Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Aging Elk Meat

True, lots of variable's for sure. Here's one for ya. Ever notice cow elk taste better than a bull elk? Seems as though the elk were shooting even young bulls don't taste as good a cow even if the cow is older. Maybe it's just all in my head.

Lots of cows are good, for sure, but we tend to prefer spikes and raghorns as the most reliably tasty elk. But tastes vary. A lot of people prefer whitetails to mule deer, but we like 'em both.

Listen to Mule Deer regarding the applied science to aging. He is an absolute authority on the subject.

Do a search for a University of WY study on aging elk. It is splendid and answers all of these questions on effect and theory. I have it saved as a jpeg and don't have time to post and link to it, sorry. As for cow vs bull, the study showed without aging that a cow is on average tougher than the bull (very slight difference), but reacts better to aging.

I'll say this: if your only concern is final yeild, do not age; if your goal is quality meat through the year, AGE IT! You will lose some yeild (mitigated if hide on), but I guarantee it will eat better (unless it's burger and as long as the aging is done correctly).

Here is the UW study:
http://www.wyomingextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B594R.pdf
I never aged mine, simply nowhere to keep it for a city dweller. Never had any problems.
P.S. - and when I get back home, the temps are usually in the 60s, so keeping it in the garage is not a good idea either.

Without access to a cooler you are at the mercy of the weather. Before I had a cooler I would let meat hang 3 days minimum and then cut up. Now with the cooler I let the deer go at least a week and elk at least 2 weeks. It has made a huge difference in the way that the meat tastes. All meat has to go through the same process, so I don't see how being wild or farmed could possibly make a difference.

I haven't done my own processing for many years now on bigger animals, and I found a good processor who will hang my animals in his cold box until the right time to cut. I loose a little total weight cut and wrapped from aging, but I have far more good quality meat in the long run.

If you ask, many processors will hang and age for you for a small charge, and this is in a controlled optimum enviroment for hanging and aging.

headwatermike,

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but my wife Eileen has done a LOT more research. She came up with even more information while writing her big game cookbook SLICE OF THE WILD 3-4 years ago.

Yes well it is my copy of Eileen's book that gives me such confidence. My apologies to her for not giving credit where it is due. It is a fine book that is above and beyond expectations and has a position of prominence in our kitchen. Anyone here remotely interested should buy a copy. Buy it to support someone who is a tremendous resource and is willing to spend his time here sharing; enjoy the dividends of your investment at the table. I don't think many here would regret the purchase.

I've enjoyed it a lot as well. Eileen uses empirical evidence to back up what she says about aging. But there's a lot more in the book than that. Total care of the animal from shot to table.

Hi John!
No doubt about it, every time we identify a "rule" we can just as easily identify exceptions to it from our own experience.
We are finishing up a bull from last year, aged 6 days in nearly perfect temperatures, as we have dozens of others in the past. And yet this has been by far the finest of them all in flavor and tenderness. The difference? This was a farmland bull who had fed all fall on lentils and garbonzos, and didn't waste many calories climbing mountains.

Diet always helps!

One of the weirdest tasting elk we've gotten was a young 6x6 (maybe 4-5) I took in northern British Columbia 10 years ago. It was the second week of September, with the rut just really going, and while the meat was tender it was BLAND, and needed stuff added while cooking to enhance the flavor. That bull was taken in complete wilderness, far from any fields. Maybe he'd been eating flavorless grass all summer....

The absolute best way to 'age' venison or elk is after shooting one, bone it out, throw it in a garbage bag, tie the top of the bag, poke a bunch of holes in it and throw it in a creek. Make sure the bag is completely submerged in the creek. You don't have to worry about flies getting on the meat, nor a bear raiding your meat pole, or warm weather spoiling your meat. We always camp near a creek anyway, so we don't have to go very far to water our mules. Just take a shovel and dig you out a hole deep enough to submerge a sack of meat. The water flows thru the garbage bag because of all the holes you made in it, and it washes all the blood out of the meat and cleans it up real nice. It must also tend to break down the meat because you can fry up a steak and cut it with a fork it'll be so tender. This trick was told to me 30 years ago by an old man and it works like a charm. For you bow and black powder hunters that are hunting when its really warm out, it takes the pressure off you rushing around trying to get your meat off the mountain and into a game cooler before it spoils - just kick back in camp, with your meat submerged in cold mountain water, and let your buddies fill their tags. When you're all done hunting go grab your meat out of the creek and head to town - you can thank me after you cut into that first elk steak.

I agree and a pillow case or heavy elk quarter bag works great too. Just make sure the creek is running pretty swift and all the meat is covered by water, leeches can be an issue if your not careful! hint...

Hmmm...I've never seen a leech in a fast flowing mountain stream and never found a one in any of my meat I've done this way. I've always found leeches in standing water like ponds.

We placed meat in a small creek(moving water) to cool came back a 1/2 hr later and had nearly a hundred small leaches working their way through the pillow cases into the meat. Water moves fast enough I know a guy that drinks straight outa it. Anyway its one of the smaller streams in the area. We moved the meat after a fight with the leaches to faster deeper water... It dosen't have to be standing water like ponds to hold leeches. Just saying if ya pick the only stream near a kill or camp. Go check it out after a bit to see if leeches are present. They will find it pretty fast if the are.

Here in CT, my Uncle who has since gone to his reward, spent the last 15 years of his life shooting White Tails when ever he wanted. One day I stopped by to see him and it was working on a back end of a small refer truck that he bought. He told me that its going to be his own walk in Larder when he gets done. He did just that he would hang venison in it and set the temp for around 38 deg or so, he would hang for a week or two hide on and then bone and cut,never served a tough piece of venison. I wonder why not more of us hunters do that. How hard can it be to have a home larder? Seems that for you in Elk and Moose Country it would almost make sense.