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[alsatian]

This past October my son took a buck pronghorn and I took a doe pronghorn. Up until last night, we had only eaten meat from my doe, which tasted much like venison but with a little extra zip or spiciness to it. My wife and oldest daughter actually preferred it to our customary venison.

Last night we had a roast from my son's buck, and meat had a distinct flavor. My wife, my sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law liked the meat a lot. My wife again said she preferred this meat to venison. To me the meat tasted like the meat itself smelled and as the inside of the pronghorn smelled when I field dressed it, which is a little off-putting and disconcerting. I don't think the flavor is a "wrong" flavor, and I don't think it is a spoiled flavor. I'm tempted to say that it is a sage brush flavor, such as I have heard other people say about the taste of pronghorn meat. I'm cautious to use this tone because I don't know what it is supposed to mean! Having never eaten sage brush myself, what is is supposed to taste like?!

Is this likely to be the "sage brush" flavor people sometimes attribute to antelope meat? Is it a taste that you grow used to? For the record, the animal died within 10 feet of where it was hit and did not run. It was a single shot kill. We field gutted the animal prompty, probably 15 minutes after the kill. The outside temperature was about 50 degrees. I had the animal quartered and on ice within probably 4 hours. The animal did not run but fell about 10 feet from where he was shot. We drove 15 minutes to the taxidermist's house in town

[2506deerslayer]

I actually prefer to eat pronghorn over the stinky old mulies that I usually shoot, haha, but I love both of them, I just marinade them up during the day and then grill them up, but I am from nebraska and where I hunt there is no sage, but I have heard that the sage will give them a distinct taste, and I have noticed that the bucks will probably have a little stronger taste anyways,, I guess it all goes with the territory.

[mister_venison]

A friend of mine hunts antelope often, and said the "sage" flavor is a result of leaving the hide on. They skin their animals immediately and they don't have that taste. Worth a try, I guess.

[alsatian]

Well, I certainly hope to do more pronghorn hunting in the future, and I'll try the immediate skinning thing next time.

[shatodavis]

mister_venison wrote: A friend of mine hunts antelope often, and said the "sage" flavor is a result of leaving the hide on. They skin their animals immediately and they don't have that taste. Worth a try, I guess.

Yep, You have to skin them as quick as possible. And chill them even quicker. Buy two or three bags of ice and shove them up in the chest cavity to speed up the chilling of the meat. just my two cents

[Hiker]

I love to Goatalope hunt.
I remember right after I got married.....I pulled into the garage after work, opened my door and smelled something cooking...my bride was cooking dinner for us. I could smell the stench and ask her.."Honey what ya Cookin"? "Antelope Burgers"....she says...I asked her "well did ya put anything in em"?...No. I said "sweety that meat is pretty strong tasten without anything added to it". Well we sat down to eat, 2 or 3 bites later I was choken.... Well that was along time ago and she has turned into one the best cooks around. We have folks over all the time and they eat, Bear, Pronghorn, Deer, Elk and love every bite. We usually don't tell em what they've eatin til a few days later and they're shocked....they say "That was Buffalo!" well, I would have never guessed, that tasted great".
I have learned a few things that help Pronghorns taste better.
A. Don't run em! Shoot em when they're relaxed.
B. Skin them right away, I skin em when I gut em and put them in a deer bag, cheese cloth and as was mentioned before as soon as you can put em in ice.
C. Cook the meat in something strong, i.e. Fajitas, Burritos, Sloppy Joes, etc.

[AZThunder]

Not sure I agree with getting the hide off immediately for taste. A buddy of mine shot one in N.E. AZ (we both live there) several years ago, a clean shot and instant kill. Went back to the truck to get our gear and field dress it, only to discover we had no knife! Hey, it happens. To end, it was about 10 hrs later when we got it field dressed and skinned. The meat was as good as any wild game I've ever had, including elk. Not a hint of sage what-so-ever, in fact it tasted a lot like beef to me. It may have been a one-in-a-million thing, but thought you'd like to hear it can be quite tastey.

