I would like to find out if anyone knows or has been warned about foul tasting African game. I realize preparation is a major factor of course.Has anyone ever been told, fed meat to avoid? Here in the states I hear porcupine is nasty. I know people who wont touch bear meat.Any input?

1JDan,

I ate smoked warthog, blesbok, bushbuck, and kudu all were IMO better tasting then venision...
I like venision jerky and it cannot come close to kudu biltong...
I also know if one eats zebra to cut away all yellow fat...
But like you said prep is everything...

Mike

Never had a bad meal in Africa. My wife, who doesn't like deer meat, loves the game meat in Africa.

Regards,

Terry

To be polite I am generally venison adverse person. As you say preparation is everything and my experience as others is based on that preparation.



Liked sable, reedbuck, warthog, kudu, eland and guinea fowl. Also gemsbok but that was domestic.



Could take or leave tsessebee (one good, one bad) and impala (gamey).



Didn't like zebra or biltong.



Didn't try wildebeest, duiker, steenbok and oribi.

Terry,



Your wife and I are of like minds.



Our first meal at John X was a wildebeest roast of some sorts. I thought I was eating prime beef until I found out what it was.



The only bad game meat I had was at a lodge outside Kruger after our hunt on the east Cape. It was warthog, but it was cooked too long. So it was dry, tough and stringy. We had also had warthog at John X that was delicious. Thus it's obviously all in the preparation. -TONY

1,

I personally can't say I have eaten anything in Africa that I found unpalatable. In fact we have eaten such oddities as hippo, lion, leopard, buffalo testicles,zebra and about every kind of antelope meat offered in the countries we have hunted. Roan, eland are excellent and of course Tommie chops are beyond gourmet. I regret not eating elephant and croc when I had the chance but hopefully I'll get another shot at filet of elephant this year. Overall I rate Africa game meat to be far better than North American unless it is dall sheep which is in a class all its own.

Mark

I think there is something about being in the spirit and circumstances of being on a hunt in Africa that makes everything taste good. Even my otherwise sissy/picky wife got into eland liver! First time they put zebra down in front of me I thought "oh boy, I'm about to eat some white and black horse!" I found it to be quite good. Other than finding some smoked hartebeest fillet a bit too gamey for my taste I've never had a bad meal in Africa.

They take considerable pride in their table fare...no beenie-weenies, rice krispie snacks, or what-cha-got-stew.

Hopefully I will leave this world while gnawing on biltong and drinking Tafel beer while sitting around an open fire on an African night.

When I hunted with John X Safaris in 2001, we were served roast (blue) wildebeest, kudu backstraps, and ostrich. On one of the farms we stayed at for a couple of days on that trip we were served kudu liver. Everything was excellent and it makes be hungry just thinking about it. Gin and tonics in the afternoon, after a day in the field, followed by a feta-cheese salad, grilled kudu backstraps and good South African red table wine cannot be beat.

Lunch anyone?

Croc is standard fair in our Tanzania camp and its delicious, but I always felt like I was a cannabal by proxy..Oh well I probably didn't know the last guy he ate...

My favorite fair is Eland, croc, and Kongoni in Tanzania...Kudu is great..I'm not to hot on Zebra and Impala. Tommy is great.

In RSA I like Springbuck..

I am a venison lover, Mule deer or whitetail, makes no difference to me or my family..I like deer better than elk, guess because I was literally raised on fried deer meat, pico de Gallo, frijoles, biscuits and gravy..then deer got to be worth money and we started eating our own beef which at that time wasn't worth much, took me forever to get to where I liked beef...

The only thing inedieble in Africa is that "paste" they put on bread.....I think it's like crushed Spam mixed with something dark and some glue to give it consistency.

Other than that I loved everything. You will find that even mac & cheese tastes better in Africa when cooked over an open fire.

Game meat is game meat. How it tastes depends entirely on how it was handled in the field and how long it took to get it into a cooler. Then it's up to the cook.

"Game meat is game meat."



au contraire, any of the deer species harvested during or right after the rut aren't worth eating except as hamburger, a smoked sausage or jerky. I have a feeling that is why I didn't like the impala I was served as it was during their rutting season.

