Meat quality of high country deer

[buckfvr]

From years and years of being fortunate enough to eat deer, its mostly a blur with a few notable exceptions.  Absolute worst deer ever, mule from Yakima Firing center.  Absolute best, mule from wheat fields above Umptanum Creek off Durr road.  Both a long time ago.  One stand out whitetail from my hill was exceedingly fat and mouth watering good to the last bite.

Other than that, Ive never had a bad whitetail or Blacktail, ever.  Ive hunted and eaten deer from around Mt Rainier, Whidbey Island, Okanogan, north south east and west of Ellensburg, Blues, and several units from north east wa.

[carlyoungs]

I haven't kept up on the literature since I studied wildlife biology at OSU many moons ago but I remember a study that suggested field care wasn't a big factor in palatability. Some deer in the study were skinned immediately, some after 24 hours, some were gutted immediately, some after eight hours. Several other variables were included in the test. Blind taste tests revealed little difference in how people enjoyed the meat. IIRC only two factors stood out for improved taste, people overwhelmingly favored doe meat over buck meat, and greatly preferred properly aged meat over others. Most of the other field care variables had little or no impact in palatability. As for bears, try cooking one that had been feeding on skunk cabbage, as a friend did while working in an Alaska logging camp. The smell cleared out the entire bunkhouse, he never tried that again. It stands to reason a deer feeding in a lush environment would be better tasting than a deer working a little harder to survive in a different habitat but it might not be noticeable to many people.   

That is very interesting.  My last elk I shot (cow) every cut had a liver taste to it. Never had that taste on any other game animals. It was skinned and quartered right away then put on ice. Normal procedure as most people.  Just couldn't figure out why it tasted like that.

[Timberstalker]

Best tasting deer meat I’ve had was a roadkill whitetail from the Blues.
Worst tasting one was an old gnarly Desert Unit buck.
I would agree that does generally eat better than bucks.

Meat care is everything in my opinion.

Not talking about deer, but hands down the best game meat I’ve ever had was a bull I killed on the firing center in 2012. It was phenomenal. Tender and amazing taste.

[C-Money]

One thing I know for sure...Our mule deer or a few whitetail in the mix have tasted extremely better since we began processing our own animals years ago. The meat we were getting back from different butchers was awful. We try to get the hides of as quick as possible, keep them clean, and covered in game bags. We had them to the cooler at different butchers same day or next morning. Now, we usually have them done at home in 2-4 days after punching the tag. I've never ate a high mountain deer, so I can't add to the comparison. I can say, I really can't tell by taste if we are eating a mature buck or a young doe. Our meat has just been fantastic. We do mark the meat packages so we know what deer we are eating. Wife doesn't always share that info, and I have grown to not care.

[Ricochet]

I haven't kept up on the literature since I studied wildlife biology at OSU many moons ago but I remember a study that suggested field care wasn't a big factor in palatability. Some deer in the study were skinned immediately, some after 24 hours, some were gutted immediately, some after eight hours. Several other variables were included in the test. Blind taste tests revealed little difference in how people enjoyed the meat. IIRC only two factors stood out for improved taste, people overwhelmingly favored doe meat over buck meat, and greatly preferred properly aged meat over others. Most of the other field care variables had little or no impact in palatability. As for bears, try cooking one that had been feeding on skunk cabbage, as a friend did while working in an Alaska logging camp. The smell cleared out the entire bunkhouse, he never tried that again. It stands to reason a deer feeding in a lush environment would be better tasting than a deer working a little harder to survive in a different habitat but it might not be noticeable to many people.   

That is very interesting.  My last elk I shot (cow) every cut had a liver taste to it. Never had that taste on any other game animals. It was skinned and quartered right away then put on ice. Normal procedure as most people.  Just couldn't figure out why it tasted like that.

Killed a high country bear in Mid October many years ago that had a taste that reminded me of liver, (I don't like liver) and even after making most of it into sausage I couldn't give it away. It was feeding on mushrooms when I shot it so maybe that's the answer for both your cow and my bear.