There are plenty of reasons to eat wild game meat; it's lean, organic, hormone-free, and you know exactly where it came from and can process it however you like. However, if you're not willing to hunt game yourself, you can buy responsibly-farmed game meat that is easy to cook and eat, even for beginners.

Pheasant is a particularly excellent gateway meat. Each bird weighs between 2 to 3 pounds, and like other poultry, pheasant can be roasted whole or the breast and legs can be cooked separately; Chef Mike DeCamp tells in Food & Wine that pheasant is "versatile, takes to sauce, or can be seared and served rare."

Like other wild game, pheasant is lean, so chef Brad Leone recommends confiting, or slow-cooking the meat in fat for several hours, which provides plenty of moisture. Other good game meats for beginners include squab, which is similar to duck, and quail, which are small, lean, and great for stuffing.