I’ve had elk and bison, but only as burgers. The bison just tasted like dry beef. The elk was good, but not memorable enough to have its flavor stick around in my memory. I wanted to try goat so I ordered the goat barbecue at a south Georgia (Lenox) eatery. It tasted like barbecue sauce. Deer is good. I have made some awesome venison chili. We used to have rabbit occasionally when I was a kid. It was also good.
Of late I have developed gout. Therefore, I rarely eat mammalian meat these days. I’d still like to know what goat actually tastes like.
Frog legs are yummy. Eels I have caught and cooked- tastes like catfish.
I’ve had beef tenderloin that melted in my mouth. I’ve had ostrich burgers that were tremendously tasty. Pulled BBQ chicken is the best. The two times I’ve had elk it was superb. A Thanksgiving roast turkey in its gravy is worth waiting a year for. I know fish are out but I had a Chilean Sea Bass that was the restaurant’s special dish and I crave it long after the place closed down.
But all those are memories of the absolute best examples. I’ve had filets that were tasteless. Pulled chicken without the BBQ sauce is dry. Most turkey without gravy is unless it’s perfectly prepared. Heck, most steaks are as well unless the chef knows how to treat meat. Lamb chops can beat steak if the meat is the first quality, and are meh otherwise. Rabbit is not a favorite so I don’t order it - but I don’t know whether that means I just ran into a mediocre or inept cook.
When I was a teenager we hiked in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico, and at high elevations we encountered and shot some grouse and roasted them in aluminum foil in the fire coals. Absolutely delicious. Best birds I’ve ever eaten.
When I do turkey for Thanksgiving, it’s not remotely dry.
Bake at 325° for 20 minutes per pound of turkey in a roasting pan with a lid (or otherwise sealed: You can staple aluminum foil to a foil roasting pan, or butter the inside of a large paper bag and roast a small turkey or portion thereof in that; the important thing is that you want the turkey covered and sealed off from the rest of the oven). Open the steam vent (or rip off the foil or tear open the bag or whatever) about 1 hour before the turkey is scheduled to be done, to let the turkey brown properly. It will be tender to the point that it just falls off the bone in many places, and juicy and delicious.
Duck and rabbit are both delicious. There’s nothing like the succulent taste of duck, crispy skin and tender breast meat beneath it. Swathed in a savory semi-sweet sauce it doesn’t get better for any kind of bird.
Rabbit is another treat. Not a lot of flavor by itself, I’ve joked that it tastes like chicken. However, if you cook rabbit over an open fire to imbue a lot of smoky brown flavor it becomes something magical. You can make a lot of things with rabbit but I warn people it’s a bad idea to use rabbit in soup.
Tastiest is HARD, because cooking method and skill plays such a big part in the taste of the final product, and that leaves out mood.
In the most general sense, Duck tops my list, followed by quality beef, followed by quality (emphasis) lamb, then pork - chicken - the rest being pretty equal.
But cooking lamb and getting it right (not dry, nor more than medium rare) makes it a ‘No’ outside of restaurants. And the cost of quality beef and duck (whole duck is affordable, but a LOT more work) means that I’m really just eating pork and chicken these days.
I should have added that I adore duck, too, if it’s prepared the way I like it. I like it the way a specialty Vietnamese restaurant here prepares it - steamed and served warm, chopped into bite-size chunks with the bones still in it. They’ll serve it with a salad, or with a duck giblet soup, or just plain on a plate. Damn, they make a good sour and spicy duck sauce.
I also love it from a Chinese barbecue joint, roasted and glistening, also served chopped into bite-sized chunks, served on a bed of rice with stir-fried bok choy on the side.
As Qadgop mentioned it is fine ground. I’ve had a couple of ostrich burgers and they were fine. Not awesome in my estimation, but perfectly…fine. I probably wouldn’t pay a premium to eat one again.
I’ve never eaten a mammal that was better than beef or pork at their peak, especially the ribs. No other meat has curled my toes like slow cooked ribs: beef short or plate, pork baby back or spares, smoked, braised, oven roasted, sous vide.
Beef brisket is up there, though. Lamb and goat can be pretty good. Game mammals like venison, elk, bison, rabbit are, IMO, simply never going to be contenders.
I can’t think of a bird dish more tempting than a plate of chicken wings.
I have to go with beef (among quadrupeds) and chicken (among avians.) They’re cliche choices, but they’re popular for a reason; they’re delicious, offer a seemingly limitless means of preparation, and especially in the case of beef, a variety of cuts.
As a former resident of Cajun country, this just goes to show the sad state of Cajun food in New Orleans. Crawfish should be cooked in big pots with crab boil, onions and potatoes, or in etouffee or jambalaya and they are great.
I’ve had ostrich and emu, in the Netherlands and Los Gatos, (or vice versa) and loved them both. Cooked rare of course.
I’ve had alligator and rattlesnake at a party with an exploring theme. Not a long line at the serving stations for them. Interesting but not something I’d want to make a full mean of. But I’d be happy to have ostrich again.
Acorn-fed black Iberian pigs. The dry-cured ham and (cooked) fresh meat are heavenly.
Snails are pretty good, too. Small terrestrial snails that come into season in another month or two, I think. They’re cooked with spices and cayenne peppers, and, served in tall glasses with the cooking liquid, they look kinda like rough gemstones. Excellent with bottles of cold beer before lunch.
Legend has it that it took a long time to bring back a specimen of giant tortoise to Europe because they were so delicious that it was impossible to stop the sailors eating the buggers.
I’m not a fan of venison. At all. I’d say pork, if it’s quality pork, hits me in the right spot. I adore duck, although the last time I had it was overcooked and a disappointment. Love lamb chops with a tasty crust and nice and rare. I’ve had bison burgers on Catalina. O.k. but nothing special.