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I’ve used the ice and drain method on deer and elk with very good results. My hunting buddy in Mississippi does it that way every time he leaves the cooler in the back of the truck to agitate the icey water.

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We put our deer in a cooler cover with ice salt it and drain it. Tastes better than a hung up deer to me. The ice draws the blood out of the meat.

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I evolved into using a 100 gallon watering tank.

http://gototanks.com/100-gallon-poly-oval-stock-tank-arm-10116.html.

It has a built in threaded drain. Added a brass hose barb and a length of hose. When transporting have a drain hose exiting the rear of the suburban.

There is a wooden pallet in the bottom too keep meat off bottom of tank. Line pallet with bags of ice. Then add a layer of bagged elk or deer pieces. Then more ice/meat etc. Cover top with old sleeping bag. Add more ice bags to top as needed. Have taken meat across the country and have kept it very cold for over 10 days this way. Perfect storage as I butcher the meat.

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Yep... Preach on... Venison does not benefit from aging like fatty beef does. If you could shock the deer and hang it upside down, while draining the blood from it's slashed throat like cattle do, it MIGHT BENEFIT FROM AGING. Conversely, cattle that are shot and then dressed out later do not taste like what you get at the store...


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S&A,

Yes, "venison" does benefit from aging, exactly like beef, and for the same reason: Lactic acid breaks down the collagen in the muscle. This has been proven by plenty of research, in particular by the meat science department at the University of Wyoming, which may have the most comprehensive information on wild game meat around.


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Originally Posted by plainsman456
We do it for about 3 days draining water and adding ice if needed.

When cutting your hands get so cold that you have to take breaks from time to time just to warm up.

The meat tastes darn good.


I generally do about 4-6 days in ice, draining every day or so. Have not had any strong-tasting meat in many years. And yeah, your hands do get quite cold...


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I've aged venison in a cooler for up to 3 weeks in mesh game bags on ice. This was in a garage, draining daily and adding ice as needed. The biggest positive change in the texture and flavor of the meat occurred after 2 weeks. The only downside was more loss from trimming.


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I do about 5 days (no bags) and keep it drained.

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When my daughter and grandson were out here last year, we boned out the cow elk that he shot and iced it down for the trip back to south Texas the day. It was another another three days before she was able to get it to the processor, but she drained off the water every day and added more ice. It was some of the tenderest and best tasting elk that I have ever had.


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Might be the solution to our very cold elk hunts in January, seeing that typical hanging and aging is not possible.


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Originally Posted by JPro
Originally Posted by plainsman456
We do it for about 3 days draining water and adding ice if needed.

When cutting your hands get so cold that you have to take breaks from time to time just to warm up.

The meat tastes darn good.


I generally do about 4-6 days in ice, draining every day or so. Have not had any strong-tasting meat in many years. And yeah, your hands do get quite cold...


Same here. The draining of the blood/ageing helps the taste a good deal and it is too warm here to hang the meat.


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For perhaps the past 20 years now, we've been using the practice of aging both venison and pork on ice, and it works quite well, rendering a very nice product for the table.

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Originally Posted by Pappy348
The cooler thing is my standard procedure for handling venison at home. Skin and quarter, get it on ice and cut, wrap and freeze at my leisure.

If you knew how long commecial beef hung before you buy it, you'd stop worrying.


Hanging commercial beef is beneficial...it is marbled with fat and hanging (aging) is acceptable. Venison...very lean...hanging is not beneficial in the same way as commercial beef. Apples to oranges

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Originally Posted by GeorgiaBoy
Originally Posted by Pappy348
The cooler thing is my standard procedure for handling venison at home. Skin and quarter, get it on ice and cut, wrap and freeze at my leisure.

If you knew how long commecial beef hung before you buy it, you'd stop worrying.


Hanging commercial beef is beneficial...it is marbled with fat and hanging (aging) is acceptable. Venison...very lean...hanging is not beneficial in the same way as commercial beef. