I'm hoping to get some feedback/thoughts in regards to the deer steaks my husband and I had for dinner last night.
My husband's steak was phenomenal and the first few bites of mine was fantastic as well but on the next bite, my mouth was filled with that terrible musky/rutty/piss smell of a deer. I just about threw up. I instantly spat it onto my plate and the taste was still incredibly pungent. I actually washed my mouth out a few times and had to have a few sips of a drink to wash it out. It literally tasted like what a tarsal gland smells like. Needless to say, it ruined my dinner. At first my husband thought I was crazy. Admittedly, I have a tendency to over think these things and let them get into my head so I offered him my plate. He took a couple bites and said it was amazing then on the third, he spat it out. Same thing. We both love game but him especially. For him to taste the same thing confirmed I wasn't crazy.
This wasn't really a gamey taste, more of a gross rutting buck taste if that makes any sense at all? Between myself, my husband and my brother, we've consumed about 5 different deer in a few years hunting (we're still new) and have never come across this. My first buck a couple years ago was even mid-rut and super smelly and it tasted great. The buck that we ate last night was a young 2 point we harvested in early October this year. Not the least bit rutty and I had really high hopes for how he was going to taste. The worst part was that this was a back strap steak as well. Which is why the first few bites were so amazing.
How could the back strap of a young non-rutting buck get that taste? I'm really confused. Now, I'm generally pretty careful and clean when field dressing and this one was really no exception except that when we were finishing, I had slipped and stabbed myself deeply in the thigh (ouch). The next little bit was a bit of a gong show, between bandaging myself up, getting some help from some passing hunters to load the buck in our truck (priorities, right?) and getting to the hospital, I suppose I could have touched the meat with a dirty knife or something but I can't really wrap my head around it.
In regards to the meat, like I mentioned, it was a back strap streak and it was cooked (I know I'm going to get lambasted for this) medium well/well done. I know that game can taste poorly if over cooked and I'm trying very hard to convert myself to eating a better cooked steak. That being said, it has never happened before and it was fantastic tasting at first and my husband even agreed and he likes his steaks like a normal person haha. It was just those few bites. I've had some sausage and pepperoni from this deer as well and it's been great so far but I'm really paranoid about the ground and other steaks..
I'm really curious what others thoughts are on this?
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