One my favs is season with sea salt, pepper, some cajun spice, then slice the meat tp place a sliver of garlic in the meat, wrap in bacon on the outside edge, place them on the skewer just to hold the bacon and cook on the barbie about 5-7 mins a side on med heat. I just love the recipes of thebarbec.com- should be rare (med-rare at most). It melts in your mouth & while the bacon does give it some moisture and smoke flavour it doesn't taste like bacon or over power the vension flavour. I have never had anybody refuse seconds and it is so simple

J cook nailed it in the first post 1000 percent.

Generally between the two choices the OP mentioned, I've found a big, fat doe to be better eating over a rutting buck, but as was mentioned, a whole lot depends on diet, whether the deer was alarmed or calm when shot, if it dropped in it's tracks or gave a lengthy chase, etc. Also time before deer was dressed out, weather (temperature), and whether or not the meat was hung for a few days. Gut shot meat or poorly field dressed or improperly cleaned carcass can also spoil an otherwise good harvest.
In all honesty, the best venison I ever ate was from a button buck. The meat was so soft and tender you could cut it with a butter knife.

I don't think I have eating Whitetail but I have ate a ton of Muledeer and I ate a couple of Blacktail, Elk, Blackbear and Hog and I love eating all of it never had a bad piece of meat . My favorite meat is Pronghorn I have heard all the stories about how bad they taste but to me I love it .

Yeah Capt Kirk, I once shot an antlerless deer about 25 years ago with my bow from my treestand.
When I blood trailed it and found it I felt bad it was so small. 60lbs whole weight button buck at check station. GFC officer smiled and said "it'll be so tender you can cut it with a fork".


Another time at our church cook out a friend asked me "how do you get the wild taste out"?
I smiled and said "Go to the grocery store"

If I'm out to get meat I really like a fallow spiker. Good trade off with being young, but more meat on it than a young doe. Only downside is you could be shooting something that could grow into a monster in a few years, but that's the choice I make sometimes.

Some of the best venison I've ever eaten has been bucks who have only JUST scraped their velvet off, but before the rut has started. This is when I've seen the most fat coverage on a deer and a deer presents as being in the best possible condition, but it has a lot to do with the feed over summer. The best I've seen is when we've had a fairly wet summer and the deer have been in areas where there is a lot of feral blackberry.

At the end of the day, I'm not fussy. We eat dozens of deer a year down here, all the way from the oldest and ruttiest bucks in April to the youngest deer you'd be willing to shoot.

I believe the variation between eating quality has a lot more to do with the type and quality of feed and the quality of the season, than can be said for overall age/sex of the deer.

Yearling doe or mature buck...They taste the same as long as they're taken care of properly from field to freezer. 

Ha!

Fawns may feed your family but big racks feed the whole neighborhood.   

I prefer 200# plus boar hogs over anything. Loins, shoulders, hams, n sausage. 

More is better, I'll take the biggest in the group if I can be it hogs or deer.  Venison all tastes the same to me for the last 40 years.

I have never shot or will ever shoot a fawn unless I'm starving. Nor a fawn's mother.

For Whitetail I believe it's mainly about the kill and how much care you take in cleaning the animal.

To me, besides proper field dressing and cooling down, THE most important part of quality tasty venison is the butchering.  I never let a blade pass through any bone.  Firstly, venison marrow is horrible, when a band saw passe through a bone for steaks, that marrow is smeared across that steak. Second is fat.  The fat at best, is mildly nasty, at the worst, pungently nasty.  Plus, it is not like beef, pork, or even bear fat. It will congeal in your mouth and offer a most unpleasant experience.  Trim it all away, as much as you can.  Boneless processing not only offers better tasting venison, it also cuts down on the freezer space a little bit.  Vacuum sealing is the final step to prevent freezer burn and give it the ability to last for years without any ill effects.

The best eating deer I had was a big muly buck I shot in the badlands . I quarerted it and pulled the straps and put them in my cooler covered with ice . It was warm out and the ice would melt and turned to blood water I would drain it and add more ice more ice  for7 days . It was tender and tasty. I think I have had better muledeer than whitetails and antelope is the best I only had one bad one and it tasted like an antelope smells I shot it in October after the rut . I dont shoot fawns either but I will take a doe if its late in the  season .

I like to hang my deer as well.  I am building a new cabin and am having a new meat cooler delivered Friday. That way I can hang the deer and don't have to cut it up if it's warm. Plus it will keep the beer cold.

When they are ground up, it doesn't matter to me.

I agree with many of the previous replies saying if meat is handled and cooked well I really cant tell any difference. One exception that come to mind though was a buck I shot in 2017. The deer had a real odd gait, a limp actually. Must have been injured in past and healed. No major sign of wounds when I skinned and butchered. This deer wasn't a big old deer either, if i had to guess id say 2.5 year old 8 pt, anyway this thing was so tough I had to braise everything even chops from the backstrap. Never had a deer like that 1 before or since. Tasted great but man was it tough!! I guess healing from whatever happened in past may have knotted his muscles up tight?  I dont know

I've eaten many of both, and can't tell any difference!!!! I do age my deer meat.

Bisch

Quote from: blacktailbob on August 03, 2022, 03:20:19 PM
Another time at our church cook out a friend asked me "how do you get the wild taste out"?
I smiled and said "Go to the grocery store"

Been asked same question a few times .... gonna borrow that answer