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Thread: Terrible tasting deer steak

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
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    Langley BC
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    942

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    If you want good game meat here are a few rules I follow ,get the tarsal glands off ,wash your hands,take the hide off right away, cool The meat . Butcher it your self,that way you get your own meat .Not some one else's dirty urine covered grossness
    I do not hang my meat for long ,One night .If you want it gamie hang it ,the longer you hang it the stronger the gamie taste.The glands in the hind legs need to be handled carefully when butchering ,wash your hands when you cut them out.
    If you have to hang it for a long time remove the glands in the hind legs
    Presto good meat and not tough I have been doing this for 30 years .By the way 90 percent of the deer i have shot are rutting late season deer .Worst deer I have ever had was a black tail spike that I left the hide on and it got rained on over night .
    My last bucher experience was an immature bull moose that I got 70lbs of meat back .They told me the meat was blood shot .Odd as it was shot in the head.And the meat was strong and tough.That was my last time .
    Last edited by GEF; 11-13-2019 at 04:53 PM.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
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    49.2 kms from 10U 687884E 5617178N
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    8,757

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    I would question the field dresser first. If it is going to be tainted with rut odor, look no further than he who gutted it.
    ".....It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of a Trudeau government than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their prime minister......​"

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    Armstrong
    Posts
    480

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    Quote Originally Posted by Jagermeister View Post
    I would question the field dresser first. If it is going to be tainted with rut odor, look no further than he who gutted it.
    It was me (she ) and to be fair like I mentioned, it's a real possibility. Given I had just stabbed myself, the rest of everything was pretty panicked and rushed although most of the field dressing was done at that point. I'm pretty thorough and clean as I've been taught by some amazing people on here but I still make mistakes and I'm always learning. In reality, I was more curious what I could have done to cause it more than anything.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    Armstrong
    Posts
    480

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    You're all sharing some incredibly helpful information, thank you so much! I had no idea about the other glands and some of the tips being offered are really, really helpful!

    I'm going to be trying for another deer before the seasons done and if I happen to get lucky, I'm going to try and butcher it myself since the temperatures are more favorable now.

    This deer was skinned, cleaned and washed while I was in the hospital that evening then hung over night and looked over/cleaned again the next day. It's definitely possible I caused this by rushed field dressing.

    I'm curious, if a gland was cut and then that same knife was used to cut the back straps, could those back straps then be tainted with that taste? It was so strong. However it happened, it's definitely driven home the need to be as diligent as possible when field dressing.
    Last edited by Dash; 11-13-2019 at 05:25 PM.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Langley
    Posts
    1,593

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    The first thing I do in the field is cut off the tarsal glands (with a knife I only use on the tarsals). Once hanging and skinned I was taught to cut off the outer layer of fat because it has a gamey taste (and smell).

    In the video it looks like a fatty nodule similar to the back fat. I'll look for it the next time I have a deer hanging.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Williams Lake, BC Canada
    Posts
    14,168

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    Hmmm hope your injury heals completely .
    first..one steak was tainted however the other steak was not..so the complete animal was not tainted.wasnt system complete..
    Second...there are not any glands in the backstrap...

    Third the backstrap location usually precludes tainting by urinating during rut..
    In nearly 50 years of hunting have never had tainting of backstraps...
    What you describe is not indicitive of hides being left on or gross contamination of entire animal...all meat would have been horrible.
    Of the 2 most common causes of bad meat..it definatly isnt bone sour..smells like vinigar upon heating and all would be impacted.
    These small glands inside the animal can be impacted by hormone levels..and can be a cause of very questionable taste..
    Likewise the tarsal glands on the hind legs can transfer the exact taste reaction you experienced.
    I usually use a different knife to deal with these glands..and wait to wash the animal till the hide/ glands are removed and the , lower legs are removed.
    Washing with 70 % vinigar..30 % bottled water..
    My opinion was an internal gland was cut..and that objectionable taste transferred to some of the backstrap.
    Heal well.
    Srupp

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    region 3
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    3,290

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    I have never had a poor tasting pre-rut Mule deer, in fact I find them to be consistently good eating.
    Field dressing is more like surgery, keep things clean.
    I never cut off tarsal glands, when processing cut off all fat. If a buck is hit poorly and they run off then the meat will have the rutting buck taste.
    The rutting buck flavor is in the fat and when they dont eat and chase does around then the fat reserves are going to be run through the meat on a rutting buck.

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Langley BC
    Posts
    942

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    If the bladder gets nicked it could tante the back straps as well as having urine or tarsal gland on the hands during the the cleaning process

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Fraser valley
    Posts
    2,467

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    Only time I’ve had poor tasting meat was from a butcher. Doing it ourselves game meat has always tasted great. I think things get switched around far to much behind the scenes....IMO

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    In the bush near a lake
    Posts
    7,198

    Re: Terrible tasting deer steak

    Doubt it’s a gland issue myself more likely a cleanliness issue earlier in the process. I did not taste the meat so it’s hard to pin point what exactly caused the flavour urine, bile, spoiled blood, stomach acid or other contaminate. But being the back strap odds are high that it started in the stomach/chest cavity and most likely from not cleaning the cavity properly or within a reasonable time frame. People underestimate how fast blood spoils and the nasty flavour it can cause

    You can rescue horribly messy gutting jobs getting every fluid on your meat and poorly hit deer(recovered in reasonable time) if you clean the cavity and any meat touched by contaminate right away and thoroughly. I also use a vinegar water mix but not as strong as Srupp 70% water 30% vinegar is more like what I use

    You will find every hunter has different opinions on field dressing/meat handling so expect a mix of advice. In the end get it clean right away and limit contamination is the principle of everyone’s opinions

    Without being there for the process or tasting the meat we can only guess what went wrong

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