I honestly don't think I've tried anything that I found totally unpalatable. I do think diving ducks that have not been marinated are far from yummy. A porcupine we shot once was the toughest meat I ever ate but pot roasted it might have been fine. Spruce grouse taste quite like liver. A pronghorn that has not been taken proper care of is way gamey. Finally I think the puff adder in Tanzania was the closest to unpalatable I've had. It tasted fishy but bad fishy. Yuck!

Mark

Apparently, there aren't many here who have tried eating seaducks*!

The only way I've had them (and the *only* way I'll eat them now barring a gun to my head) that was good was in sausage, and that's after soaking, smoking and adding copious spice and of course, pork.

I have only killed one snow goose but it was terrible, honest, the dog would not touch it. I killed a moose that was so tough you could play tennis with the meat balls.

The one I can't really stomach is rutted up mule deer buck, seems like its a crap shoot either they're decent, or absoultely fowl. I've killed a few that you could hardly be in the same room when the steaks where defrosting in the microwave.

Most every antelope I've had was quite good and is actually one of my favorite meats.

I won't shoot let alone eat another diver duck. Yuck!!! Most all water fowl isn't a whole lot better.

Groundhog.

Even the Bar-B-Que sauce was tough.

SGraves 155; Soft ball size; sounds like you would have been better off trying "Hog Fries"

Dogfish, Grinnel, Bowfin...all the same ugle fresh water fish with mushy white meat....Hey, I like a challenge. Small Gar is delicious, the older alligator gar above 15 lbs were tough, even when cooked in a gumbo.

Remembering back, there was the time at the lake when I was 8, Gramps gave us some "fried chicken that was small and REALLY tough. My aunt said something about not having any chicken to cook and my uncle remembered the Roadrunner that my Gramps ran over coming back from the spillway at the dam. True to his upbringing, he fed us carp two days later...
I found Beaver (4-legged) to be quite good when small, young goat is delicious, have always stayed away from older goats. Once had a squirrel that was taken care of properly and it stunk up the freezer even though it was in a plastic bag.

quote:

Originally posted by crowrifle:
Groundhog.

Even the Bar-B-Que sauce was tough.

Nice!

The worst was possum, greasy and hardly edible.

I have run across a couple that were terrible. Friends shot a deer around Lubbock, Texas. It must of eaten way too much sage brush as it was so gamey, the cat would not eat it. The other was a duck, maybe a loon or a cormerant as it was so fishy/gamey that we could not eat it. I have tried many things and these two were the worst.

Having sampled some of the worlds oddities (to we Americans), I must say I'm not fond of domestic Sheep. A young lamb is ok, but none that have any age on them. I do not like Woodcock. They taste like nightcrawler dirt smells (sold commerically for bait) and I attribute their peculiar taste to their diet of earthworms and nightcrawlers. Turtle has to be in the mix as well. I've tried to prepare snapping and soft shell turtle and neither was fit to eat. Could just be me, but I'm not fond of it. LDK

The worst game meat I've ever had was Mountain Goat. It was -15 deg F when I shot him and the snow was crotch deep. He didn't spoil. I skinned the whole carcass and had to keep the skin over my hands to keep them from freezing.

He had a strong musky smell when I skinned him. I usually process my own meat, but he smelled so strong that I had a local meat shop make the whole thing into peperoni. The peperoni smelled musky, and when I cooked it the whole house smelled musky. It tasted worse!

Of more than 100 big game animalsthat I've shot and processed, including Musx Ox, Black Bear, rutting Mule Deer, and over 30 Pronghorn Antelope, that Mountain Goat was the only one I couldn't eat.

The second worse meat I've ever had was Sage Grouse.

I'll have to vote for sea ducks, specifically Buffle Heads. I cooked them for about 6 hours in a crock pot with sauce and vegetables. It smelled so bad and tasted so bad that my dog with the iron stomach would not even come near them (and I've seen her eat drywall).

Recipe for sea duck, cook for ten hours with seasoning and a brick. After ten hours, throw out the ducks and eat the brick.

quote:

Originally posted by Hutty:
I'll have to vote for sea ducks, specifically Buffle Heads. I cooked them for about 6 hours in a crock pot with sauce and vegetables. It smelled so bad and tasted so bad that my dog with the iron stomach would not even come near them (and I've seen her eat drywall).

Recipe for sea duck, cook for ten hours with seasoning and a brick. After ten hours, throw out the ducks and eat the brick.

