Venison vs beef -what’s the difference? Is it taste, texture, cooking methods? There’s lots to know about these two types of meats. Read on for a breakdown of the differences (and similarities!) that will make you an expert in the kitchen.
You may have heard how venison is a delicious and healthy substitute for beef and other red meats. But what is venison, exactly?The term venison refers to the meat (usually muscles, but also organs) obtained from deer. Originating from the Latin verb venari, meaning “to hunt,” the term was originally applied to several game meats including deer, rabbits, goats and pigs, but in recent centuries has narrowed down almost exclusively to deer (and in some cases, antelope).Like beef, venison can be broken down into several cuts and categories, including roast, sirloin, tenderloin and ribs. It can also be ground or cured to make venison sausages, burgers and jerky. In terms of taste and texture, venison is quite similar to beef, but with some subtle differences. While beef is generally fattier, venison is leaner and tends to have a richer, earthier taste because of the deer’s diet of acorns, plants and herbs in the wild. Some people call this flavor “gamey.”
While it can be an acquired taste, I find it much more comforting to know that the food I’m eating has eaten natural things, as opposed to being fed corn and grain in a feed mill. Given that deer are leaner than cows, venison is generally healthier to eat than beef. An average cut of venison, in fact, has around half the calories and a sixth the saturated fats of a similarly sized cut of beef. It also has more proteins, vitamins and minerals than beef. With venison’s rising popularity, there are loads of great venison recipes out there to try out. Generally speaking, it’s best to cook the most tender cuts (tenderloin, sirloin, etc) with quick-cooking methods like sautéing, broiling or grilling.
Tougher cuts such as shanks and shoulders should be roasted or slowly braised, while ground venison should typically be pan-broiled or sautéed.
When people describe venison taste and texture, they often use words like rich or earthy. You may get hints of the acorns, sage and herbs that were part of the diet of the deer. It’s also considered to be less juicy and succulent than beef, but also smoother and firmer.
The less juicy is typically due to the lower fat content. Simliar to lamb, it pairs well with minty, spicy and autumnal flavors in a way that beef doesn’t.
The gamey flavor
As different as cattle and deer are in physical characteristics and lifestyle — 1,300 pounds versus 90 to 300, confined versus wild — they vary even more in their flavor profile, with both meats influenced by the diet and lifestyle of the animal.
Venison tastes earthy — the result of deer feeding mostly on leaves, twigs, fruits and other foliage and their minimal amount of fat due to their active lifestyle. Beef, on the other hand, assumes a much fattier taste because of a diet consisting of hay, silage and grass and cows’ lethargic nature.
Another word commonly attributed to venison is gamey: this refers to the stronger flavor of an animal raised in the untamed wilderness instead of on a farm.
Some people appreciate wild game meat, but many who are used to farm-raised meat find it off-putting. You can easily disguise that gamey flavor with seasons and marinades if needed, and slowly grow to appreciate the taste of venison while using less over time.
As delicious, versatile and healthful as venison is — it’s lower in fat and calories than beef and has important vitamins and minerals — it is distinctive and deserving of its own culinary feature.
Beef doesn’t have any of this type of flavoring, as most of the cattle raised and consumed in the US are from feed lots and are raised on a diet of grain and corn.
Top 3 venison cooking tips
There are a few tips that can help when starting to work with venison that can make the process easier and help you adapt to the difference in flavor. Here are my top three tips to start with!
- Use a marinade. Because venison lacks the fat of beef, it is easy to dry it out while cooking it. Marinating the meat for several hours to up to a day before cooking it — as opposed to using a lot of salt, which will dry it out — will help it retain some moisture, making it juicer. Use flavors that will complement, not override, the deer meat taste.
- Remove all of the fat and silver skin. Unlike beef, retaining a deer’s fat is not the way to make venison juicier. It can lead to the gamey taste that people sometimes complain of and to an unpleasant coating on the inside of your mouth. Silver skin is the term used when referencing the connective tissue on the outside of tenderloins and venison steak. You want to remove this with a sharp knife (we use our boning knife from Bloodroot Blades here).
- Cut thicker slices of meat. Because it cooks faster than beef, venison is better when cut thicker so as to avoid overcooking and drying it out. Venison is done when it reaches approximately 145℉. That means it should be served slightly pink in the center, which will help retain some of its moisture. Some of the best venison I’ve ever had was cooked as a roast to medium-rare/medium and then thinly sliced after cooking.
Reasons for tough venison
If you’re dealing with meat from old bucks you may find it a bit tougher. Cuts from older deer are ones you would want to braise or simmer for a long time, or turn into ground meat.
