Great topic, lots of great advice already posted. My 2 cents:
Invest in good meat/game bags
Avoid taking male animals in rut
GOOD, CLEAN 1st SHOT KILLS!!!!!!
Eat more (Dall) Sheep!

Here are a couple of good resources:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?ad ... g.meatcare
http://www.indianvalleymeats.com/field_care.htm

Personally, I would disagree with those advocating head shots. Yep, they work, but for most hunters they also increase the risk of wounding and losing the animal due to a smaller target. A shot in the lungs will ensure a clean kill and will cause massive blood loss which leads to better quality meat.

Others have noted that cooking is as much a part of quality meals of game meat as meat care, and there's a lot of truth to this. Most people overcook red meat of any kind, and this is especially true with game meat. I also am of the thought that most people over-season their game meat, especially the better cuts. Simplicity is key, and for most game medium or medium-rare is ideal.

If all of that still doesn't sway her, find a good processor and get some tasty sausages made. There are lots of excellent options to be made out of game meat.

I take animals when they're completely at ease. Brain bucket shot. Gut and skin asap. Then into the walk-in refer. Rinse the carcass inside and out with cold water and white vinegar. One cup of vinegar to a gallon of water.....make a fresh batch as needed until clean. I hang my meat for at least 28 days...prefer 32 to 34 days at 36-38 degrees. When I butcher the meat...I prefer to freeze it after quartering. Cut the rib cage on both sides next to the back strap. Freeze. Then with the meat band saw cut down the center of the spine....then make "T" bone steak cuts...moose makes for really nice tee bone steaks...caribou not so big. Prefer to take the oldest...all by there lonesome bull caribou. Lots of fat and tender. Moose...spike is great when legal. But I'm like how do you measure the spread on a bull moose until after you take it? Biggest bull I've seen measured 71" between the front paddles...next to my 65-1/2"... Mine looked like a runt!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Brine with salt and sugar. Change water daily, at least 2 days... or brine with buttermilk then wash it off.You have to dilute the iron in the blood and draw out all that "game" flavor.

Cooking... sous vide with a healthy amount a same type fat w/ healthy herbs...if you wanna nail it without stressing, its an awesome process.Then finish on grill, pan or broiler setting for crust. I swear by it, not as macho as grilling but it'll win over your guests or date with tender and on-point meat and or cook...

When I mean same type fat is that if it's got wings, then go with Duck fat... if its got fur use butter.. and if it snorts and looks like a pig then use bacon grease (The holly goodness of all fats)

You are what you eat, right? Sea Ducks = Fish, Western Mallards = corn and rice, Northern CA Deer = Pine, Central Texas Deer = Corn

Just don't sous vide wild turkey the same day its shot...

Just had to look up sous vide. Looks interesting, I'll give it a try this year.

Thanks!

CamTom12 wrote:Just had to look up sous vide. Looks interesting, I'll give it a try this year.

Thanks!

Check out Chefsteps.com They make have great videos and have on-point recipes!

https://www.chefsteps.com/sous-vide

Cheers

Brian M wrote:Personally, I would disagree with those advocating head shots. Yep, they work, but for most hunters they also increase the risk of wounding and losing the animal due to a smaller target.

Very true, and I completely agree. There are risks. I prefer not to use them, ordinarily.
We only use them with great care, at short range, and they aren't the go-to shot unless we're after an especially choice cut.
Plus, like I say, you have to know what you're doing. The brain isn't the whole head, it's small.
But notwithstanding, I would typically share your opinion.

Marinade.

Antelope and geese go straight into a sweet or berry brine after thawing.

A pressure cooker or pressure smoker will make the gamiest shoe leather goose close to palatable. Apple cider vinegar helps the taste/texture process as well.

Was reading back over this and saw that I missed a bunch of comments. Thanks for all the hints guys.

I missed the whitetail hunt so I'm going out next week on the muzzleloader cow elk hunt. Though it is unlikely I'll have any success I just want to make sure there isn't any different recommendations you'd make. I'll have 1.5mile hike to where I'm hoping to find the herd so I'll have to quarter it to haul it out.

In another thread someone mentioned the "gutless method" of quartering the animal. Something like this? Doing so doesn't leave behind a bunch of meat?

albravo wrote:Whee,

chock full of testosterone and poor judgement.


Allan

Some of us here on this forum don't care to have you discussing our behavior so openly.

A friend shot his first goose yesterday.
Scared the shit out'a everyone in the frozen food dep't.

rw2 wrote:

Cary wrote:So don't say, "It tastes just like ___________", because it doesn't, and it's not supposed to. But it can still be mighty good, if it's taken care of properly, and cooked properly.

This might be the exception to prove the rule, but camel tastes exactly like beef.

Didn't fool my wife. Usually I cook meatloaf on Mondays, and I used camel one day without telling her, and as she finished hers, she commented that the meatloaf seemed less fatty than normal. I slid the package to her and asked her what the fat content was, and it did not go well. I had to check any sandwiches she may have picked up for me for about a month. The problem was, after about an hour, you had a funny after taste that tasted like, camel.

Keep your knife away from any of the glands. Don't let any body fluids run onto the meat. One shot one kill, use the right ammo, drop them in their tracks so adrenaline doesn't make it into the meat. Have fun.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Zenithguy wrote:Didn't fool my wife. Usually I cook meatloaf on Mondays, and I used camel one day without telling her

Yeah, if you're doing a familiar recipe and just changing the meat it's probably easier to notice. I only had it twice, both time in the middle east with recipes that I wasn't familiar with. Totally tasted like beef to me in that context.

whee wrote:In another thread someone mentioned the "gutless method" of quartering the animal. Something like this? Doing so doesn't leave behind a bunch of meat?

That is the one Whee. In my experience (inexperience, rather) it doesn't go so fast in the field, but his demonstration is excellent.

If you take your time and remove the neck meat you won't leave much on a deer. On a moose or an elk you would leave some rib meat if you just took the quarters, backstraps and loins, but Eichler seems to do a good job of taking rib meat off that elk.

Whee,
Echo everything that has been said so far about cooling asap etc.but one thing that I didn't see was to get the meat off the bone as soon as possible. We always de-bone the meat before we pack it out. I have been told by more than one meat processor that this will keep the bone juices from leaching into the meat, and tainting it. Using this method for the last 35 years has only resulted in one rutted up herd bull elk giving complaints of gaminess. My daughters wouldn't eat it! But what do they know? Good hunting!

I thought it all tasted like chicken.

whee wrote:Was reading back over this and saw that I missed a bunch of comments. Thanks for all the hints guys.

(snip)
.......
(unsnip)

In another thread someone mentioned the "gutless method" of quartering the animal. Something like this? Doing so doesn't leave behind a bunch of meat?

I know this is an old thread, but everything I have killed in the last 25 years has came out of the mountains this way. It works, but is not a 10 minute job.

(I also like caping the animal in the field, don't need to pack any extra weight on my back.)

Magnet wrote:I thought it all tasted like chicken.

A little chewier....

[quote

[/quote]


Fuck Yeah. MICKEYS!