Know any places that serve game for dinner? How's it taste?

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AntiqueWeapons.org

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Ok, I have a dilemma here.

I will be hunting for the first time this year.
Today was the first day of my hunter education saftey class & so afterwards, I come home & read the booklets, etc then browse some websites & I see pictures of hunters with their dead kill & well, I feel sort of bad for the animal in a way & started to think second thoughts, but then shut my thoughts up with the fact that before supermarkets, hunting was necessary for survival & screw it, beats a paper target & a moving target to boot, so the hell with it, no second thoughts, but then I began thinking, what if I don't like eating it.

If it tastes like crap, then I killed this animal for nothing other than target practice. Ok, I know turkey hunting will be fine because I eat turkey all the time, but I don't know what these other animals taste like.

Are there restaurants that serve game or butcher shops/supermarkets that sell it? I want to try different animals before I go hunt them, because if I don't like the taste, then I don't think I would want to hunt it.

I can't find it in me to hunt & not using the animal for eating.. Seems such a waste.

Well, ok.. I can shoot pigeons for sheer target practice.
 
I think Trader Joes had venison, but I could be wrong. Some high end fru fru restaurants will sometimes have venison also. I had Elk at John Harvard's brew house once as part of a package deal (7 courses food and beer).
 
In the winter, there are several gun clubs down here that have game suppers. Marlboro Fish & Game and Danvers Fish & Game spring to mind; I know that there are others. It's a great way to get game if you don't hunt... or if you don't hunt EVERYTHING.

DF&G had snapping turtle soup, venison stew, bear stew and I forget what else this year. In years past, they've had moose meat loaf (moose loaf?), goose caccitori (my wife loved that!) Bambi stew, Boo-Boo stew, baked cod, elk chops, etc...

I know that this doesn't help you right now, but it's something to consider for next winter.

There are some supermarkets that have game sections. Whole Foods is one, I think.
 
Many sportsmans clubs host game dinners as fundraisers. They usually run from Mid winter to late spring. those would be your best bets for tasting different game meats.

Many game meats are very similar to what you currently eat from a package, just leaner. For instance Venison is very similar to beef in both taste and consistancy but it is much leaner and has a slight irony taste. Even the turkey that you hunt and buy will have slight differences, mostly due to diet and living conditions.

I have had most game meats at some point including boar, bear, venison, moose, elk, gator, snake, racoon, possum, pheasant, quail, etc. I found that some of the game meats have a very fine line of edibilty. over cook and forget it...shoe leather, and some it is hard to screw up.

I suggest that you check the sportsmans clubs around you, some may be having game suppers soon some may have already had them.
 
While you would have to cook it yourself...
http://www.savenorsmarket.com

When I lived in Somerville I would sometimes go to the Cambridge store to try different types of game.

I don't know if they still carry it all, but they had all kinds of animals. Elk, deer, bison, horse, elephant, water buffalo, rattlesnake, zebra, alligator, etc...

I once bought an African lion steak. It looked just like a plain old cow ribeye, but it was probably one of the worst animals I ever tasted. It tasted like what I imagined, cat marinated in cat piss. I never finished it.
I would usually go in there to buy game hens or duck.
 
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boomerang said:
I don't know if they still carry it all, but they had all kinds of animals. Elk, deer, bison, horse, elephant, water buffalo, rattlesnake, zebra, alligator, etc...
Click to expand...
I had rattlesnake once in Arizona... it tasted like chicken. Tough, rubbery chicken. [puke]

I had alligator once in Texas... and I can't tell you WHAT it tasted like! It was done Cajun style, and it was so hot that it seared my taste buds into submission. All I can tell you is that it was HOT, HOT, HOT!

Elk, OTOH, is the best, most flavorful meat I've ever had. Only way to describe that is to point out that I bought like 10 raffle tickets for an Elk hunt after I tasted it. Wish I'd won, too... It was amazing.
 
What a coincidence. I just saw this on here: Game Dinner at UNH tomorrow night

Lucky you!


Oops. Just saw the post above mine. Must have done it while I wasn't looking. Sometimes I open a link but don't look at it for a while and sometimes one or many others post there.

(Hey Dwarven, you should try the Make Link extension if you use Firefox. Just highlight the text you want and "make link", and the program does the rest for you, including the forum code. Pretty handy.)
 
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La Stanza Diva, Woburn

Try La Stanza Diva, Woburn
Only been there once, but they have a seasonal menu of Elk, kangaroo, venison, buffalo, etc.

I also believe that it's BYOB, no liquor lic.
 
Coyote33 said:
(Hey Dwarven, you should try the Make Link extension if you use Firefox. Just highlight the text you want and "make link", and the program does the rest for you, including the forum code. Pretty handy.)
Click to expand...
I'll have to try it out when I get home. During the day, though, at work, I'm limited to what the Micro$oft-worshippers put on my computer. [frown]

Oh... and the "1" isn't silent. [wink] Pronounce it "dwarven one".
 
Though they aren't hunted, which seemed to be the original question, you can see buffalo here and also buy the meat and other products; right here in Central MASS:
Alta Vista
 
The restaurant at the Nashoba Valley Winery called J's does a wild game night once a year where the chef cooks up a whole variety of dishes using rather unusual meats. It's good for some ideas on preparing some of the more difficult meats.

Of course, the real way to ensure good meat is to really go all out and prepare it properly. This includes preparing the plan to deal with the fresh kill long before you are hunting.
 
Chris said:
The restaurant at the Nashoba Valley Winery called J's does a wild game night once a year where the chef cooks up a whole variety of dishes using rather unusual meats. It's good for some ideas on preparing some of the more difficult meats.

Of course, the real way to ensure good meat is to really go all out and prepare it properly. This includes preparing the plan to deal with the fresh kill long before you are hunting.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, but at this point I figure I'd try out various game prior to taking it because I made an ethical decision to not hunt anything I won't eat, however, I found the answer to this dilemma. There's the NH food bank & they accept game animal donations, so any meat I hunt that I do not use, I will give to them. I'm pretty sure deer will be ok with me & I'm certain about turkey, but am curious about other game. I thought about this for last week alot & well, it'll be interesting for sure.
 
I like to marinate gamier meat in pineapple juice overnite. I then prepare it whichever wat I would normally. The acids in the pineapples will make the meat softer and more pleasant to eat.
 
AntiqueWeapons.org said:
I found the answer to this dilemma. There's the NH food bank & they accept game animal donations, so any meat I hunt that I do not use, I will give to them.
Click to expand...

I was reading through your thread in order to suggest just this. I hunt, and most game, including deer is hard to prepare well. Plus if your lucky or skilled enough to bag one, there is usually A LOT of meat. More than I can ever eat in a winter or two. Especially if you can get 2 or 3 in a season - you'll need a nice freezer and big appetite.

I usually give most of mine away and keep the select cuts. Others, including a lot of non-hunters, love to take it off your hands. I am suprised noone here has anything in their freezer to offer you. I would, but my oldest girl is three so I haven't hunted for more than a couple of hours in oh, three years. So my freezer if full of freeze pops and chicken nuggets.

Anyway, back to my point. The food banks are always my back up. I haven't given any away to them yet but know that I can, so I never have the feeling/risk of wasting the meat.

Good luck this season and hunt responsibly.
 

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