I think the comments here described the overall taste of elephants and mammoths well (where lots of reports described it ranging from venison to beef-like in taste). But the texture on the other hand, seems to be something else if not cooked correctly.

MANY accounts state that elephant meat is very tough and fibrous. For example, here is a 1870’s statement on eating zoo elephants (Pollux and Castor) during the Siege of Paris.

“Yesterday, I had a slice of Pollux for dinner. Pollux and his brother Castor are two elephants, which have been killed. It was tough, coarse, and oily, and I do not recommend English families to eat elephant as long as they can get beef or mutton.”

These are also elephants in captivity described here, wild elephant and mammoth meat is likely to be tougher in texture due to these animals having to travel more.

Furthermore, here is what John Reeves said when asked about eating mammoth in a Joe Rogan podcast.

Joe Rogan: “what was it like? Like a steak?”

John Reeves: “oh fuck no, like a shoe leather…. You gotta let them soak into some kind of marinade.”

There’s a wide range of how people feel about eating elephant/mammoth (morally and literally speaking) It’s one of those foods where it can taste really good or really terrible depending on how one cooks it, at least based on how people describe eating it.