Mule Deer Taste, Is it just me?

When the only big game we ate was mule deer I thought it tasted just fine. Since we've been eating elk and antelope we discovered they taste so much better.
Deer has fallen to our 3rd favorite game. The only truly nasty mule deer I've had were rutty and smelled quite skunky when I walked up to them. You know it's going to be bad when it takes a couple of days to get the smell off your hands.
 
No its not you. The only thing worse is Black tail which in my opinion is the worst, which is why I wont hunt them. I turn all my Mulies into sausage, pepperoni and jerky. I shot my first whitetail 2 years ago and realized how good deer could be.

Like all the others say, elk, Antelope, whitetail spoil us. Even Cougar is better than a Mulie.
 
Also putting the mule deer meat in an oriental or East Asian marinade helps immensely. We use one based from soy sauce and it is our go to for gamey meat or sagey taste if it smells like it will be too much.
 
I've never had an issue with mule deer that I have processed and eaten myself.

Now if we're talking about eating other people's mule deer or from a processor, I have had many that I didn't care for.
 
belshawelk said:
No its not you. The only thing worse is Black tail which in my opinion is the worst, which is why I wont hunt them.
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Funny how that works. The blacktails I’ve taken from the cascades are hands down my favorite. The few mule deer I’ve eaten were indistinguishable from whitetail.
 
My first buck was a really nice big buck. Meat was wonderful.

My brother in the same draw shot a small 4 pt. Meat was disgusting.

Took the meat to a processer and to this day, brother swears he got my deer and I got his. He was most likely right.

Most other deer were fine.
 
I have killed and ate many muleys living in SE Idaho, and I have learned a few things:

1.) I stay away from using sage as a seasoning, to me it seems to make the meat gamey, and I have heard that as a general tip for cooking muleys.

2.) Just letting some salt and pepper work it's magic for 10-20 mins does wonders.

3.) Grilling it seems to have a better flavor.

4.) Don't overcook!!!! I stop at medium at most.

If it does turn out a bit gamey, a little bit of feta and your favorite steak sauce seems to do the trick!
 
The only Mule deer I shot was in SE Nebraska. They basically live off some sort of grain there. It was a big old buck and it tasted just fine.

I was fortunate enough to get some Elk this year from a buddy. I haven't had elk in a long time he gave me a big chunk of loin and some hamburger. The burger is great. The loin has great flavor but it is a lot tougher than I expected. I am so used to whitetails here in Iowa.

We are pretty spoiled. The deer here eat a ton of corn. We have killed some big bucks during the rut and they still taste great. The last bad deer I had was killed in WI and it wasn't that terrible. I am picky on how I do all the processing. If I kill multiple deer I make sure to complete one before starting another. One time when I was a kid I killed a spike and my dad killed a big 8. He processed and package them together randomly. You would be eating one piece that was great and the next not so much.
 
teej89 said:
I was thinking this as well, but I like to roast my backstraps whole (I cut the strap into thirds). I'll give it a go on the grill and see how she turns out, maybe throw a sliver of butter on top of it after it's cooked.
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TeeJ....try wrapping your loin with thick sliced smoked bacon that has been toothpicked on. You'll never eat it any other way IMO.
 
I have never had a bad deer from those taken by our family whether we processed or our processor. I have learned a few things in the 59 years since I started hunting, but I am not going to ask what would be a ton of questions regarding care of the animal after the shot. A lot of what we do has been called old wives tales by some and that they have no bearing on taste of the animal once processed. Granted, those eating sage do have a different flavor.
 
Shot a young mountain mule deer buck this year, my first and only I have eaten, so my experience is limited. I just fried up some steaks on the cast iron in some coconut oil with some Perfect Pinch Steak seasoning on it. It was absolutely delicious. I'll eat mule deer all day long if it tastes like that!
 
My experience with mule deer is that a doe is always really good eating, but when mule deer bucks rut they tend to get a gamier flavor than a whitetail buck will. Now that being said I shot an old time buck that the biologist said was AT LEAST 10 1/2 years old that was rutting, and he tasted great and was very tender! I know, I was a bit shocked myself. A mule deer buck taken before the rut can be very good.

Try this with some steaks that are about 3/4" thick.

In a glass or plastic bowl, not a metal bowl, stir several eggs in with some milk. Put thawed steaks, (DO NOT use a microwave to thaw wild game), in the mix and cover them well. Put something on the top of the bowl to cover it and let it stand in the fridge for a couple hours if you have the time. If not it's no big deal.

Heat a heavy steel or cast iron skillet medium to medium high temp with some butter and olive oil. Take a tube of Ritz crackers and crush them in the tube to very small pieces. Then open the package onto a nice sized plate. Roll a steak in the egg/milk mixture and toss onto the skillet. Do that with all of the steaks. Cook until the crumbs start to turn golden brown and then flip to the other side. Cook that side the same amount so the meat will come out medium rare. Salt and pepper to taste and there you have it.

This really takes out a lot of the gamey taste and you will love it. You can experiment with other cracker crumbs such as flavored ones you can buy in the store.

Another great way.
Roll the steaks in flour and fry in a cast iron skillet same as above. Cook to medium rare. You will really like this also. One way to mix it up on this one is to put the flour into a plastic bag or something and mix in some seasonings in with the flower or maybe some garlic powder and/or garlic salt. So many different ways to cook them just using something like flour to roll the steaks in. It helps keep the moisture in the meat and keeps them nice and juicy. The flour crumbs in the skillet when done helps make some awesome gravy!!
 
It's hit or miss for me. I've had some that were great, and some that t were the worst game meat I've ever eaten. IMO you roll the dice after Nov 1.
 
I’ve eaten a lot of mule deer. Only 1 was ever gamey. All my others have tasted great. I grill mine or pan fry.
 
Haven't eaten a muley doe since 1992.
The couple yearling muley buck's we've taken over the years out of desperation the last weekend of the season were wonderful.
4 year old and older bucks, in my experience, have all tasted like shit.
It's gonna' take something I want to make a lot of sausage (and a shoulder mount) out of to shoot another Montana Mule Deer buck............
 
I've never had a "gamey" deer that I have killed myself. All tasted just fine to everyone, and especially to my wife who is much more sensitive to strong flavors. Most of the deer I've killed have been in the rut...
 
I'm really glad I'm not the only one here who has asked this question...i got my first deer last November ( small mule deer ) and just started cooking some of it. We made tacos and spaghetti with the ground and cooked up some steaks over the past couple months. The steaks were amazing, but the ground is almost unbearable for me. I did have mine processed at a butcher and had them add 10% beef tallow for some fat, but even the smell is off before you cook it. I feel like total garbage not being able to stomach the ground but haven't found a way to make it edible. Now I'm not experienced at all with cooking wild game (like i said, this is my first deer) so I may be doing something wrong. But I'm seriously thinking of just turning the rest into jerky.
 
JMelby said:
I'm really glad I'm not the only one here who has asked this question...i got my first deer last November ( small mule deer ) and just started cooking some of it. We made tacos and spaghetti with the ground and cooked up some steaks over the past couple months. The steaks were amazing, but the ground is almost unbearable for me. I did have mine processed at a butcher and had them add 10% beef tallow for some fat, but even the smell is off before you cook it. I feel like total garbage not being able to stomach the ground but haven't found a way to make it edible. Now I'm not experienced at all with cooking wild game (like i said, this is my first deer) so I may be doing something wrong. But I'm seriously thinking of just turning the rest into jerky.
Click to expand...

One thing I have done to improve the flavor of "gamey" grind is to add 20% of your favorite bacon in with the meat.
 
Shot a mountain mule deer buck last fall. Taste is fine, but it is as tough as shoe leather. Anyone have any solutions for that? I crock potted it for 8 hours and was still tough
 
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