Question on ageing meat

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daver36

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So I'm already looking forward to my 2nd ever deer this fall, and this time I'm gonna get one. I'm wondering about ageing the meat. From what I understand, a week at no higher than 4deg C works. The shed will work great for this in late season, but if we get another early season like last fall and I bag one I have to access to a walk in fridge. I do have access to a extra regular fridge, so I'm wondering to it will work just as well to quarter out or even portion out and age it that way. Also, would the meat have to stay bare, in game bags, or can it be fully processed into freezer ready packaging when aging? Thanks ahead for any input.

Cheers,
Dave
 
At optimal conditions in a cooler with relatively low humidity aging meat for two weeks is possible. The meat will form a dried outer cover that will be trimmed off when you cut it up. Be sure the sides or quarters are clean of all contaminants from gutting and clots from gun shot damage.

Also, be sure you have good air circulation. Hang the pieces and don't let them touch each other.

I do not cut the meat prior to aging and prefer to hang in quarters. If you keep the rib cage spread you can even leave the deer whole but I would not recommend that for moose or elk. As for game bags I would not use them if you have a good cooler. Their main purpose is to keep bugs and debris off the meat.
 
I don't tend to age deer more than the day or 2 until I have time to cut up. It's hard to get the ideal temp if you don't have a cooler. Skinned deer don't have much fat covering depending on ### and time of year and will dry out leading to more trim loss when cutting up. Young tender deer will be tender without hanging and older bucks are better suited for grind and sausage other than the prime cuts which may be passable.
 
be2man said:
I don't tend to age deer more than the day or 2 until I have time to cut up. It's hard to get the ideal temp if you don't have a cooler. Skinned deer don't have much fat covering depending on ### and time of year and will dry out leading to more trim loss when cutting up. Young tender deer will be tender without hanging and older bucks are better suited for grind and sausage other than the prime cuts which may be passable.
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Agreed.
 
If you want to spend a few dollars could build a cooler and use a air conditioner and us a coolbot system as this good. Built a 4x7ft and is plenty big for 4 deer and will keep cool for a week with a humidifier and meat does not get that dry skin on the outside of the deer
 
Most people tend to think they need to age venison because they hear the hype around things like" 21 day aged Kobi beef" or "aged to perfection" when prime beef is talked about, however beef and venison are different. Beef is marbled full of fat and aging assists in tempering that fat and breaking it down creating a more tender product. Venison on the other hand has almost no fat through the meat, all the fat is on the outside and venison does not improve with ageing. Venison should be trimmed of as much fat as possible and then cut and wrapped as quickly as possible to prevent the drying out and loss of the outer layers.
Kill your deer, get the hide off ASAP and get the fat trimmed and get it in the freezer, any longer than 48 hours for the whole process is time wasted.
 
I would agree with daveyn and most of his points, but thats what makes Canada Great, we can disagree on things and not be persecuted for it.

What may have been over looked is that in the cutting process the animal looses moisture and in loosing moisture we loose weight
.
Loosing weight means the meat is drying out and when it comes time to prepare the cuts of meat it becomes harder to cook in that it is drier and tougher
when cooked.

Wild game takes skill to cook much like the skill that is required to successfully harvest game animals year in and year out.

Get out there and learn your game animal and then learn how to cook it it will be much more enjoyable.

48 hours in a cooler is about right, just get that hide off asap cause it doesnt get any easier to skin as it ages.

Rob
 
I mostly kill and butcher deer in the same day. The wrapped meat goes into the freezer still a bit warm. I cut it up boneless myself. The meat is fantastic. Having said that does are more tender and killed with a crossbow bolt thru both lungs bleed out great meaning less blood in the meat. I find bucks in the rut are a bit tougher probably from the hormones and fighting/running and rutting.
 
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finstr said:
I mostly kill and butcher deer in the same day. The wrapped meat goes into the freezer still a bit warm. I cut it up boneless myself. The meat is fantastic. Having said that does killed with a crossbow bolt thru both lungs bleed out great. I find bucks in the rut are a bit tougher probably from the hormones and fighting/running and rutting.
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Friend of a friend does the same thing, butchers and wraps at the same time and into the freezer it goes. He said freezing helps to tenderize the meat instead of hanging it.

What I’ve been doing is gut, skin and quarter asap. 1/4’s go into game bags and into coolers with ice for a couple days to rest. Then we cut and wrap and freeze, 2-4 day later usually depending on how busy we are around the place. We’ve been eating venison all winter and it’s all been tender and moist and oh so tasty, can’t get enough of it!
 
daveyn said:
Most people tend to think they need to age venison because they hear the hype around things like" 21 day aged Kobi beef" or "aged to perfection" when prime beef is talked about, however beef and venison are different. Beef is marbled full of fat and aging assists in tempering that fat and breaking it down creating a more tender product. Venison on the other hand has almost no fat through the meat, all the fat is on the outside and venison does not improve with ageing. Venison should be trimmed of as much fat as possible and then cut and wrapped as quickly as possible to prevent the drying out and loss of the outer layers.
Kill your deer, get the hide off ASAP and get the fat trimmed and get it in the freezer, any longer than 48 hours for the whole process is time wasted.
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Pretty much what I do
 
Butcherbill said:
Friend of a friend does the same thing, butchers and wraps at the same time and into the freezer it goes. He said freezing helps to tenderize the meat instead of hanging it.

