Gamey Tenderloins??

[russm86]

Both my dad and I always find the tenderloins are the gamiest tasting part of the animal, doesn't matter if its muley, moose, or whitetail or whatever. We don't usually shoot old tough rutting animals and quite often none of the other parts of the animal have any game taste what so ever but the tenderloins do. Anyone else find this to be true or are we the only ones? What gives, why is this?

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Remove them right away and rinse off any blood. Don't let them hang/age on the animal.

[Ron.C]

Always found the exact opposite. Absolutely delicious.

[Dannybuoy]

Remove them right away and rinse off any blood. Don't let them hang/age on the animal.

Naw ... I have cut dozens of deer just like beef or lamb , saw down the backbone , then cut the T-bone steaks ... I never understood why some people treat game animals any different than domestic ?

[markt308]

I have let it hang in the cold for 3 days, and I have removed and cleaned them immediately. never noticed a difference in taste. they are absolutely delicious each and every time. really surprised to hear that you found the opposite. My wife is not a hunter and she always raves about the tenderloins I bring home. I'm sure you know this, but a general rule with cooking game is do not cook above medium-rare. I find that anything even slightly over-cooked begins to taste gamey, mainly for deer. Not so much with elk/moose in my experience which seems to be more forgiving

[Salty]

Remove them right away and rinse off any blood. Don't let them hang/age on the animal.

Bingo. Any meat that lingers on the carcass, the carcass doesn't get skinned right away, meat gets contacted with with guk from the gut and isn't cleaned right away etc. etc. will taste gamey. Treat all your meat like a surgical process and deal with it as soon as you can = not gamey meat. The fat no matter what you do will taste a little raunchy. So does the bone marrow which is why I debone everything rather than sawing marrow into everything. And I trim and discard all fat.

[russm86]

Yea, we keep everything super clean and gut and skin everything right away. We take pride in processing our game properly and every butcher we've ever used has been thrilled to take our animals in because we do such a good job and so they have basically no extra work or clean up to do. Also, if it was something we were doing wrong like accidentally ripping the gut bag or leaving the animal too long without dressing/skinning, then I would think the rest of the animal would taste just as gamey but it's only ever the tenderloins...

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Yea, we keep everything super clean and gut and skin everything right away. We take pride in processing our game properly and every butcher we've ever used has been thrilled to take our animals in because we do such a good job and so they have basically no extra work or clean up to do. Also, if it was something we were doing wrong like accidentally ripping the gut bag or leaving the animal too long without dressing/skinning, then I would think the rest of the animal would taste just as gamey but it's only ever the tenderloins...

Tenderloins tend to dry easily and get dark. When I butcher all game meat I remove the outside dry 'skin'. Removing the dried portion of the tenderloin is more difficult due to its tenderness.
I have yet to have any gameyness in my meat since I began to butcher my own meat.

[avadad]

Only time I've had gamey tenderloins was when my arrow nicked the stomach and ended up ruining the flavour of not only the loins but the liver, heart and a portion of the rear quarter.

[Timbow]

We experienced the same issue on an elk and moose as we let them age with the carcass. As mentioned by other posters, we remove the tenderloins first.

I wonder if it has to do with leeching from the bone and remaining blood/body cavity matter?

[Jagermeister]

The quicker you remove the hide and get the cooling process going the better. Leaving the hide on when the ambient temp is warm will augment the gamey taste.

[.308SLAYER]

My tederloins usually get eaten immediatly straight to the frying pan...

[wideopenthrottle]

I am a firm believer in a good flushing out with a few 5 gal pails of water after hanging and skinning...we always leave the bits of fat around the loins to protect them from air and bacteria....so basically flush the gut cavity well and leave the loins protected and they will be a yummy part of your t-bones...

[takla1]

Only time ive had gamey tasting tenderloins were from larger older bull Moose{Alaskan variety}that were deep in the rut when killed.Post killing we are pretty particular with field dressing cleaning and hanging.One of the worst was a large bull{56 inch rack} that dressed over 850 lbs that we shot right in his rut pit.He had 4 cows with him and they had to be using the pit for at least a week.Smelled so bad of piss in there that we were gaging getting the bull out .

takla

[Wentrot]

Never experienced such a thing. Like others said treat it with the best of care start to finish and there shouldn't be any issues. My main reason for refusing to ever use a butcher is so I know exactly how it's handled beginning to end.

[boxhitch]

Any meat tainted with gut juices will taste off. Stomach or intestine, and sometimes just a few bites, but enough to gag over. Don't gut shoot critters and don't dump the guts. Do all gutless with the animal resting upright on its brisket instead of upside down
The fat no matter what you do will taste a little raunchy. So does the bone marrow which is why I debone everything rather than sawing marrow into everything. And I trim and discard all fat.Bingo
Tried band-sawing one md and never again.

[blackbart]

Shot a Caribou that had fifty or so cows with him on about October 5th one time. Packed the meat a fairly long ways off the mountain. Slept in the next day and made pancakes and tenderloin medallions for breakfast. The tenderloin was not very good on that one and the rest of the meat was even worse. I refused to throw any out, and quit giving it away once I knew just how rank it was. It was a long winter of gagging it down (probably longer for my wife since it made me fart like an SOB).

Every other tenderloin I have eaten has been delic - rutting or not moose, elk, deer, goat to name a few.