Does anyone know how long you can leave a skinned but unopened elk lie before you HAVE to get the meat off to avoid a bad flavor?
how did you keep it clean to skin it? once skinned, it's only a few minutes to separate the quarters. Why leave it lay at all, with the guts in?
My goal is to get the most tender meat possible. To do that, you need to wait until rigor mortis before cutting. Also, I like to avoid gutting as much as anyone. I was just wondering what would happen if you skinned one to get it cooling but left it whole for a while to stiffen up and avoid gutting at the same time.
For maximum tenderness, you can pull the back legs forward to stretch the loins before they stiffen. Keeping is clean isn't too much of a problem. Just leave the whole carcass on the hide.
Probably one of the worst things to do is let it lay with the guts in. There is a tremendous amount of heat there. With guts out, you are at least cooling inside and outside.
Get the hide off, at least cut into halves with the pelvis split and hang it or lay on top of some logs or ? so air can circulate around it.
I would want to get all that blood and offal out away from the good meat as soon as possible.
