I have a ????

[native_texan]

I've hunted over 40 years and always iced-drained water on my deer daily for as long as 10-12 days (bucks in rut) and I have never had happen what you describe. We had a bad drought in Colorado county ... worse thing anyone has seen if over 50 years, so I'm told. The first deer I killed, iced, and cooked (steaks, and meat loaf) have all tasted wonderful. That first deer was killed on Oct 1, the start of bow season. I have no reason to believe any of the rest of the deer I've killed will be any different.

I am not trying to find fault, brother but just trying to analyze your situation a little:

1. I don't know how old the deer is nor when you killed your deer, but fresh meat must be on ice within 30-45 minutes in warm weather. A deer lying dead that took a long time to find in hot weather and even more time to skin and quarter may surely affect the taste.

2. Bucks in rut - If they are old and in rut, i have heard they have a very strong taste. One old fella I know described an old deer (7-8) as cooking the meat and using it for shoe soul leather. A little extreme of course but it may be true in some cases.
2. Cleaning - I always clean, sanitize my knives with clorox/water solution after skinning - just to make sure everything is as clean as possible before my knives touch the meat. I wear gloves for all processing.

3. At the beginning, my recommendation is that the meat should have ice in between layers of meat. Hot meat on hot meat in the ice chest is not a good thing. before the cold penetrates to the point where hot meat is touching hot meat, and there may be a chance of spoilage and therefore possibly a chance it may taste bad.

4. Processing your meat - I don't know how you processed your meat, but your processing room should be as cold as you can get it. When I cut up meat and before I bag and seal it, I keep the meat in bags in the ice chest. It stays very cold there. My wife is bagging and sealing meat when I get enough.

5. Finishing - If I can't finish processing the whole deer, I put fresh ice on the meat, drain any water, and finish the next day.

6. Time on ice - You iced for 1 1/2 days ... not enough time in my opinion.

You may have already done all these things and that is really good. I have no other reason why your meat would taste so "nasty". If you know of another person who killed a deer near you, you may talk to them and see if they have they experienced the same problem?

Sorry for your bad experience with venison. I hope you find the solution. God bless.

[TxHunter06]

I do everything you stated above. The deer was killed this past Friday. He wad shot and cleaned, washed and on ice within an hour. I'm not an expert on aging but I would put the deer at 4.5-5 years old. And the rut is still on here.

[Tommy_V]

I shot a doe this season and the processor called me back the next day saying it was no good. I shot the doe and had it to the processor within 35 minutes. He said the meat was very strange that he could poke his finger all the way through the back strap. He also said the fat was yellow, which was strange. I remembered the fat being yellow when I gutted her, but didn't' think much of it. He apologized that I blew a tag on deer I couldn't eat. I insisted that I appreciate them calling me on it, and that I could get another deer to eat. I don't want to be getting sick off of bad meat. The only thing I can attribute it to is the drought this year. The doe didn't look that run down though. Sounds like a similar case.

I read online that yellow fat in cows is attributed to them eating a lot of green grasses. I shot her out of an oats patch, so that could be why it was yellow...might not have anything to do with the bad meat.

[gonehuntin68]

I've been eating deer for 30+ years and have never had a bad tasting one until this year. Shot a buck about 10 days ago in full rut and the meat is so Musky smelling and tasting that it's hard to eat. The meat is not bad just very musky tasting. Going to make some spicy sausage and jerky out of the rest of it and hopefully that will cover up the musky taste. Shot a doe early in the year and she was great.

[bowhuntertex]

In my 40 years of eating mostly deer meat I have never had a deer taste bad. You might try soaking the meat in buttermilk overnight before you cook it.......

[JonBoy]

we had some of my opening weekend doe this past weekend and it was very tasty...our lease is in the extreme drought stricken areas and she was a very thin doe...not sure what's going on.

[tkuehn5410]

The only bad tasting deer I've had came years ago when I did not clean the deer properly and did not wash all of the poop and stomach matter off of the deer. The cooler smelled like nasty poop and the meat had that twang and smelt terrible when we were cooking.

[2B4Him]

I shot a 5.5 year old buck on opening weekend of archery season. It took me 30 minutes to drag him out, another 30 or so to get him gutted and cleaned up. Another hour to get him to the after hours freezer at the processor. They don't do any aging, etc.
We've been eating lots of the ground meat and last night we had some steaks. I did nothing different than usual (marinating/seasoning, etc.) and my wife, daughter, and I agreed that it was the best tasting venison we've ever had.

[tgil]

My daughter killed a doe Friday morning, we ate a little bit of the backstrap yesterday for lunch. It was the toughest I've had in a long while and tasted bland to me. I cooked and seasoned the way I always do, just didn't let it age as long as I normally would in the cooler.

[froghunter]

you gota let the ice draw the blood out before you process them. i have never had a problem with deer meat before.

[tyak]

keep in ice chest with ice until the water drains clear.

[holdem]

I have one in ice now and making sure there's ice in between the layers of meat. I don't want any big air pockets in there.

[Bowwiz]

My bowkilled buck came from the same area and tastes just fine.I ate fried backstraps last night,this was the 1st year I didn't ice my deer for days too flush and purge the blood from the meat .I just didn't have time for it seeing that I was headed to a Five Finger Death Punch/Hatebreed Metal Music show in Dallas.In the last 20 yrs of killing deer out there every year,I have never had a bad tasting deer...now the Hogs,thats a different story.

[TxHunter06]

I've been eating deer for 30+ years and have never had a bad tasting one until this year. Shot a buck about 10 days ago in full rut and the meat is so Musky smelling and tasting that it's hard to eat. The meat is not bad just very musky tasting. Going to make some spicy sausage and jerky out of the rest of it and hopefully that will cover up the musky taste. Shot a doe early in the year and she was great.

I think this might be the problem. The meat doesn't look bad but it does have a different smell to it than normal. I have been processing my own deer for the past 10 years and never had a problem. Also grew up helping dad process his own too, so its not that I did anything wrong. I agree we usually let the meat age for about 4-5 days before we process it but I wanted some back strap. I haven't thrown anything out yet,i refuse to waste it just yet. We are goin to try making some jerky with it and see what happens.