Recipes, soaks, and marinades for gamey, wild meat

Granted, my nose is more sensitive in general and even more so since pregnancy, buy I'm holding my breath every time I have to open the fridge.

Meat is often shared around the neighborhood, so we get a portion of whatever happens into the neighborhood cage trap. Mostly deer, and boar, but sometimes tanuki, badger, or even civet.

We thawed out some badger, and it is the stinkiest, most gamey meat I have smelled or tasted so far....curry powder helped some.

Internet says the same few things: buttermilk, vinegar, saltwater....

I imagine Permies have some great recipes, soaks, marinades, etc. that taste great and are effective in reducing the gamey smell and flavor.

Please share yours!

Brandy is a good marinade for removing the gamey flavor from wild boar. Soak it overnight & cook it low & slow.

Tomato juice or sauce. Pineapple juice. Lime juice. Anything acidic seems to work well. I recall a gamey old buck that my dad shot one year, my mom would put it in the crock pot with pineapple juice for several days. Was quite good that way. Lime and red chili makes good work of gamey pork.
I'm with Mike Barkley, low and slow helps a lot. Never tried brandy though.

I like to marinade in something acidic, then brown the meat, sautee some onion, garlic, celery and spices, add back the meat along with some broth, wine/dark beer, a splash of vinneagar and bake at about 325 for a couple hours

Great advice on game meats. Thanks all!

What would you folks use on, say, a beef roast that has been in the back of my freezer since 2012? (Long story.) I can cook it up for my hounds and they'll love it. But it's been hard frozen, wrapped in plastic and then butcher paper, the whole time. So it's bacteriologically safe, but it'll have an "old fat" funk to it. DW wouldn't touch it, but I'm willing to experiment on myself. Any advice?

If it's been down at proper freezer temperatures and sealed from air it will be perfectly ok and just like it was when it went in. My go to when I do not like a piece of meat but know it is perfectly ok is to make any of the long cooked hot indian curries with it, spices cover a multitude of sins. The other thing I do, is cook it into a curry or chili or anything spiced and then freeze it again, when I get it back out I forget just how yucky it smelt and am fine eating it since I have already done the hard work of disguising it.

For the gamey taste just soaking in cold water overnight or a mix of water and milk works well.

Thanks! The hot curry angle may just do the trick. That and agressively trimming out any hint of fat or connective membrane.

I have found that over time the fats in old frozen meat start to taste, well, old. Even when vacuum sealed. I assume there's some slow oxidation going on. Pork goes off quite quickly; beef lasts longer. It won't kill you, but seems much harder to digest; burping that for hours afterward is exceedingly unpleasant.

for smoking meat I cover it with concoction of raw sugar, salt, paprika, garlic and onion powder, black pepper, cilli powder, cayenne and cumin, maybe a little mustard powder and leave it in fridge over nite before smoking at 225-250 degrees for hours and internal temp is at least 165 degrees