Game Recipes

 

Venison or game may be eaten as steaks, roasts, sausages, biltong and minced meat. It has a flavour similar to beef, but is much leaner. Venison is lower in calories, cholesterol and fat than most cuts of beef, pork, or lamb.

The main difference between wild game and meat from domestic animals is body fat. Animals in the wild typically don’t enjoy the lavish diet that farm-raised animals do, so their meat will be lean. You would think that a leaner meat would be preferable, but low-fat meat can become quite tough if cooked following wild game recipes for more fatty meats. The lack of fat can be corrected for in the cooking, since it’s the fat in the meat that makes it tender. Aging the meat, slow cooking, stewing recipes, and ‘larding’ the meat with fat from another source are all ways to compensate for low-fat meats.

People often talk about wild meats having a ‘gamey’ taste. That is, it tastes like ‘game’. The gamey taste of many wild meats is simply that venison, for instance, will taste different than beef. And pheasant will taste different from chicken. Many of the marinades and so on that are touted to help you ‘remove the gamey taste’ actually just serve as a heavy flavour to disguise the fact that the meat isn’t beef or chicken. It’s worth it to get used to the taste of the wild game recipes and not worry too much about it tasting ‘gamey’ - it’s game afterall.