🌲 Honest hunting guides, learned in the fieldNEW 50 game species profiles published📩 Weekly newsletterAs an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases
One of the honest rewards of hunting is the meat: leaner, richer in iron, and free of anything the animal was not born with. This compares 14 wild game meats against beef, pork and chicken on the numbers that matter, per 100g of cooked meat, and lays out the cooking-safety temperatures for each. Sort it however you like.
Figures are USDA-based typical values for cooked, trimmed meat and vary with the cut, the animal's diet and condition, and how it is prepared. Use them to compare, not to count to the calorie. This is general information, not medical or dietary advice.
Mooseleanest game, 1g fat / 100g
Black bearmost iron, 8.3mg / 100g
15gfat in lean beef, for comparison
Sort by
🔥 Cooking safety: Can carry tularemia. Wear gloves to clean, avoid animals that seemed sick or sluggish, and cook to 160F.
🔥 Cooking safety: One of the leanest red meats. Cook to 145F for whole cuts, 160F for ground, and follow local CWD guidance.
🔥 Cooking safety: Cook to 165F. Lean like game, but far lower in iron than red game meats.
🔥 Cooking safety: Cook whole cuts to 145F and rest, ground to 160F. Where chronic wasting disease occurs, follow your state's testing advice and do not eat a visibly sick animal.
🔥 Cooking safety: Very lean; cool the carcass fast in the field for the best flavour. 145F whole, 160F ground.
🔥 Cooking safety: Extremely lean, so easy to overcook and dry out. 145F whole, 160F ground; heed local CWD advice.
🔥 Cooking safety: A leading source of trichinosis. Always cook well done to at least 160F all the way through; freezing does not reliably kill the parasite in bear.
🔥 Cooking safety: Dark, rich meat. Cook thoroughly to 160F, or brine and slow-cook tougher old birds.
🔥 Cooking safety: Whole cuts to 145F and rest, ground to 160F. Leaner than it used to be, but fattier than most game.
🔥 Cooking safety: Leaner than beef, so cook gently and a touch less. 145F for steaks, 160F for ground.
🔥 Cooking safety: Can carry trichinella and brucellosis. Cook thoroughly to at least 160F, wear gloves when field dressing, and never eat it rare.
🔥 Cooking safety: Very high in iron. Wear gloves to clean and cook thoroughly to 160F.
🔥 Cooking safety: Richer and fattier than upland birds, and iron-dense. Cook the breast to at least 155 to 160F; waterfowl are best not served rare.
🔥 Cooking safety: The usual benchmark. Whole cuts 145F, ground 160F. Higher in fat and calories than most game.
🔥 Cooking safety: Leaner and firmer than farmed turkey. Cook to 165F and rest; the legs are tough and suit slow cooking.
🔥 Cooking safety: Lean white-ish meat that dries out fast. Cook to 165F and rest; barding or brining helps.
🔥 Cooking safety: Small and quick-cooking. Cook to 165F; easy to overcook, so watch it closely.
The pattern is clear: most wild game is leaner than beef and much richer in iron, which is a real nutritional edge, but that leanness also means it cooks fast and dries out if you treat it like a fatty steak. The safety temperatures above matter most for bear and wild boar (trichinosis) and small game like rabbit (tularemia). Turn your animal into good eating with the shot to freezer guide and estimate your haul with the meat yield calculator.
Free to cite: link back to this page. Values are USDA-based typical figures for cooked meat per 100g.
From the field, weekly.
One email a week through the season - tactics, gear that earns its weight, and honest takes. Opt out any time.