I'll agree that buffies aren't the tastiest birds out there by a wide margin, but they're divers, not seaducks. Eider, scoter and oldsquaw are seaducks. You can cook a buffie to be palatable, however. Take the breasts and soak them in orange juice for a few hours. Take them out and pound them flat with a wine bottle or somesuch, between parchment, wax paper or saran wrap. Beat an egg, and dip breasts in egg, then bread them with Italian breadcrumbs. Popp them into a sizzling hot pan of EVOO, and set aside. Cook up some linguini/egg noodles/angel hair/whatever kind of pasta, and heat up some home made or store-bought marinara. Cut the buffie breasts into slices, and serve over the pasta, and liberally cover in sauce. Add some fresh parmesan and pop a bottle of red. It's not out-of-this-world good, but good enough that when the buffies come in on a slow day, I'll smash a couple and know that I'll eventually get to eat them, after I've gone through all the puddle ducks, naturally.

quite a testimonial,i have to throw my hat into the auodad-jaavalina ring.interesting, i read john hunters book where he decribed eating a very salty meat in a stew.not unpleasantly salty but Very salty.as his native cook is filling john's 2nd bowl he asks whats' the meat because he hadn't killed anything in several days and the camp was out of meat. thhe cook answers the native word for hand and turns out the cook had bought a human arm from a group of other natives that passed by john hunters' camp.says he recovered the arm and gave it a decent burial.went on to say the thought of eating it was terrible,"not" the meal itself.

Trophy aoudad without a doubt.

Maybe a young one could be palatable, but a trophy ram is worthless. The meat appears to be stitched together with 20# test nylon. You can not cut it or chew it down to manageable size. It is like trying to chew bubblegum. You can't even make chili out of it.

When you shoot it; mount the head, and chuck the rest. I'm not sure the dogs would eat it.

The worst?

Kori Bustard, and yes it was poached illegally by my PH.

Other than Eland and Warthogs all the African game I had was worse than any American game I have had.

I love antelope, rut, sagebrush, and all.

I have had some really bad moose. I agree on the caribou rut.

I had boiled snowy owl in Alaska. If you ever have an Eskimo for a girlfriend, you cook and have her do the dishes. They really suck as cooks.

I grew up in the Ozarks and we called them "grindle". They have an orange spot on the tail. Totally uneatable.

Worst fowl I ever had was merganser. Seems to be consistent with others who dislike diving birds.

I went to a charity "Hunters Feast" one time many years ago where there we literally dozens of different types of game prepared. After tasting my way around the tent I figured out why we raise cattle, hogs, and chicken. Nothing there was nasty or unedible, but nothing was nearly as good as a nice beef steak. I consume the elk and deer I kill, but I have to admit it's not as tasty as what I buy at the grocery store.

quote:

Groundhog. Even the Bar-B-Que sauce was tough.

That's a funny, funny post crowrifle. Thanks for the laugh!

Some ducks can be a culinary challenge, especially the divers (never tried sea ducks as I've only taken three by "off course & lost" scoters & Oldsquaws here in TN) but Kamo Gari's recipe is along the lines I follow for Scaup, Buffle Heads, & Goldeneye. Redheads (excellent as a rule) and Canvasback are treated like puddle ducks. I go to great lengths to prepare duck and goose, but here is one of my duck recipes: First, remove the tenderloin that is attached to the underside of each breast. Pull those off. Take a dull knife and while holding the large end of the silver skin firmly in your fingers (looks like a silver string running down the loin) push the dull blade down onto the s/s. Now pull the string out of the loin. Leave this whole and follow forthcoming directions. Next I remove the outer clear membrane with a sharp fillet knife on the top side of the breast (side the skin was attached to). Next, breasts are separated diagonally by shaving the "silver skin" that separates the upper and lower half of each breast. Start just below the major artery on the underside of the breast and gently cut into the meat until you expose the wide layer of silver skin. With a semi-sharp knife, separate the two halves. Once finished, you will retain the silver skin on one half. Next, remove the s/s with a sharp fillet knife. You will now have two pieces of meat from each breast: four pieces total. Next, slice these lengthwise into thirds (for each piece of meat). Soak these in cold water for about 15 minutes. Lay pieces on a paper towel and pour one of several marinades into a glass bowl: Kikkoman's Teriyaki, Tiger sauce (one of my favorites), wine, buttermilk, Orange Juice/Pineapple, or liquor. Marinade for 30 minutes. Remove and dredge in flour or dip in egg yolk and roll in Italian bread crumbs. Fry in Olive Oil only enough to brown each side. Over cooking makes it dry and slightly tough. Serve with your favorites. Don't age the duck! LDK

sea ducks and diving ducks when i was young tried to eat every thing i shot.a old sea dog neighbor told me to stuff them with horse shit cook them take the horse shit out when done throw out the duck and eat the shit because it tasted better. i second that

Nice to see all the interesting replies. So, to conclude, if I may: lots of game can taste like leftover ass, and similarly (from responses posted on the best game to eat thread), everything can be rather dee-lish.

I'd say we have a lot of liars, drinkers and really bad cooks, or, that as far as game meat, it all depends on individual preference, the animal and preparation.

My brother-in -law brought back some caribou and muskox from northern Yukon, after doing some cold weather training with the Canadian Forces. The caribou was really good,the muskox was a challenge. I cooked it as best as I knew how at the time ( sliced, with onions, garlic, spices, red wine over low heat), and it still somehow smelled and tasted musky.
As far as fish goes, the goldeye must be brined and smoked before being palatable. I didn't know that, when at 13, I brought and pan fried several of the muddy, oily tasting fish for the family supper.