AZThunder

[mister_venison]

I was lucky enough to get two antelope in WY last fall. Buck and doe. Just skinning them, their hair has that strong sage smell. And the entire hide stinks. Yet, all of my meat and my friends' meat tastes great with no sage taste at all. All but one of ours was shot while running. Maybe it's different depending on how much sage is around. There's tons of sage where we hunted. They were all skinned within 30 minutes of being killed.

[BigCallin]

Of all the animals i hunt, Mulies and Antelope are the "worst." Quick story. Had a buddy over for supper when I was in college. My wife cooked elk meat from a cow and he loved it. So much so that he asked if I had any other wild game to try. My wife cooked him some mulie hamburger a couple of weeks later, and he could not choke down his third bite. Now obviously, there is a huge difference between elk and mulie meat. With that said, some mule deer I have eaten, the sage taste was almost not there. That particular mulie was prolly not the one to break a newbie out with, because it was one of the sagiest i have ever eaten, and I have eaten everything from the root to the toot on at least one mule deer, as well as antelope, since I was 14. Judging by your description and excellent field care, I would say that the animal could have been an older one. A quick and very loose way to judge old to young is the teeth. The above mentioned mulie was pretty old, that coupled with the area he lived in is what I figure gave him the wild, wild taste he had. And what does sage brush taste like, you ask? Have you ever smelled it? It tastes just like that. Almost like you can taste the smell. Sounds crazy, but that is the only way I can explain it. I love antelope meat, and while it is different from mulie (quite a bit) some goat I have eaten has a comparable sage taste. I always attribute the taste of the animal to age of the animal first, how hard it was run, and where (what part of the state) I shot the animal. Just my humble opinion, though.

[debbie h]

Hmmmmm.... I have to say, that I would put the flavour of Antelope meat below Deer meat. Number one for me is Moose meat of coarse. Where we hunted, it was nothing but Sage, and although the smell doesn't bother me, the taste was grainy, and had that " dirty sock " texture. Not really sure what dirty socks taste like, but I am sure if I had to eat one, that is what it would taste like. My Antelope didn't run, infact he waited there while I got the bi-pods down on my rifle before deciding that I was not another antelope. He was just starting to turn around, when I shot him with a .270. He fell on his butt right there. The rest of the family loves it, while I only just like it.

[Hiker]

Debbie,
Thanks for being honest. Some people love the taste of Pronghorns and others don't. We like to grill the meat and make fajitas with it.

[debbie h]

Hiker, do you marinate the meat at all for either the grill,or the fajitas? I am sure there is always going to be antelope here, so having some good ways to cook it to possible remove some of that taste I don't like would be great to have.

[Hiker]

Debbie,

We always marinate the antelope meat. When we make fajitas we cut the meat into 1' wide strips, we use the normal fajita packets, that you can purchase at the grocery store, and soak the meat for a few hours prior to grilling. While the meat is grilling, we brush on the sauce as well. Antelope meat, like most wild game, dries out very quickly, so try not to over cook it.

We also use the burger for burritos, sloppy joes, hamburger helper, tacos. Basically anything that has flavoring, which will help cover the gamey taste.

For steaks we marinate them in oil and montreal steak salt for a few hours before we grill them. We like to use a lot of montreal steak salt.

The crock pot can be your best friend when fixing game meat. The key is to keep it moist with water and other seasonings. Cooking over time also makes the meat more tender. Roasts and steaks taste great this way. You can use cream of mushroom soup or other soups and then add veggies, onions and spices with water and let it cook all day. Stew is also a great way to go.

I would say the main thing to remember is to NEVER cook it plain. That just seals in the gamey taste. Anything you can add to it to disguise the flavor and add moisture to it is only going to make it taste better.

[debbie h]

Thanks Hiker. I have used the burger in chili, and there was still no mistaking the antelope. It wasn't awful, but it was there. I'll try some of your suggestions.

Take care,

[Hiker]

Debbie, I would also marinate the chili burger before cooking it.