Can I take the “wild game taste” out of wild game?
The first step is that you need to shoot a deer and harvest the venison. My preferred method of gathering venison is through archery equipment; however, on November 16th, 2009 I had the great fortune of taking one of my father’s rifles, and heading into the woods. I filled my antlerless deer tag around 4:30 pm. I was mesmerized by six red squirrels chasing each other around the trees, up, down, and all around the woods. Suddenly, I saw a flicker of a tail and was snapped back to the reality of my deer hunt. There were two deer coming in from the east and moving slowly through the woods. I pulled up the rifle and by the time I could get a clear shot they were right in front of me about 150 yards away. I put the crosshairs right on her shoulder and squeezed the trigger.
The report of the rifle rang out through the woods and I watched as my doe bucked as if she had been hit hard, and then I watched as she ran full tilt into the corn field to the north of my position. I began to rerun the whole shot and everything through my head and was sure that I had made a perfect hit. I gave her a few minutes to expire and to calm myself down as I had begun to shake uncontrollably. I went to the spot where I had last seen her. At least I thought it was the spot, but found no blood, no hair, nothing to indicate a hit and wounded deer.
Then I began to backtrack towards the east, and there I found blood and hair and fat from where she had been hit by my bullet. I followed the blood trail up to the property line and noticed that there was blood all over the stalks of corn on the neighbor’s property. I called the neighbor and told them the situation and told them I would like to recover my deer. I asked them if I could have permission to cross the property line to pull my deer back across. They gave me the go ahead, so into the corn I walked following blood that was hip high on the corn. Six rows into the corn there laid my doe, ready to be pulled from the corn.
Now that I had my venison, it was time to eat really well. My friend’s wife, Cher, has always had a bad taste for venison ever since she was a little girl, because no one had correctly made it for her. She said it was too “gamey” tasting and that “she did not like the taste of venison” because it “tasted bad and too strong of a gamey flavor.” I told her that I would correctly prepare the venison and she wouldn’t know that it was venison other then seeing us cut up the deer before hand. I had asked Cher for some All Purpose flour, some salt and pepper, and a skillet with oil in it. Next, I dredged the venison medallions freshly cut from my deer, in the A.P. flour, and placed them in the skillet with the hot oil. The smell of the venison beginning to cook filled the kitchen. As soon as the first batch was done I put the medallions on a plate and began to repeat the process. This continued until all of the venison, which was about three pounds worth, was cooked and sitting on a plate to cool down for everyone to sit down and eat it. I made Cher take a piece and taste it. She was talking, trying to buy a little time and put off the inevitable. She took the venison and took a very “dainty” bite. The next words out of her mouth were, “this is really, really good. I have never had anyone prepare it right.” I am convinced that you can eat venison and not have it taste like you shot a game animal.
I told her that I have about six cookbooks that deal strictly with wild game, from upland game birds, like pheasant, and grouse, to big game animals like deer, elk, and moose. It covers all aspects of wild game. I took a recipe from one of those books for this blog. It is for Lemon Venison Steak. The recipe is as follows:
Lemon Venison Steak-

Ingredients:
4 Slices of Bacon
1/2 large onion
1-Tablespoon Sugar
10-1 inch thick venison cutlets from back straps
Juice of 1 lemon
Lemon Pepper

Fry bacon in cast iron skillet. Remove slices from pan, leaving 2-tablespoon drippings in pan. Reserve the remaining drippings. Add onion and sugar. Cook until onion is tender. Squeeze a small amount of lemon juice on the cutlets and season with lemon pepper. Cook quickly; meat is best when it is slightly pink in the center. Add crumbled bacon and onion to cutlets and reheat. Serve immediately with wild rice.
I have tried this recipe and it is a very good start to remove a lot of gamey taste that is associated with the wild game and venison in general. I recommend you try it and I think you may be surprised how non-game your game meat can taste.