I do think lactic acid buildup after the shot can have an effect...the worst elk I ever ate (which still wasn't bad) was hit in a peripheral artery and bumped, so he ran hard until he was too weak to stand.
I like them to die quickly, but peacefully!
Best of Luck, Jeff
The care of the meat after the kill.
High hormone levels.
Lactic acid buildup due to intense running or not getting a swift kill.
Diet.
Other?
I know these all play a role, but are there one or two that have a more dominant effect?
I always guessed that it was due to bulls living harder. Fighting, chasing, extended periods of going without food, those sorts of things.
Then there's taste vs tough. I think the tough has to do with age and lifestyle. I think that "rut" flavor has a lot to do with tarsal gland/skinning/meat care.
If we all crashed on an airplane in the Himalayas, I think I'd eat Lou last.
That said, the big mature I'll bull I killed two years ago, which I shot at last shooting light, recovered the next morning after the temps stayed in the 50s all night, quartered and packed out in heat and by the time I got it to a locker at 3 pm it was in the 80s... the "armchair experts" will tell us the meat spoiled, or at least was awful... it was one of the very best eating bulls I've ever had in my life.
One year I shot a rutting bull in the Gila.
Then a bull about the same age, well past rut in Kansas.
The first had to make a living going up and down the mountains, eating what it could find. We had to leave the meat hang overnight, and didn't get it to a cooler until 2 the next warm afternoon.
The other was a prairie animal, with lots of lush farm crops and food plots very nearby. We drove right to it and had it at a cooler within an hour or so.
The Gila bull seemed to be more tender and flavorful, though both elk were very good.
Two years ago I shot a mature mule deer buck, during the rut, that tasted better than most of the whitetail does I've shot in mid-winter. He wasn't super active with does, though, and had no "rutty" smell when we cleaned him.
The only really "gamey" animal I had was a pronghorn I hit poorly with an arrow, and had to physically run him down to get him finished before dark. I blame that one on me, totally.
>>I think the gamey taste come from how the animal is taken care of and how fast it is skinned and cooled down rather than the sex of the animal.<<
My biggest bulls both went over 330 inches. I can not say that I have ever been able to tell much difference between any of them. Minor difference maybe, but unless they were side by side cuts no way to tell.
When I was a kid we always had gamey tasting meat. I swore up and down it was the processing plant we used. Luckily that place burnt down when I was in high school and since then we have always used a very high end high quality packer or cut it our selves. Never once have I had a problem.
I would say it is all about care. Also about how it is cut, trimmed, washed, etc.
That sums it up as well as it an be summed up. I process my own meat and cut off the tiniest piece that can taint the meat. As far as taste, I've never noticed the difference between an old bull or a young cow/bull. Toughness...that's another matter altogether. Toughest elk I've ever eaten were a couple old cows I shot many years ago. I don't think a jackhammer could have made them tender.
That said, an older bull that's been rutting hard can be on another level entirely. A friend shot a herd bull on the 1st day of rifle season in a year the elk were still bugling the 15th of Oct. That bull didn't have an oz of fat let on him. Even though it was cold, the meat turned almost black by the next day and stunk like it had laid in a wallow for a week. You could smell how rank it was from 10' away. Never asked him if he ate it, since I really didn't want to know the answer.
I guess I have to only shoot big bulls due to meat quality. Shucks.
What'd he do with the other 3 steaks? ;-)
On a more serious note, no doubt elk "veal" is as good as it gets!
I've had cow elk too and it smelled and tasted the same.
I've changed to moose hunting and that's some good eating!!!
A few tricks that I have learned to help minimize the gamey taste--
If you process your own, be sure to remove as much of the silver skin and fat as you can.
When thawing, place the meat in a colander over the sink and let the blood drip out for a few hours.
Before cooking, soak the meat in a mixture of 3/4 milk to 1/4 vinegar.
This has worked pretty good for me in the past when you can "smell the rut" in the meat.
I don't age any of them, and never have had a toughness issue at all, even on the rank old cow. I do make sure to skin with one knife and quarter/butcher with a clean one. Anything the hair or glands touch is going to transfer funkiness. Same treatment that goes for rutty muleys and javelina.
From fawn:
The toughest elk was a cow that committed suicide by running into my arrow at 12,000' elevation. The worst tasting critter was a fuzzy horned spike, but I attribute that one to the fact he had been eating loco weed as evidenced by he funky antler growth. He tasted like elk smell.
Hilarious.
I bone the meat off in the field and get it on ice as soon as I can.
Most all of my cow harvest are late date so it is certainly cooler in Nov/Dec/Jan than September.
On my rut harvest bulls in Sept. I pretty much do them 50/50% burger/ spicy breakfast sausage.
Good luck, Robb
Do you make your own burger and sausage? If you do grind your own burger, do you mix in beef fat, and if so what proportion? I currently make my burger with about a 95/5 ratio of elk meat to beef fat. Makes the burger a lot juicier for the grill and helps to hold the meet together better.
Thanks, Mike
Tenderness is dictated heavily by age of animal. The older the animal the tougher it is regardless of rut, etc.
If you kill a cow or bull that is 3+ years old you should think about cuts that do well with longer cooking times. Especially animals 5+ years old. They just won't be the same as a yearling/2 year old animal. The beef industry has spent millions of dollars and published many reports. I know some will say their 5+ yo bull was awesome - I am sure it was but I'll wager it was no where as tender as a 1-2 yo.
As far as off-putting flavors I believe handling is usually the suspect but am starting to think that for most people certain chemicals bulls release during rut do make it on meat and most people don't have reactions to it but certain people are highly sensitive.
I have heard too many guys talk about having killed many of the same species yet one or two taste weird. While many have killed tons of animals and have yet to have a bad animal (like me).
So like cilantro where 50% of people think it tastes like soap (me included) and 50% love it. I think certain people are sensitive to certain chemicals released by animals.
As far as gaminess. It's not from the sex of the animal, but rather from the way it was handled and cared for.
i.e.... A 3 year old cow IMO is going to eat about as well as a 3 year old bull....all else being equal.
I think an old cow is about the hardest elk to kill on the mountain. Few folks with either sex tags that kill cows actually try to age them first ..... they are just stoked they killed an elk. Good for them, they actually have done something few folks on earth will ever do.
Those folks that age cows do so before they shoot them, I don't know of anyone with a cow tag looking to shoot the biggest headed ol thing in the herd..... bulls OTOH....
In other words... the test sample is a bit skewed....
5% beef in the burger
5% pork in the spicy breakfast sausage
For burger patties or meatloaf, I add oatmeal----
Good luck, Robb
The reason I ask is because I was at a buffet and they had very nice little beef steaks (6 - 8 oz) the first one I ate had a lot of fat all around it and it was one of the very best steaks I've ever eaten (no I didn't eat the fat).
The second one had no fat and had very little flavor.
Hence my question about leaving the fat on. Bob
With game I trim all off that I can, but a well marbled beef steak is melt in the mouth. The fat (again, IMO) is completely different, for whatever reason I don't know....
I was shown once how to tell if animal may be a bit "gamey" tasting..... trim off a bit of fat and fry it on a hot pan. The smell of it will tell you pretty quickly what you have.