Would you rather eat wild meat or free range?

Post Reply New Topic

I think I would rather hunt my own meat and eat it if I had the choice. I don't know if it's any healthier, but it seems like it would be if the meat was cooked correctly.

I am not sure since I never had wild game. I have had Cornish Game Hens and they smell like really bad fish. So, I don't know if I would like wild game that much. If I liked the taste, I wouldn't mind eating it. I don't know how good I would be at hunting it. I definitely do not want to clean and process it.

My mom used to grow chickens in our house. Their meat was pretty different from the chicken you buy at the supermarket. I also tried venison once. It was wild. The best meat I have ever tried. I have read a lot about the subject (I love cooking), and wild meat is healthier because of all the hormones they give to the animals grown for their meat, the poor feeding they receive (they feed better into the wild), and the little exercise they perform. Do yes, wild is better... but it tastes different... stronger, so it is not for everyone. But meat is not good for you anyway.

Wild animals often suffer from the presence of parasites to a degree worse than ranch animals because the ranch animals are more likely to be treated for what does appear.

In really bad cases, a wild animal may have abcesses so bad that the infection seriously taints every bit of meat in the animal.

That's a good argument for free range meat instead of feedlot raised.

For example, I'll take grass fed beef any day over grain fed beef. They don't put cattle in feedlots and feed them lots of grain to improve quality. No, they put cattle in feedlots and feed them lots of grain to bring them up to slaughter weight much quicker and thus cut the interest costs of keeping the beef longer. The resulting beef is both less expensive and lower quality.

That said, if you want grass fed beef, keep in mind that you have to adjust your cooking styles for the beef or you will not have really great results.

You can sometimes also find free range chickens and free range pork if you try. If you can find it, it is well worth the effort.

I'll go with either wild or organically farmed meat instead of the crap you buy at the supermarket. The industrially grown meat just has too much done to it in order to get a fast harvest and I feel that it is not healthy. The animals are forced to eat unnatural diets that they can't digest and they are then either drugged or genetically modified to make the farming system work.

Unfortunately though, I don't have much of a choice in the matter since I have a low income and can't afford to buy the foods I would prefer to have. Plus, I don't want to have to deal with killing my own food. I have nothing against it, it's just that I have grown up detached from my food's source and don't think I could deal with having to gut and clean an animal.

Neither.

I have heard some people talk about "gamey" tasting meat and how they don't like it. Do infections cause meat to taste gamier?

No. Generally just about any wild meat will taste "gamey" to one extent or another. That's just natural.

The abcesses really spoil the meat. Smaller abcesses may be cut away without a problem, but really bad abcesses can make the entire animal something you wouldn't even want to take home.

There is some kind of Alaska Fish and Wildlife tv show on the last year or two. In one of those episodes, a game warden was sent out to check out an animal that someone had shot and then left it there. It turned out that the problem was that the entire animal was so filled with infectious pus from abcesses that the hunter had no idea what to do except leave it there. There was nothing about the animal worth saving.

I've never personally seen one that bad, but then I don't hunt all that much any more.

I eat a ton of free range and game meat. I grew up in a place where hunting and farming are two staple occupations, so it came quite naturally. All meats tend to have their own taste and characteristics. For instance, deer has a stronger flavor than elk, and elk is quite delicate so you need to be careful with seasonings to avoid ruining the meat.

I'd be happier with either compared to discount grocery store strange meat. IE, 93/7 hamburger my mom bought there recently has spleens in it to make it redder. I knew that hamburger always tasted funny, then I tried some liver again recently and then was like "ah, what that dude on the internet said was true." I've had farm fresh eggs, much better than discount eggs, but twice as expensive.

Farm would be safer to eat generally. I've never really had wild meat, so no experience there.

Wild because I can come across more unusual meats.

Free range, hands down. I'm not a fan of the "gamey" taste. I was born and raised in Wyoming, where you could get buffalo and elk burgers at the local Hardee's.

All in the preparation and seasoning I could make you rabbit that was the best "chicken" you ever had. White tail are the most common large game here and the do have a stronger flavor than store bought meat and it has to do with there diet. You buy beef from the store that has been feed steroids and corn it will taste different than beef that was free range and ate 90% grass. The grass feed meats have a stronger taste in all animals.

Back to the original Question I deal with the people who grow the meat for my table so free range.

I'd definitely eat free range if I had to, if that's actually any healthier for you or more humane. It sure isn't less expensive, and I read in the next two decades the price of all food is going to at least double because of extreme weather and climate change. I have never liked wild game. It's not the shooting of wild animals I really have a problem with, to be honest, it's just the taste of the meat. And that was a bit of a problem during my childhood because my dad would go out hunting for deer, moose, rabbit, pheasant and what not, and I often had to eat it, which was gross. I find rabbits are too much like rodents (they aren't classified as rodents only because of their teeth, I think), and the fat on venison leaves this strange, "powdery" feel in the mouth. Once time not too long ago I came home to visit my parents and my dad and a bunch of meat pies made from an assortment game animals. I looked at the pies and said I sometimes wish pizzas lived in the woods. I didn't have to eat them, though. Where I live hunting, especially for deer, is popular with many Cape Bretoners of the previous generation (which is about what 80% of the island's current population is), and have no idea what a "vegan" is.

Actually, a warmer climate is likely to lead to a greater abundance of food, not less. Historically, when the Earth warmed up, there was more food and life was easier. It is when the climate turns cold that food becomes scarce.

If the price of food doubles over the next two decades, it is because of inflation (i.e. government theft from people who save money), not because of scarcities of food.