If the animal was stressed before or during the hunt, it may have had a lactic acid buildup in its muscles, which can also cause the meat to become tough.
Making sure not to overcook it and retaining a tender texture will also be key to eliminating the chances of tough venison.
Will I get sick from eating venison?
Just like with any meat, that depends on how it was obtained, stored, and prepared.
When Brandan shot his first deer, he field dressed it, quartered it, and brought it home in a cooler. Yikes. We sanitized our kitchen, then got to work with some clean, sharp knives and instructional you tube videos and did some novice butchering as best as we could.
We kept everything cold, working with one piece at a time and returning it to ice if we felt it was getting too warm. That said, the limitations of the butchering environment here were many.
This past year he shot another deer, and I told him he needed to take it to the processor. He dragged it through the woods, lifted it up in the back of a pickup truck (woof), field dressed it when he reached the campground and then took it to the processor. (Field dressing is where you take out the insides and the non-edible parts and leave them in the field so its clean and less to carry; you can find more details and how it’s done here.)
An experienced processor has meat saws to make the job easier and follows strict sanitary precautions when dealing with wild meats, so that’s the safest route.
Most deer hunters will field dress their deer. Warm weather can make it go rancid faster, so it’s important to know what you’re doing and work quickly, or get it to someone who does.
Does deer taste like beef?
Venison IS red meat, so there are some similarities in the flavor profile to beef. However, I think a lot of people are disappointed when they cook venison like beef because while there are similarities, venison has a lower fat content, lives in a “wild” setting, and is a different species of animal. So no, it doesn’t taste like beef – and you shouldn’t cook it like beef.
Wild animals taste wild because they are wild animals. Period. They consume wild living organisms to survive, they have free-range lifestyles, and withstand the elements of nature. This is a different life than even pasture-raised and finished animals have.
That said, there are a number of my recipes that the flavor of venison will work in and you can easily sub in for beef. If you follow me on Instagram, you know my son makes this Cabbage Roll Soup recipe on the reg, and we just recently made it with venison and it turned out delicious. Other recipes we have converted include turning my beef stew into a venison stew, using ground venison to make deer meat tacos, and making teriyaki venison jerky.
If you really want to taste the difference, do a taste test! Cook up a bit of ground beef and a bit of ground venison and taste them side by side. Or, cook up some small steaks of each and see which one you think is better tasting.
Where to get venison
Wild meat and game animals are just that – wild. You can’t buy them at the grocery store. They’re not raised commercially in the United States (but they are farm raised in other places, like New Zeland!)
If you know someone who hunts deer, ask them if they’ll give you a couple of steaks or some venison burger to try. More than likely they are incredibly proud of obtaining their own meat and will be more than happy to share a it with you, as well as tell you about venison’s flavor and all of their tips on cooking venison!
If you don’t know any deer hunters, and you don’t live in New Zeland, there are many places you can order venison online. A quick search for me yielded Wild Fork, Force of Nature, Silver Fern Farm, Broken Arrow Ranch, and D’artagnan.
I’ve never ordered from any of these, so I can’t speak to their products, but I do think there’s a benefit to adding game animals into your rotation of proteins.
Beef and venison nutrition facts
When it comes to nutrition facts, the difference between these two is pretty straightforward. Deer are naturally leaner and wilder animals than cattle. Venison—even taken from a cornfed buck in the Midwest—has less fat than beef does.
For example, three ounces of lean beef contains 247 calories and 15 grams of total fat. Three ounces of venison contain 134 calories and only 3 grams of total fat.
Most importantly, venison contains about one sixth the amount of saturated fat that beef does. Venison also has more protein: 26 grams to 23 grams in beef. The only category in which venison loses is cholesterol: 95 mg to 76 mg in beef, according to Livestrong.com.
Venison also has more vitamins and minerals per serving than beef does. It has advantages in iron, vitamin B6, niacin, and riboflavin.
Venison serving tips
Venison has a rich flavor that can pair well with many different things. The season or time of year the deer is from will also make a difference, because it will have eaten different things at different times of year, which will change the flavor of the meat.
A wild deer’s diet can vary greatly. Don’t be afraid to use strong flavor ingredients to pair with the earthy flavor of the venison. Ingredients like peppercorn, juniper, or cacao can give a distinct flavor while complimenting the venison’s taste.
And, if you’re not ready to get bold with flavors, it will still be delicious prepared simply – some salt and pepper or a simple marinade will let the rich, unique flavor of the venison shine.
