Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Aging deer or elk question

I have never hung a deer or elk to age due to logistics or warm temps. I typically skin fast, quarter and submerse in ice till I can get it cut up within 2-4 days.

So here is my question. I thought I had heard that after a big game animal hangs for 3-5 days and develops a "crust" or dryness on the outside of the meat that it was a bad idea to then ice it down and get it wet? Is there any truth to that or am I remembering incorrectly?

I don't get my carcasses wet at any point. After it has hung for several days it sounds like a really bad idea.

You can ice it without getting it wet.

We have a cooler so it is easy for us. 7-14 days at 34-36 degrees with the hide on. On older deer there is huge difference. Yearlings don't need as much time. If you don't have a cooler it is hard. In Nebraska the temp varies to much day to day.

a lot of butchers say aging deer is a waste of time. mine get quartered as soon as possible and place in a meat pan on a rack for 4 to 7 days before cutting up to freeze.it sure firms the meat up and gets rid of blood.i have friends that put quartered deer in a cooler on ice with drain open for up to a week but it always seems to water down the flavor to me.they bring me meat to run thru my hobart cuber and its pink ,not red.i don't think they like the taste of wild game.

30338,

It's bad idea to allow bare meat to get wet with water that might contain bacteria, partly because because the moisture encourages their growth. This is particularly true of stream or lake water, and can also happen with rain. But commercial ice or what you freeze yourself from tapwater is usually fine.

That said, game meat is essentially sterile right after skinning, but after exposure for 3-5 days it might be slightly contaminated, and getting it wet would encourage bacterial growth.

We have a walk in cooler at the club. Hang for two to three weeks. Only thing wet that ever touches it is a white vinegar soaked towel just prior to butchering.

What he said! 7-14 days from what I have read and experienced.



Someone posted a link here to a research report done by a university (Wyoming maybe?) anyways, the results were using a gauged punch tool that measured the actual force need to punch through venison after different aging periods and normalized for age of deer and clearly showed a distinct improvement for aged venison of over a week... I don't recall all the exact details but that report is what really made me change my way of looking at how to handle a deer after pulling the trigger.

it's hot here during hunting season. We field dress, then skin the animal. Remove the back strap and loins, and quarter.
The meat goes in those extra large zip lock bags, and then on ice for two weeks. Meat stays dry and cool.
After the aging, we process. This method has worked well for many years, giving me excellent condition venison.

I always wash my deer with a water hose after butchering. If it is cold enough to hang outside with the skin on, I just wash the inside. If I skin it immediately, I wash inside and out. Then strip the tenderloins, backstrap, quarter and put in refrigerator, that I keep for that purpose. I then cut it at my leisure, starting with the loin that has aged for 2-3 days, unless I am hungry for them. I always eat the tenders quickly. I usually seam out the hams last, and they will have been in the fridge for about a week. If I think that I will need the space for another deer, I will hurry it along. I always have good meat. I also vacuum pack the meat in large chunks, instead of slicking steaks. Seems to keep better and it is not much trouble to slice when using. I now have 2 old fridges that I can use.
miles

Over the yearss I have rinsed the blood from the inside of the carcass with creek water, skinned and quartered and rinsed the hair and blood off the quarters with the garden hose. Neither of these things were any detriment to the meat as far as I could tell. Heck when we would take a spike or a doe for making deer sausage we would cut the meat of the entire animal into stew meat size cubes and toss then into a big Coleman cooler, cover with water and add 1-2# of salt. It rode this way in the cooler to the old German butcher who made it into some of the best deer sausage I have ever had. Not advocating any of this, just relating how it never had any detrimental effect on the venison in my experience.

My friend in Oregon had a Christmas tree and would bring me some of the best deer meat that he shot off his farm. He hung his deer in a walk in cooler usually 20 days at 38 degrees or until there was little white hairs growing off the meat, then it was time to cut and wrap. It was fantastic!