Thread: What to do with this sika

Hubby got a young sika stag last week for the freezer. We decided to have a steak lastnight and it was the most gamey tasting meat I have ever tried. Very tender but VERY gamey! It was cooked in a hot well seasoned pan and finished with garlic butter.
Now I have a few steaks and roasts I’d love to make more edible if anyone of you good folk can please share your ideas and recipes to dull that strong flavour. We got bout 8kg of mince and had a crack at making some snags so I’m hoping that all tastes a bit better.
Thanks all!

Marinate in garlic.

Originally Posted by Woody

Marinate in garlic.

For a month? Haha.

americans seem to marinate a lot meat n stuff in "buttermilk"
whatever that is.
Full cream milk I assume.
maybe that may help

Originally Posted by widerange

americans seem to marinate a lot meat n stuff in "buttermilk"
whatever that is.
Full cream milk I assume.
maybe that may help

I’ll have to look that one up. We have plenty of full cream milk on farm.

Buttermilk is a culture kinda like yogurt.
It has lactic acid in it which can help with tenderness and strong flavors.

Gamey meat makes the best salamies.

Originally Posted by widerange

americans seem to marinate a lot meat n stuff in "buttermilk"
whatever that is.
Full cream milk I assume.
maybe that may help

Buttermilk is the leftover liquid from churning butter out of cream.

Store bought buttermilk is usually cultured, much like yogurt. It is used in baking much like sour milk.


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buy the hot'n'spicy coat and cook mix from the supermarket. slice the venison say like 10mm thick and cook like snitzel

i dont bother trying to cook roasts and fry backsteaks anymore. i either do the above or get turned into sausages

Originally Posted by mallard833

Buttermilk is the leftover liquid from churning butter out of cream.

Store bought buttermilk is usually cultured, much like yogurt. It is used in baking much like sour milk.


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I can make some butter at the same time then!

I have brined game meats and used buttermilk to good effect I think, but it's hard to say for sure unless you do a direct comparison with the same cuts from the same animal. Buttermilk is a thing, you can buy it or make a substitute with milk and lemon juice. I'm getting to the point where apart from backstraps, everything else is going to go in the mincer. Solves a lot of problems with game meat.

As an aside, I've got my first sika hunt coming up soon, is this what I've got to look forward to?

Originally Posted by mimms2

Some african/ middle east dishes for goat use yoghurt. Could do same.
Was it hung at all, or straight to the freezer.?
Was it a clean kill or it took a while - in which case the meat is probably adrenaline shot. Best remedy is to hook it up to the elctric fence while it's hanging. (for future reference)
Generally best to get meat off and bone out and cooled quickly. Then hung for a week.

Can also marinade overnight in coka cola, worchestshire sauce, your choice of spices and oil.

Could just be the animal's diet and time/place it was shot.

Was a week long trip, gutted right away and hung with skin on in the meat safe in the shade for 3 days and was a very cold week. Came home hung for another day, butchered and chilled. It’s all in the freezer now, I wonder if it will be ok to defrost and turn into snags and freeze again. I know that’s a big no for most though.
Iv heard coke is good to tame down wild pork so should work good.

Originally Posted by MB

I have brined game meats and used buttermilk to good effect I think, but it's hard to say for sure unless you do a direct comparison with the same cuts from the same animal. Buttermilk is a thing, you can buy it or make a substitute with milk and lemon juice. I'm getting to the point where apart from backstraps, everything else is going to go in the mincer. Solves a lot of problems with game meat.

As an aside, I've got my first sika hunt coming up soon, is this what I've got to look forward to?

We have a good mincer and salami and sausage kit so might just do the lot that way next time. I’m gonna give this buttermilk thing a go when I get time.
You’ll love hunting them, such vocal clever animals. We take one or two out this time every year before the roar, last years hind was brilliant, just done steaks and roasts, taken from the same area as this fella but two totally different animals, only took him because he had a buggered leg would have preferred a hind again.

Originally Posted by Chelsea

Was a week long trip, gutted right away and hung with skin on in the meat safe in the shade for 3 days and was a very cold week. Came home hung for another day, butchered and chilled. It’s all in the freezer now, I wonder if it will be ok to defrost and turn into snags and freeze again. I know that’s a big no for most though.
Iv heard coke is good to tame down wild pork so should work good.

No problem to freeze and then defrost to make sausages or salami and refreeze.

I save up shoulder meat in the freezer until I have enough to get decent batch of sausages made as reccomended by the butcher.

Try marinating in a berry marinade. Juniper berries I think are best. My mrs doesnt like gamey meat so she often does this and it's great.

Try marinading whole backsteak or cuts in 50ml olive oil, tsp crushed garlic, salt n pepper, dash of balsamic and squeeze half a lemon, the lemon juice seems to pull the game flavour out. Marinade over night or 4hrs min.
Also, try to thaw covered in the fridge, so the air doesn’t get to it, over a few days on a rack of some sort so it doesn’t sit in its own juice before marinading.
Cheers