mudhen,
Meat scientists disagree quite a bit, like many other scientists. But due to considerable personal experience I would firmly disagree with: "Meat scientists with whom I have worked tell me that with elk, you're wasting your time and drying the meat excessively if you hang it beyond five days."
I aged the skinned quarters from the biggest bull I've taken for three weeks before there was suddenly a NOTICEABLE difference in tenderness, even from merely slicing the meat. I was continually taking small test cuts from a section of backstrap, pan-frying them quickly to see how they chewed and tasted. The point where the meat changed from semi-tough to pretty tender occurred within a short period of a day or so.
My wife and I keep an 800-pound freight scale in our shop to weigh the animals we take. I weighed the quarters after bringing them in, but didn't hang them. Instead I placed them on a clean blue tarp and covered them with another. Weighed one of the hindquarters after the three weeks and it had lost so little weight I couldn't really tell if it had lost any on the scale.
Our shop normally stays in the 30's during November unless the temperature outside stays well below zero for several days. Normally we don't skin elk taken at that time of year, both because it's normally cool and the bulls haven't been rolling around in any urine-soaked mud for over a month. But the day I got that bull was exceptionally warm, so took the hide off.
John,
I share your experience. I didn't want to be disagreeable, rather referencing the above article by UW, which is an objective study on the subject (albeit with a small sample).
My elk typically hang for two weeks. The shop I'm building will have a small insulated room with an air conditioner for aging game (there is an aftermarket purpose-built control that will cool into the 30's). I'm tired of being at the whim of the weather to carry out this critical step in creating proper table fare.
Your wife's cookbook is excellent, and those with game processing questions would do well to get a copy.