I didn't eat any, but on my last caribou hunt in the Arctic, our Eskimo guides, while they were caping our caribou, would cut off pieces of fat and eat them. Then they would cut off another piece, and holding the piece of raw fat on their knife, would extend their arm to us offering the fat and say, "Candy"?

The worst game I've ever eaten was good old northeastern whitetail.

I love to eat the whitetails I shoot, but it seems like half the time someone else gives me some venison, it has that nasty taste that you can't even get out of your mouth... "tainted" is the term I hear used to describe it.

I wish I knew exactly what caused that taste so I could be extra-careful to avoid having it happen to my deer. So far, so good....

"If it smells like cologne, leave it alone. If it smells like fish..."

Good hunting,
desmobob

Ok the worst game animal I ever had is something most people have never had.... grizzly bear!!! Tough, stringy, greasy nasty stuff. I have had a few pronghorns and mule deer that were not very good also.

My father shot an elk that was so tough we ground the steaks to hamburger and fed the rest to the dogs.

The dogs chewed on the meat like chewing on a bone.

From my experience, there are exceptions, but usually it all depends on how the meat is handled after the kill. I have not eaten some of the tings some of you all have, but I will comment on some of the stuff I have had.

Feral Hog boars, that you can smell at 10 yards are a definite No Go. I have killed two large ones, the first, a boar that field dressed 325 pounds, complete with cajones the size of soft balls. The ground meat stunk so bad when trying to cook it, we ended up tossing the whole animal.

The second was a boar that dressed at 250 and had no smell at all. It was some of the best feral hog we have ever had.

Sharp tail grouse, and Greater Prairie Chicken. I had no idea that the meat on those birds would be so dark. I figured it would be like Pheasant, WRONG.

Javelina can be really good if handled right. I personnally enjoy it.

As for pronghorn, I like the sage taste myself.

The one that I have not been impressed with has been caribou. It seemed real similar to whitetail and mule deer in taste.

American Buffalo, Moose, and Axis Deer are the best I have ever eaten.

Preonghorn and Javelina tie for second.

Elk and cotton tail rabbit come in at third place.

With Mule Deer, White-tail, and Caribou in that order for fourth.

If meat is handled properly after the kill and cooked properly, all of it is good. Just My Opinion.

At the top:
smoked Sockeye salmon
rabbit that has been eating green weeds.
2 pound Silver salmon that have just switched from feeding on crustations are also acceptable.

..
..

At the bottom:
pickled pigs feet.

Sandhill crane is at the top of my worst list.

quote:

Originally posted by snowman:
Sandhill crane is at the top of my worst list.

I've eaten a lot worse than sandhill crane... and plus it does have one redeeming feature!

If you leave the legs on, they make great nice long handles to turn the bird on the barbecue!

John

Highland Stag during the Roar.. Dude!!
AK

Yet one more vote for the sage brush antelope. Thats in general, however the single worse meat I ever TRIED to eat was a 60 inch + moose taken in Alaska. UNEDIBLE!!!! And there was a lot of it.

Two that top my list are bear steaks and caribou bull during the rut.

I've tried bear twice and both times the meat was too tough to chew and tasted terrible.

Bull caribou follow the cows around, drinking the cow's urine so they can tell if she's in heat or not. Their kidneys can't keep up with all the urea and their meat takes on the taste. Late season hunts are a nice way to avoid bugs but the meat isn't fit to eat.

since fish has been included, did anyone mention grayling ? grayling is so rank the only way you can eat it is have the fire bilt before you catch it then get it over with fast. and taking it home and freezing it---well i think the Donner party woulda passed on this

Anus Jerky:
My cousin offered some jerky he made to a friend of mine. He said it must have been made out of the deer’s anus because it taste like crap.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
Mostly, the perceived quality of the meat is in the preparation; but some meats are just harder to make edible than others.

About the worst I've ever had was Nilgai antelope roast. So tough you need a serrated knife to cut it and so dry you could choke just from licking it. Maybe all nilgai isn't that way, but the sample I had was sure discouraging.

How about it? What kind of game have you had that was less than salutory?

Two come to mind. A 300 lb swamp hog that was protecting his turf when he was shot. The meat even when boiled in water and vinegar and smoked for 12 hours tasted terrible.

And the other one was my first, last, and only bite of a Racoon.

Marmot in Mongolia would be at the top of my list...with ibex being a close second. Ibex are beautiful animals, but they are NOT good eating. I have had the displeasure of trying to eat ibex in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan...I won't be going back for seconds!

Clark Jeffs
Safari Outfitters, Inc.

Big Hogs and hog/pig liver. No damn way to cook
it. IMO

Rutted up NW coastal black bear boars that have been eating waaaaay too much skunk cabbage. YUCK! It's a fact that the meat will swell in your mouth as you chew it so don't even try to swallow

pronghorn liver, the smell cooking drove us out of the house.

I love to hunt and I love to give away the meat. Just am not a wild game eater unless it's been made into sausage. The best I have had has been smoked turkey. Wasn't expecting that. The worst - goose. Love to shoot them but eating them is another story. Finally did find a way to cook them that my dog could stomach. However, she died months later. I'm sure there was no connection...