Venison for the table... Rank deer by species?

[East Coast Lifeboat]

Good Afternoon All,
I'm interested to better understand how others rank the taste of different UK deer species.

 

[long_range_rob]

Muntjac, roe, cwd in that order. The larger species are fine but I much prefer the little ones.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Perfect timing! We just had a fallow roast yesterday and agreed it was as good as yearling red and second only to Roe. Haven’t seen, shot or cooked the others but if anyone delivers to NI…………

 

[Henns]

For me Roe, Muntjac and Fallow are all pretty good if a young animal and hung nicely. I'd have to rank Sika next, then CWD definitely in last place. I've never tried Red.

 

[biffo]

Young fallow, muntjac, sika, roe, cwd , red.

 

[willie_gunn]

Visited The Great House in Lavenham a week ago and enjoyed their tasting menu.

The main course was this grilled muntjac saddle, which was without doubt the finest venison I've had the pleasure to eat.



We eat a lot muntjac and roe, and some fallow, but muntjac invariably comes at the top in the taste stakes. First-time venison customers also comment on how delicious muntjac is.

 

[Dickie]

This is one of those each to their own, the way the deer was handled, the way it was butchered, cooked etc etc.

 

[Marchman]

Recently new to stalking so I have only had muntjac and sika. Both very tasty and tender. So I won't do the poll at this time.
I have eaten other venison from butchers/restaurants but they never state what species it is.
Wonder why the packs of venison sold in shops/butchers don't label accordingly?

 

[VSS]

In order, starting with the best:

Fallow
Roe
Muntjac
Sika
Red
CWD

 

[Phil fox man]

by all accounts the one that's in the back of my truck at the time!

 

[Frank Homes]

In order, starting with the best:

Fallow
Roe
Muntjac
Sika
Red
CWD

I'd be willing to bet that in a blind tasting you wouldn't score 6/6

 

[Norfolk Deer Search]

Roe
Muntjac
Fallow
Cwd
Red
Sika

 

[Tazz]

CWD
Munty
Roe

 

[foxdropper]

Slow cooked with red wine you’d have a job to single out any one as better .Love it .

 

[provarmint]

Munty
Roe
Fallow

 

[deerstalker.308]

Red followed by red, red and red. Somewhere down the list is fallow followed by munty and roe. Don’t have/haven’t had enough CWD to judge but it wouldn’t get close to red. Did I mention I like red?

 

[foxdropper]

What makes the difference I’m guessing is how it’s matured after shooting .Used to eat roe and muntie next day as I couldn’t wait to eat it but prefer to hang chilled for a week out of the fur and far better .Teaching that fact would eliminate bias for a lot of larger game I’d guess .Small game is the only thing not requiring maturing in my experience .Green pheasants don’t do it for me

 

[Norfolk Deer Search]

What makes the difference I’m guessing is how it’s matured after shooting .Used to eat roe and muntie next day as I couldn’t wait to eat it but prefer to hang chilled for a week out of the fur and far better .Teaching that fact would eliminate bias for a lot of game I’d guess .Small game is the only thing not requiring maturing in my experience .Green pheasants don’t do it for me

I have just butchered 2 roe that have been hung 21 days it will taste awesome

 

[foxdropper]

Nice mate .We have Dexter steaks tonight 21 days matured .Bottle of perroni .To die for .

 

[Dafydd1983]

I’ve only tasted fallow, munty, roe and Red, and I rank them in that order. I think a lot has to be said about how they are cooked, personally o season with salt pepper and some garlic, fried medium rare, perfect.