So, you don’t like the taste of wild game and fish? That’s a question I found myself asking several times over the past few weeks. The answer often came back that it was “gamey” or “fishy” tasting, and I fully understand, that’s not a taste I would care for either. After partaking in some poorly prepared wild game, I suspect that some people grew up thinking that all wild game and fish had that unfavorable taste-not so.

There are also a lot of us who hunt and fish that absolutely love the taste of the wild game and fish that we bring home, and I’m guessing that a lot has to do with how it’s prepared. When I say prepared, I’m not necessarily referring to the cooking process, although that’s important too, but rather what happens to the game shortly after it’s acquired.

When it comes to fish, I’m especially partial to panfish and walleyes; they are great tasting, and panfish are so prolific in most cases it doesn’t hurt the population to remove some within reasonable limits. I have never detected a “fishy” taste in panfish or walleyes, but I have experienced that taste years ago in bass and members of the pike family. I don’t keep bass partly because I find their taste less desirable, but more so because I prefer to release them to be caught again another day.

The fish that we take through the ice in the dead of winter are definitely superior since they come from cold water into even colder air, and the meat remains firm. Admittedly fish taken during these warm days of summer may be subject to less firm flesh and thus less desirable on the dinner plate. During the warmer months, to help preserve their firmness and flavor, it wise to keep them alive in a live well until you get home and start to fillet them immediately. If you are not in a boat with a live well, use a stringer and keep the fish alive in the water until you leave. It would also be a good idea to have a cooler with ice for the trip home. To make your fish even more desirable, learn to fillet them, thus eliminating all bones and removing the scaly skin. My new son-in-law was recently “reintroduced” to some of those great panfish fillets; he liked them so much he had me demonstrate filleting techniques.

We all know people who say they had venison and they don’t like it, and here again, I suspect that the problem may start with how it was handled right after it was taken. I’ve seen some hunters gut a deer with little regard for working around the bladder and intestines; these are not fluids you want pouring out over the hindquarter meat that you plan to turn into steaks. One good way to remove these undesirable innards is to use one of those small saw blade tools and carefully cut through the bone on the inside between the two hind legs and then remove the entrails carefully.

I like to hang my deer inside my garage away from the sun, windblown particles, and other critters who might want to sample it ahead of me. I let my deer hang for at least ten days as long as the temperature remains cold enough. My guess is a lot of meat processors do the same with their beef. Here’s where I will probably run into some disagreement though, I keep the hide on my deer until I’m ready to butcher. Most hunters remove the hide immediately; we’ve been told that if you don’t remove it right away, it ruins the taste. That is not the case. I read a study done by Penn State years ago that revealed otherwise. Also, keeping the hide on keeps the meat clean and away from the drying effect of the surrounding air. I’ve been processing all my deer that way for the past 15 years, and the venison has been tender and great tasting.

Of course, we want to do everything we can to preserve and care for our wild game before it becomes dinner, and how it’s prepared once in the kitchen is also important, but that’s somewhat outside my comfort zone. I made Corn Flakes cereal the other day for dinner for my wife and me, but I wasn’t sure how much sugar to add.