would hazard a guess that your turtle was badly prepared. I read an article about turtle hunting (done with a bow and arrow), and one of the hunters said you have to be very careful to remove all of the fat, or it will make the meat taste really horrible.
Oh, and for all you ostrich eaters out there, if you’re ever in Vegas, there’s this place called the Triple Play Pub, on the corner of Oakey and Decatur that serves great ostrich burgers. I’ve found that ostrich is best if cooked a little on the rare side of medium rare. Well done ostrich tends to be a little dry, because the meat is very low in fat.
Oh, and delphica, the buffalo you find in health-food stores and served in restaraunts is usually ranch-raised North American bison. It’s not hunted wild, but it’s still a pretty good free-range meat. Had it a couple of times myself. Tasted like an animal that’s been allowed to roam around outdoors, rather than being penned up in a feedlot.
Never had venison. Well, I think I’ve had venison jerky once when someone brought it to work.
I grew up in the burbs and my Dad isn’t a hunter. I think he went duck hunting with some friends on rare occasions. So I’ve tried wild duck maybe twice.