Every wild game meat guide on the site, in one place. Six of them so far, all free, all written out step by step.
Game is where field care decides everything. Most of what people call gamey flavor is not the animal, it is what happened between the shot and the cooler. Each of these guides deals with the specific problem that animal presents, and they are genuinely different problems.
The Guides
- How to Butcher a Deer (Venison) — the one most people start with, and the guide that connects hunting to the kitchen.
- How to Butcher an Elk — deer's problems at roughly three times the weight.
- How to Butcher a Moose — the largest animal most people will ever butcher. Scale is not a detail here, it is the whole problem.
- How to Butcher a Bear — the one where the butchery is ordinary and the food safety is not.
- How to Butcher a Wild Boar — the same species as the pig in the butcher case, and almost nothing about handling it is the same.
- How to Butcher a Pronghorn Antelope — the worst reputation of any North American big game animal, and almost entirely undeserved.
Field Care Is the Whole Game
Nothing you do on a cutting board recovers an animal that was handled badly in the first hour. Cool it fast, keep it clean, keep it dry. That is most of the difference between meat people rave about and meat people apologize for.
Heat is the enemy. A carcass holds its own warmth far longer than seems reasonable. Getting the body cavity open and the air moving matters more than speed anywhere else in the process.
Hair and gut contact are the two contamination routes. Both are avoidable, both are much easier to avoid than to fix afterwards.
Wild animals are lean and they worked for a living. There is no fat cap doing you favors. That changes both how you trim and how you cook, and every guide here says how for that animal.
A Note on Bison
Bison is filed with the large domestic animals rather than here, because most bison that reaches a kitchen is farmed. The guide is over here if that is what you are looking for.
The Other Guides
Once It Is Broken Down
Lean meat is unforgiving, and a marinade or a good sauce does more work here than it does with domestic cuts.
Who Is Writing This
I am Chef Alan. I have spent 35 years in professional kitchens, I have formal culinary education in New Hampshire, and I have been honored as a 6-Time 4-Diamond Chef. More about me here.
If a guide is missing something you needed, or a step did not make sense, tell me. Get in touch and I will fix it.
Cook Bolder, Serve Wiser, Eat Better.