What taste better? LI deer or Upstate deer

[the blur]

I just compared a Long Island deer that ate the farmers grapes until the farmer shot him, to an upstate deer that lived in the woods.

No question the grape eating deer tasted better.

[NYBowhunter]

I'll take my plump apple and corn fed upstate deer over any other.

[pistolp71]

I eat both on a regular basis and my vote is upstate deer taste better. Guess it just depends on what they are eating though.

[Mike G]

I think the better question would be - what taste best, agricultural land fed deer or woods fed deer. No question what the answer is.

[bkln]

send me both backstraps and I will tell you :-)

[tughillhunter]

Deer eatin from the apple trees and farmer fields...... delicious...... Deer in the hemlock woods.... not so delicous, but still good.

[Red]

it depends wich one was cooked on the grill lol

[grifflvc]

Upstate is the truth.

[noahmstone]

I've never had LI deer but upstate deer tastes pretty d@mn good!!!

[Ford]

Same.

[erussell]

Fawns tastes the best no matter what thier eating or where they are from.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Most of the deer I eat are all ag land deer, and they taste great. The only time I've had venison that tased better, was from a monster buck that a friend of a friend shot in Iowa. The deer was aged at 4 1/2 and tasted fantastic.

[SteveB]

Depends on what you consider upstate - lots of varied territory north of the city.

[nyantler]

I have eaten deer from all over NY ... I usually don't eat raw meat, so how any deer tastes is entirely dependent on the cook.... I have had fawn that has tasted awful, and 8 year old buck that has been delicious... it's all about the cook my friends.

[letinmfly]

Obviously what a deer eats will play into the flavor of the meat. However, more has to do with the proper and timely fashion in which the meat is handled.

I always allow my deer to age, weather permitting, before I butcher it. As mentioned in a previous post, the biggest factor is the cook. If the cook doesn't know how to cook the venison it'll never taste good. I hear people say that they don't like it because it's gamey, that's only because they have never eaten it when it was cooked correctly.

[Geno C]

to be honest with you there is not much of a difference at all... i take an LI deer and upstate deer every year and there really is not much of a difference. i have had a few LI deer that were very tender perhaps due to the flat terrain in the area i hunt on LI? compared to the hilly terrain upstate? but other then that if a guy can say on 6 different plates which exactly was LI vs upstate id like to meet him!

its 6 of one half dozen of the other...

[Early]

All deer taste good. Good venison on the table starts with the field dressing...skinning/butchering...proper storage...and cooking techniques: do all of this correctly and you will have good meat. Notice I did not mention aging....I sometimes butcher them the same day they are shot... sometimes after hanging a few days...no difference in the meat, that I can detect.

[damore81]

I cant tell you about LI deer however Adirondack mountain deer is definitely not as good as the deer I take on my land in Schoharie county. I once had the opportunity to take a Adirondack deer and I prepared it the same way I prepare my deer from my land and there was a big difference.

[Pygmy]

I have never even SEEN a LI deer, much less eaten one.

However I have killed a few "big woods" whitetails from southern Potter County PA,where it is predominantly forested with very few farm crops.

They tend to taste stronger than my local farm country whitetails taken here in Steuben County, which have much more access to farm crops.

[Suilleabhain]

I have eaten 4 types of NY deer. Long Island come in flavor varieties. The south shore deer that eat a lot of the wild beach plums and such have very dark meat, the one I had was ebony colored and it was gamey to the max. I had another from the farm areas and he was good, lighter in color. I've had lower Catskill hardwoods deer and they are better, normal colored meat. And I've had agro deer from Erie County, the best of them all.

[hunterman7956]

Just my opinon but a butcher i bring my deer to showed me deer gutted out that had mud and debris, urine and deer droppings still inside the body cavity. Most hunters don't clean their deer properly. Every year same thing ! So how can it taste as good as a properly gutted deer ? I agree with Early preparation is the key.

[Nomad]

Well I never had L.I. deer and can't really pin down just what "upstate" is other then perhaps all the state not LI and NYC..... Which leaves everything from mountains to farms, to rocky not so good farms, to vinyards of the Finger Lakes, to suburban bush eating deer, and on and on.

Our ag deer full of corn,beans,wheat and hay taste quite good though.

I agree its prep work and cooking to a large part .

[A Sportsman]

This is a cool topic. I've shot several catskill mountain deer and several Long Island deer. In general, I think the Long Island deer taste better. (My LI deer are fed mostly on acorns.) BUT, once you factor in the deer itself, things change. For instance, I'd take a catskill doe over a rutting LI buck. It is without question that some deer really do taste better than others. I never had an "agro" deer, but I bet they are real good. how could they not be. Like someone said above, fawns are great. I only shot two in my time. But they were the best.

[nyantler]

Sorry guys but I really have to laugh... I'll bet anyone on the forum that I can cook up venison and not a single one of you can tell me where the deer came from, how old the deer was, or what sex it was... even if the venison tastes like $h*T. Then afterwards I could tell you whatever I wanted and you wouldn't know either way. I'm not saying that some deer do not taste differently.. just that... how venison tastes is all about the cooking... the better the cook the better the meat.

For example.. I always thought that venison ribs sucked!.. until a friend of mine who is a great chef cooked me some... it was probably some of the best venison I ever had... I have had gamey, tough, tender, sweet... all kinds of venison... always the best venison is the one cooked by someone that knows how to cook, no matter where it comes from... it's entirely about the cook... my mother-in-law could definitely take a tender piece of fawn backstrap and make it taste like a boot..So, much for fawn being the best... LOL

[A Sportsman]

I hear you NYAntler. There is no question that the abitlity of the chef has sooooo much to do with how the venison tastes. But, if the same person is cooking the venison, the "who is cooking the meat?" argument is moot. The fact remains that some meat is simply better than other meat (just like at the supermarket). And in several of our opinions, the fawns are better. Taken a step further, if a great venison cook is given a super gamey 7 year old rutting buck to cook. He may be able to dampen/disquise the gamey taste enough to where the meal is good. But that doesn;t mean the quality of the meat was on par with a fawn. It just means the chef is superb.

I've heard guys say that they don;t mind the gamey taste, and actually like it to a certain degree. I don;'t like it though I;ll tolerate it when I shoot a gamey deer and/or screw up a meal here or there. When i say I like fawn meat, one could read that simply as I don;t like gamey venison. For the guys that like the gaminess in the meat, I guess this thread is strictly about the tenderness of the meat. Either that or they're just puzzled by the whole thread.