I would love to go mostly wild game, but wife isn't going for that. All mental in my opinion. I'll make her eat back straps and she says she likes them, but won't eat much of them. Oh well. She puts up with me being crazy about hunting so I'll deal with that no problem. She doesn't really go crazy for beef except burgers and steaks. She doesn't like jerky, sticks, etc even if it is beef. Probably part of it, because I make mostly jerky, sticks, sausage with my venison. Fun to grab something easy to eat. We have enough deer that we could eat only deer. We shoot enough to do so. Instead, I give some deer to our neighbor who can't eat any processed food. He has a bigger need than I do. Due to a health condition.
I find myself preferring venison over beef nowadays, and VERY rarely will buy beef. I honestly never thought I would be saying that. When I first starting cooking it myself, I was horrible. My cooking has improved big time, and I enjoy venison more than ever.
I don't really use more of one than the other. But I also get my own butchered beef and it's alot better than most of the crap from the stores.
Wife won't eat it. We are from two totally different ways of life. I love it but between request for meat I would be hard pressed to have enough left over for the winter. I take care of older family members and land owners first. I usually end up with hog meat but that on the grill, slow cooked or pulled is just as good. Down side to hog is no jerky but with my blood pressure probably should not eat it anyhow.
I haven't totally replaced beef with venison but if I can kill 3 or 4 deer a year I don't buy much beef! My family eats deer at least twice a week! We had it tonight venison cheesesteaks!
I'm the luckiest man alive after reading some of your guys posts! My gf loves venison and all wild game pretty much. We haven't bought ground meat from a store in a long time. Brats and steaks and stuff like that of course we still buy but anything that is ground beef is exchanged with ground venison or ground turkey.
No, because in all honesty if I were hunting to survive i think my approach might be a little different.
I guess that I'm lucky then, my wife loves just about all game meat. We only got 1 deer last season so we bought some beef for the first time in years. She usually will mix it with ground beef to help stretch the venison out and make it last. She made a lasagna a few weeks ago using beef and we both said that something was off then realized that it was the first time in years that she used straight ground beef instead of venison or moose. What a difference good tasty venison makes
I honestly can't remember the last time we bought ground beef, it's been a couple of years anyway. We still buy beef steaks occasionally but, I'd say 4 out of 5 "steaks" are either antelope, deer or elk.
Unfortunetly I have 3 daughters who do not eat Venison, and a vegetarian wife! I do take a little for myself, but I donate what I harvest! Sad state of affairs, I know!
When it comes to ground meat, it's 100% venison until I run out. Steaks and all is still beef. My wife doesn't like the taste of venison steaks. When I grind it into burger, I add about 10% beef, which takes the gamey taste out.
Buy beef only a few times per year when I need a greasy burger on grill or nice steak. Venison is major part of our cooking, primarily elk - which I prefer anytime over beef (except for greasy hamburger). With 4 growing/active kids - we go thru some serious meat. I also like elk/deer over beef for the health benefits, leaner protein, and no antibiotics/etc. My son got his first two deer last year, and second son going this year as well...I may be done shooting deer myself if they are going to start bringing home 4+ deer per year, especially on years I'm lucky enough to get an elk...but we also enjoy sharing the meat with others. Still buy a lot of chicken also...wish I was in county to raise our own...
