For avid hunters and their families and friends, enjoying the fruits of their labor is both a joy and a privilege. However, many people who have access to wild game don’t actually feel confident in their abilities to cook it as well as they would like.

If this is something that you’ve been struggling with, here are three tips for cooking with wild game that you’ve brought back home after a successful hunt

Learn How To Cook Certain Cuts Of Meat

How you cook the meat you get while hunting will be dependent upon what cuts you’re able to get. Not all the meat should be prepared or cooked the same way. Otherwise, you won’t be using the meat for the best purpose possible.

According to Jamie Carlson, a contributor to OutdoorLife.com, cuts of the animal that have a lot of connective tissue are going to be best prepared in stews or in other slow-cooked preparations. When cooked in this way, the connective tissues are able to break down enough that it isn’t hard to eat. As for backstraps or bigger cuts of meat from the hindquarters, you’ll want to cook those on the grill. If you try to put these cuts of meat into stew or prepare them in other ways, they can get stringy and won’t taste as good. 

Know When It’s Ready To Eat

Learning the right method of cooking the meat you get from wild game is only part of the battle. The next thing you need to perfect is knowing when the meat has been cooked correctly. While some meat needs to be left pretty rare, other meats should be well done in order to be considered its most delicious.

To help you with this, Eric Baker, a contributor to the Seattle Times, shares that you should plan to cook almost every form of wild game that you encounter until it’s either medium-rare or cooked slowly until it’s tender enough to pull apart. Generally, deer and elk will want to be more on the rare side so you can avoid gaminess. But most other cuts, especially ones where the sinew is very apparent, need to be cooked low and slow until it’s essentially falling apart. 

Try Some New Recipes

For many home chefs, cooking with wild game can be pretty intimidating. However, you’re never going to know how to cook with wild game unless you give it a try.

One way to make wild game easier to cook with and eat, according to Brad Fitzpartick, a contributor to AmericanHunter.org, is to start experimenting with some new recipes. You can find some great recipes online that will tell you exactly how to cook certain types and cuts of meat so that you can really enjoy the meat you’ve been able to bring home. 

If you’re wanting to hone your skill at cooking wild game, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you do this.