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I know of "boar taint," which describes an unpleasant taste in the meat of non-castrated pigs. Which left me wondering more broadly: Are there other animals whose meat (from an animal of the same age on the same diet) tastes different depending on whether it came from a male or a female of the species?

And if that depends on conditions, as it does with pork, please note such.

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  • Most non domesticated animals taste different between sexes, the male may also mark it's females which is another type of taint. The problem is there are not many truly wild animal left that you should be eating, so this may be a pointless question!
    – TFD
    Commented Apr 27, 2015 at 22:25
  • I'm not a hunter, but the range of wild game (non-domesticated) mammals alone is enormous, so this is hardly a pointless question. Also your answer, if I understand your comment, begs for an explanation: Most domesticated animals do not have gender taste difference (pigs being the exception?) while most non-domesticated animals do? If true, why might that be? Humans have somehow bred out gender taste difference in domesticated species?
    – feetwet
    Commented Apr 27, 2015 at 22:55
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    @feetwet industrial farming has bred and fed out most tastes of meat, until we have ended up with bland slabs of uniform chewy protein. Also, these animals are slaughtered before they reach sexual maturity, so potential differences don't get expressed anyway.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Commented Apr 28, 2015 at 6:04

2 Answers 2

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Deer and it's relatives (goats and sheep) are famous for their musky males.

At a mere three months old my male goat had already developed a significant "bucky" aroma. He would not have become sexually active for another month or two.

The best way I found to cook him to deal with that flavor was smoking.

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  • Strictly speaking, deer are closer to cattle than to sheep and goats. I wonder if male giraffes taste different from female ones.
    – user143
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 14:31
  • @jbcreix- I've never heard that. They are all under the order Artiodactyla. Cattle and goats are together in the family Bovidae. Thus, cattle are no closer to deer than goats are. Goats, while not closer to deer taxonomically, are much more similar in behavior than other ruminants as goats are also agile browsers and not heavy grazers.
    – Sobachatina
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 16:40
  • You do make a good point though. I don't have any experience with bulls. Do they also get musky? If so then it might be common to the order- which includes a great deal of our mammalian livestock and hunted meat.
    – Sobachatina
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 16:44
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I know rooster meat tastes different from hen. Even the color is much different (darker and leaner for rooster). Though there is little demand for roosters in the market.

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    I disagree. My roosters and hens, when the same age, have very similar flavor. Historically roosters were different because they were much older with all the changes that come with age.
    – Sobachatina
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 13:25

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