I want to eat my meat!

[Bowmancam]

Ok now i have your attention! :roll: :wink:

I want to start eating game meat but I'm kind of a wuss when it comes to exotic foods but i understand goat can be a great curry and i love curries, but for what its worth i would like to hear your best bush recipes,even if its a ripper damper you reckon you bake, but especialy recipes containing Aussie game meat.

Cheers, Cam

[HOOD]

http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=venison

there are some great recipies here.

Hood 8)

[woody]

1/2 grown goat + camp oven = yum :D

[Russell]

I was raised on goat meat and IMHO it is better than lamb.

[Barry]

Cam,

I only have experience with Goat, Rabbit & Hare. Goat legs roasted in a camp oven are GREAT!!! As for rabbit and hare they can be a bit stringy so a VERY slow cooked stew again in the camp oven is way to go.

Make sure you 'let your meat hang' for a while though goat 24-48 hours with the 48 being better in my opinion. Young goats are good but so are younger adult nannies although from what I have heared prefferably not whilst lactating.

[jindydiver]

The condition of the animals when you take them is the most important thing to look at when choosing an animal for the pot.
BarryÌs concern about lactating nannies is fair because in these harsh times (the drought) the nannies will use all their fat reserves to feed to kid and will end up relying on muscle mass for energy. When they are in that state they are very strong in flavour, but I donÌt mind most times as the goats are still less flavoursome than a t-bone. This can be sorted easily though by introducing some fat into the cooking by adding some bacon.
You can reduce the ÏgameÓ taste by trimming all the fat from the meat, what fat there is left will be very strong in flavour, and in the case of deer can be bitter and ruin a good cut of meat.
The whole issue of reduced fat reserves and game tasting meat is seen when people take a buck at the end of the rut. The meat can be very strong in flavour if the lymphatic tissue is left in the meat, and the taste has been an excuse long used by lazy pricks who call it Ïrut taintÓ and leave the meat for the dogs.

If you have got yourself a goat, take the leg off and bone it out (there is a post on here somewhere about how to do it :wink: ) and remove the lymphatic tissue. Wrap the leg in foil with some anchovies, garlic and butter and put it in the camp oven at lunch time. You can have the camp oven fairly hot as long as you donÌt burn the arse out of it and you can let it cool quite a bit also (temp is not as critical as you may think). You leave it in till dinner and then take it out to cool a little on the bench (20mins or so).

When people ask me how goat tastes I always tell them to think of how really good lamb sometimes when you can taste a hint of kidney in it, well goat done properly tastes the same but better. :)

[Bowmancam]

Very informative Jindy, thanx mate.

Now i just have to get out there and bag me a little goat, im salivating just thinking about it :wink:

Cheers, Cam

Any other bush recipes would be good to hear, thanx.

[Sparra]

Have a look in Ozbow...i think they have a recipe section....

[ds]

The whole issue of reduced fat reserves and game tasting meat is seen when people take a buck at the end of the rut. The meat can be very strong in flavour if the lymphatic tissue is left in the meat, and the taste has been an excuse long used by lazy pricks who call it Ïrut taintÓ and leave the meat for the dogs.

Having only recently become involved in all things Fallow, I was surprised to hear many make mention of 'rut taint' and how bucks taken in the rut are not palatable.
Having been the recipient of some fallow in the past (including Bucks) I always found it great eating and smell free. This past rut we were fortunate to harvest a couple bucks of our own. One early and the other late in the rut, both beasts had a distinct smell to the meat which rendered them barely edible.
Not wanting to waste good meat in the future, I was wondering if you could you describe the procedure you mention in the above quote? And could you expect there to always be traces of this smell or can it be totally removed?

Cheers..ds

[jindydiver]

DS
If the buck smells like **** on the outside, it is all to easy to get the smell onto the inside.
If you knock one over in the rut, skin it carefully so that the **** that gets on your hands doesnÌt get on any of the meat, and then wash your hands (or change your gloves) and cut the animal up to put in the ice box. When you get home cut out the glands that are in the meat near the bone (this is on the rear legs) and throw it away.
Your meat should be good to go. BUT some bucks that are using their muscle mass for energy while they recover from the rut will have the worst tasting fatty tissues. You need to cut off ALL fat from the meat. If you still donÌt like the strong taste of the meat you can then soak your cuts in salty water with some lemon juice and vinegar. This will remove all game taste from the meat. I donÌt do it because then you might as well be eating genetic chicken for all the venison taste you will have in your meat.

If you find that even after all this the meat is still not to your fancy then you can just make sure you only take the bucks very early in the season or not at all.

Good to see you are geting amongst the fallow :)

[ds]

Thanks for the info mate. :D

ds

[jindydiver]

Jindy,

It's not the 'gamey' taste in the meat that ds is talking about. Fallow bucks during the rut have a distinct smell. It makes the meat unpalatable. Removing lymph glands and all fat (not that there is much fat anyway) has not proven to get rid of the smell for me.

I have not tried soaking the meat as you have suggested but have tried marinating it for a few days as well as cooking it many different ways. All to no avail.

The smell you are talking about may be the by-product of ketosis. It is the process where the animals fat reserves and eventually muscles are broken down to provide energy. The smell is like nail polish remover (acetone). If you take a dominant fallow buck near the end of his rut he will taste of it. I have never had a problem with taint, and my family eat fallow meat as a staple, but then again I donÌt take the hardest working deer in a paddock.

Like I said, you can always just not take those guys when they are in this condition. Avoid the dominant buck (that is the guy who is working so hard at keeping his patch and his girls that he doesnÌt even have time to eat). The other guys that are hanging around the outside of his lek will be fine.

My dig at taint being used to excuse leaving meat on the ground is at the guys who assume that ALL fallow taking in Autumn are going to taste like ****, or are maybe too damn lazy to care anyway..