What I’ve been doing is gut, skin and quarter asap. 1/4’s go into game bags and into coolers with ice for a couple days to rest. Then we cut and wrap and freeze, 2-4 day later usually depending on how busy we are around the place. We’ve been eating venison all winter and it’s all been tender and moist and oh so tasty, can’t get enough of it!
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A lot of people are afraid to try bagging and freezing in the same day. I understand that because I was reluctant too. Then we had a run of years with extra tags and I killed 5 deer that year. So I tried it. It’s a big time and space saving technique.
It also helps the flavour tremendously if you remove all of the fat before cooking. The fat is really disgusting and when I grind the burger meat I make sure the scraps are free of the deer fat. I mix pork fat with the burger meat to about 20%.
 
I've always hung my venison as long as I practically can given the weather. By that i mean i have hung deer for two weeks out under a spruce tree in November with the hide on, and i've also hung them in the barn for a week with the hide off.
I've done road kill deer, same day, because I had no place to hang them, and i've cut them up and "hung" them in an old fridge.
I came to the conclusion having had both great meat, and tough meat from all of the above, that there is a lot you can do in meat handling, and a few things you have no control over.
IMO, ..Getting the guts out and the hide off asap is the very best thing you can do to help your meat unless you remove the meat at the kill site guts in. Probably hanging 24hrs is all you really need, to allow rigor mortise to fade, and the meat to relax.
Hanging does not mean it has to actually hang! If you simply put the meat on racks in an old fridge it works for me.
Meat that has been hung with the hide off, and is dry on the outside is a hell of a lot easier to work with than slimy meat fresh killed.
Road killed deer sometimes are filled with blood, as they may die with minimal blood loss. hanging them becomes much more important. Consider hanging individual quarters to let the blood out.
sometimes you just can't win, and all that effort will still result in tough meat. Now and then it happens, don't give up, the tender cuts are worth it. Why that is may have to do with the age of the deer, the fact it's a well rutted buck, or maybe it's pumped up with adrenaline as a friend tried to tell me. But if that were the case, the tree stand does shot would always be tender, and although they tend to be, you can still get a tough one.
Some time back I shot with a crossbow a really big buck on Fogduckers place. There was no fat on that old buck at all, nothing inside or out, plus he wore battle scars of a long rut, it was the last day of the season. I damned near ground the works expecting it to be tough. It wasn't, it was exceptional.
It was very cold, and i had a time gutting and dragging it out myself in a foot of snow, but after a half hour drive home, i hided him, and hung him in my garage for a day, until he went to the butcher who hung it for a week. nothing exceptional in that meat handling, yet the meat was perfect. You win some you lose some, last years crossbow buck, a young one, is tough.
 
I think JYC nailed it. This question comes up all the time and one thing for sure is you will get both sides of the debate swearing their way is the best way. In the end, it doesn't really matter and for whatever reason luck of the draw if you get a tender one or not.
mine get gutted immediately, skinned asap and cut (deboned) and frozen usually the next day just to not make the first day so much work. I've done everything inbetween and never feel its worth it. But if you don't have good temp control, don't hang. Rotten meat is rotten meat no matter the age or ### of your animal.
 
I do as other have mentioned. I clean all the meat and debone into seperate muscles parts but I like to leave the meat in a couple of large pots overnight in the fridge so the blood drains to the bottom. I never hang my deer meat unless something comes up with my schedule...
 
I don't worry about hanging deer...gut and remove the hide asap!
If you truly want good venison shoot yearling bucks and do it before the Rut starts.
Early October deer taste way better than mid November deer...there is a huge difference in flavour!!
 
350tracker said:
I do as other have mentioned. I clean all the meat and debone into seperate muscles parts but I like to leave the meat in a couple of large pots overnight in the fridge so the blood drains to the bottom. I never hang my deer meat unless something comes up with my schedule...
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Yep.

My schedule, and the availability of cool weather or a place to store the meat, not any timeline related to aging, determines when and if I hang a deer.

I have cut and wrapped deer still twitching, and have had the deer hanging skin on for a week or more, if the weather was right and my schedule wasn't.

It all ate great!

The butcher I used to use in Moose Jaw just shrugged his shoulders at me when someone brought in a deer that had hung until the outside was black. He said they charge by the pound that gets hung on the hook on the way in, and the dried out ones have more trim that hits the floor, so the hunter gets less meat for his effort.

As was mentioned, venison is hard enough to keep from turning it in to shoe leather when cooking, without starting from a disadvantage already.

There is no one right answer, as the conditions that the deer is harvested in, are different for each of us, and vary from day to day. Must roll with it. But better care, equals better quality meat in the pot, and more of it.

Dry Does, and Fork Bucks have always been the best eating, for me, YMMV. Big bucks that have been running marathon sessions during the rut, are a crapshoot. More meat, but sometimes tough.

Cheers
Trev
 
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