Mark, how was the Leopard? I am hunting Leopard with Vaughan Fulton this fall and if sucessful I would like to try the backstraps. Is it anything like Mt Lion?

That nasty spread is "Marmite". It was nasty when I was a kid and it's still the same way. Only Brits and a few Canadians really like it.

I loved impala pot roast and guinea foul.

Other than that, the african game made me heave. My cape was so full of adrenaline that I had to leave the dinner table and go out to the lawn to gag. My kudu tasted like the cook had marinated the steaks in paunch contents. I did not bother to sample ellie. After that I stuck to the bread and veggies.

Sto knocking Marmite

WE take a spoonful, and put in a large mug, add boiling water, 2 or 3 sppnfulls of lemon or lime juice, a few drops of Tabasco, and you have the best instant soup there is.

We even managed to persuade Ray to try a sip or two last year

1JD,

To savor the true essence of African game meat, you'll have to squat with Friday and the guys under a shade tree at lunch time around a pot of sadza and boiled buffalo, or whatever. Nothing like it.

The choice cuts back in camp aren't bad either!

Die Ou Jagter,

The leopard was truly excellent. They grilled the tenderloin with only a little pink showing in the middle. Very nice! You may have a hard time getting them to cook your leopard. Seems every camp crew and the PH's have there own prejudices about what they'll cook, eat or even touch.

Texture was about the same as Mt. Lion but I think the leopard was tastier. Perhaps it was the preparation.

Regards,

Mark

We had Sprinbuck, Blesbuck, Kudu and Impala on my hunting trip to RSA in april this year. I found them all very tasty!

I notised in several posts that Impala wasn�t a favorite for some. We marinated and bbq:ed the backstraps from the onte I shot and it was a meal that I�ll have a hard time to forget, truly exellent! The marinated Kudu backstraps was also a treat!

Stefan

All depends on the cook! Take an eland/kudu fillet and eat it very fresh, with no marinade and overcook it for a good half hour and it'll be crap! Treat it with the respect it deserves and you won't forget it.

Only meat I had in Zimbabwe that I did not really care for was Steenbok. Kudu, eland, impalla and wildebeest were great!

Hartley Kittle

Mark, thanks for the opinion. I already ask Vaughan about it and he said the blacks ate it he hadn't and wouldn't. I will take my own basics for flavoring and hopefully they will allow me to do my own cooking over the fire.

Die Ou Jagter

In Zimbabwe last year I ate the tenderloin from my Lion. It was fried which I would think would be the best option for cooking. It was some of the best meat I have had. I would guess Leopard would be about the same.

Jason

Die,

A hot pan, salt, pepper, garlic powder and a little olive oil and you are in business.

Regards,

Mark

Hey Guys,
Last time I was in RSA, we ate just about everything. The absolute best, better than beef, was tenderloin of kudu. It was soaked in Italian dressing for 24 hours and then BBQ'ed and we ate until we exploded. We had many game meats and only the red hatrtabeast was gamey. I tried to get a kudu for meat here in the states and only found bulls. Bummer

Jeff in Texas

Mark, close, but I would substutite Thyme for the Garlic, and then I make a sauce using Plum jelly, butter Worcestershire sauce, thyme and horseradish.

I do not think giraffe would make for a tasty meal. Those stink bulls really do stink and the meat smells the same.

I've sampled many species of plain game, faves included nyala, eland, kudu, gemsbok. Impala liver is real good too. Last year I had some warthog spare ribs that were to die for.

About half way through my last safari, the "lead" PH said that if we got a "good" warthog that we would have BBQ ribs one night. My partner shot at least one after that and I went out and shot two over the next three days...... the PH lied ..... bummer .

I have always lived off of game meat, and it's no different when in Africa. In fact, I make sure that my booking agent makes it very plain and clear that I expect to minimally eat some of everything that I kill, and that I do not want to be served any beef or domestic fowl, period. The hardest thing I run into is getting it cooked the way I want it--no frills and sauces. I want steaks cooked rare, period. I don't care if it's fried or grilled, just make it pure steak and keep it rare. A little garlic and some salt is all I want with it. Oh, regarding Warthog, which I consider to be the best pork I've ever eaten, I do want it more cooked, just like pork in the USA, but still, forget all the sauces, thank you. Just fry it up or grill it, please.

Last time we put down a youngish bull giraff that had been caught in a snare and had a broken leg. I informed the PH that of course we would be eating some. He said he, in all his life in Africa, had never eaten giraff and wasn't at all keen on the idea, but if I wanted it, OK. Funny thing is, it turned out to be some of the absolute best meat I've ever had. The PH eventually tried some, then all of a sudden, we didn't have enough of it! I've been told that Waterbuck is not good. I intend to know for myself in about a month. One thing I really want to try is elephant, but I've not had the oppertunity.

500grains;

Finally! I read a post by someone who feels the way I did! I would also add Francolin as being pretty good. (my outfitter's wife, like him, was a continental Italian and trained the cooks so you can bet that I ate pretty good! (She also trained some of the locals in raising a vegetable and herb garden. For me, a 50lb sack of potatoes was also flown in. Hey! I'm Irish!) I ate Cape buff also. Meat was very close grained and almost completely free of any "marbling" like what we see in beef over here. I really can't say if the meat was that good because it had a parmigiana sauce over it. (Who would eat veal unless it was "veal parmigiana"?)

I ran an arrow through a nice bull eland in Zimbabwe in 1997 .It was morning and the skinners had skinned and butchered the animal by 11:00am.The PH asked if I would like to join the blacks for lunch.I had previously voiced a request to sample as much local flavor as possibe.
We went back to camp and when food was ready we were called to the fire.The eland liver was cooking on a forked stick.There was sadza and mealie in two pots on the fire.They passed around a bowl of water to wash our hands in and then sliced a bit of eland for each of us.They showed me to take handful of the mealie and roll it into a cylinder in my palm and then to use it to sop up the sadza.I tried it all.The mealie was bland as was the sadza.The liver was quite mild tasting as compared to cow liver.The only thing I did not partake of was the water.It wa off colored and had obvious SWIMMERS in it.I had my PH explain to the blacks that I was allergic to it.
I will say that all in all I enjoyed the experience much more that the meal itself.In all other cases the wild meats that I have had served at the guests dining facilities was quite palatable....eyedoc

Ray must have been hungrier than I ever get because I found croc to be unpalatable.

Die,

You obviously are a gourmet. The plum sauce sounds incredible.

Regards,

Mark

I guess so Mark, as Gourmet means one who likes good food. It dosen't have to be fancy. Another good sauce for wild game is - 4 Tb butter, 3 Tb Heavy cream, 2 tb Scotch, 1/2 Tsp Thyme. You will see Thyme is an excellent herb for venison, be it Europe, North America or Africa.

Ed,

Heres' one to try...Take a femur bone from a eland cut in half and stand up in hot coals...As the marrow cooks and boils up makes pate on crackers to nibble on before dinner...My buddy told me it was exquisite...

Mike

Mike, it sounds good, as marrow is one of the great flavoring sources in most meat stocks. My Mom loved the marrow from beef shank spread on bread - she was a great mom except when it came to that she just didn't like to share her "Treat".

PS Her roots where up there in coal country.

Mikelravy:

Croc? Didn't anyone tell you it tastes like chicken? (One time in New Mexico, at a party, I was served some party snacks and they didn't taste bad. I was then told that I ate rattlesnake. I had to make a quick trip to the bathroom)

My hunting partner's PH in Zimbabwe was a bone marrow soup fanatic. Within 24 hours of shooting a kudu or eland, it was on the menu. While tasty, I did not think it exceptional, ditto roasted eland heart and onions which became the appetizer for the same meal.

Talking about Rattlesnake--which is good--I was disappointed last time when I couldn't get the PH & crew to do in the huge Puff Adder we found. I wanted the pretty skin for one thing and sure wanted to eat it, guessing it would be similar to Rattlesnake. They would have no part of that. I guess I had pushed it about as far as I could by getting them to always save the nuts for hors d�oeuvres during cocktail hour before supper. Had to educate the cook how to prepare them. Oh yes, heart was also part of the hors d'oeuvre plate.