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When it comes to flavoring, think robust. Dark game meat like venison and boar takes well to bitter and tannic flavors such as cocoa, full-bodied red wine, cranberries, and red currants. Game also stands up to pungent flavors like chiles and horseradish and benefits from some sweet ingredients like fruit to round out the taste. Check out the marinades, brines, mops, rubs, and sauces to see some of the flavor possibilities.

Doneness is a matter of preference, but it pays to cook most game rarer than beef. Grilled venison chops and bison steaks can go from moist and tender to dry and tough in only a minute. For small, tender cuts, temperature is your best guide. Avoid cooking steaks and chops past 150°F; better yet, shoot for 135 to 140°F for supple, succulent meat. On the other hand, large tough roasts cooked by long, slow, indirect grilling should be cooked until they are fork-tender, no matter how long it takes. Follow the recipe and see the doneness chart to make sure your grilled game reaches its full potential.

GAME IS NOT GAMY

Let’s just dispense with the term “gaminess” to describe the taste of game meat. Gaminess is just a euphemism for strongly flavored, and is usually applied when someone doesn’t like the taste. The meat of wild game is strongly flavored because the animals eat a much more varied, complex, and seasonally dependent diet than domesticated animals, which are given standardized feed. Plus, the flavor of game meat gets more robust as the animal ages. It’s not as if all game meat has an identical composition with a particular flavor compound that can be identified as gamy.

Each type of game meat tastes different, even if it all tastes heartier than the mild, homogenous flavors of meat from domesticated animals such as milk-fed veal. The strong taste of wild animals is exactly what game lovers enjoy about game meat. Others might be shocked by the robust flavor at first, but it is the complexity of meat from a free-roaming animal feeding on an inconsistent diet of wild forage that makes wild game so compatible with the rich, dark flavors generated from a live fire.

GOAT SHOULDER

Jamaican Curry–Barbecued Goat Shoulder

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

The shoulder of a goat is no different than that of other four-legged animals. It supports and moves the animal, developing intricate musculature and tough fibers. Tenderizing the meat requires slow cooking with moisture to break down the connective tissue and dissolve it into delicious gelatin. In Jamaica, spit-roasting over an allspice wood fire gets the job done. Meat is usually jerked this way on the island, but curried goat is also ubiquitous in Jamaica, often served as a stew at celebrations. We barbecue the curried goat instead and serve it with a spicy sauce made with sour tamarind concentrate. This recipe tastes best with mature goat or yearlings rather than very young kid goat because the shoulder will have developed more flavor.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups wood chips, such as allspice, cherry, or applewood, soaked in water for 30 minutes

Jamaican Barbecue Sauce:

2 cups chicken stock

¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon honey

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon tamarind paste concentrate

2 tablespoons dark rum

⅛ cup coarsely grated fresh ginger

2 tablespoons Jamaican Curry Powder

½ small fresh Scotch bonnet or habanero chile, seeded and minced

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

3 scallions (green and white parts), coarsely chopped

4 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

⅛ cup coarsely grated fresh ginger

½ small fresh Scotch bonnet or habanero chile, seeded and minced

2 teaspoons coarse salt

½ cup canola oil

⅓ cup Jamaican Curry Powder

1 bone-in goat shoulder (3 to 4 pounds)

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup water

DIRECTIONS:

For the barbecue sauce: combine the stock, honey, tomato paste, tamarind, rum, ginger, curry powder, and chile in a small saucepan and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and boil until reduced by about a third, 10 to 15 minutes. When