Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Aging meat in cooler iced down

Been using Ice aging for 20 years on hogs and deer. 7-10 days repacking with new ice every 2-3 days.

If it is not cold enough to hang for a while, I just process it and get it in the freezer. Then get it out a few days before I am going to cook it. Aging it on the back side seems to work just as well.

I use bigger coolers and jugs of ice to eliminate water meat contact.

back in the day i had an old uncle that was a poacher, sorry but that is what he was plain and simple. he killed so many deer him and another poacher buddy of his built a cooler out of cement blocks. they filled the hollow blocks with sand and had it sitting on a poured cement slab. they put hanging racks in it for meat and for cooling they had a window A/C unit, and that right there is redneck ingenuity!

Just keep it dry and good to go

Well there you go

I bet anyone on this forum that didn’t know a poacher maybe fibbing I don’t condone it I just know
I great up in Chicago and thought city folks were a problem
Then I moved to a rural area

A country boy can survive
City boy may just starve

Hank

I put the meat in the bottom, then a thick layer of newspaper, and then a couple good size chunks of dry ice.....keeps for quite a few days.

I have an old fridge in the outbuilding that I use to age my deer. Been doing it this way for all my hunting life. After skinning and processing all cuts….hams. shoulders, backstraps, etc. I place the meat on the racks and let it age for 7-8 days at 38 degrees…any blood will drain out over this time and meat will taste perfect. Place a thermometer on a rack and good to go. Cooked a blackstrap for the family over Christmas and all was eaten…delicious. Made stew beef few days ago in crock pot for few hours and man was that good. I think all the mentioned ways of aging work, it just important that it is aged. You can buy old fridge cheap and can get 2 deer in a large one, just check it to make sure temp is correct and you good to go. I really like deer better than store bought beef because you never know hat you getting and some times it not good.

This is the perfect solution if you have the space for the fridge
I am not to proud to butcher a road kill and at many times of the year this is the only way to fly

Hank

I've tried it above the ice dry
Below the ice
Plug in swimming
Plug out
With salt
Without salt
So far....30 years with no difference

We feed our dawgs roadkill.

I ended up with 160 pounds of whitetail roadkill in Minnesota between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Keeping it cold wasn’t an issue.

I’ve do e the cooler and ice to get it home. Then it went to a customized refrigerator. No shelves but lots of hanging options. This worked pretty good. It got a little tight with multiple animals or an elk. A few years ago I told a buddy of mine I was going to build a cooler. His boys do commercial refrigeration, I thought they could help with parts and pieces. A month later they showed up with an 8 x 8x 8 walk-in. It’s nice to have. If it’s too cold I heat it. I age hide on for 2-3 weeks. If you go this route you need to swear everyone to a secret blood oath that no one can find out you have it. It’s kind of like a still.

Interesting video

Good video. Same deal we have seen as well. The iced meat is easy too.

Good video, and I'm not really surprised. I'm in the camp, and have been for over 20 years, of having no other recourse than to "age" it in the cooler. Never had any problems with the ice bath method. Thanks for sharing the video.

You are very welcome!

I liked the fact that he taste tested with the neighbors as well to get real world feedback.

Mike

Awesomeness.

Love the video.

The un ice bath meat looks like it didn’t cool down as quickly as desired. Therefore the discoloration.

Awesome video

Great video. thanks for sharing. Hard to argue with the results.

Drain the water daily and replace ice. I have kept meat in a cooler for a couple of weeks like that while I processed it when I could.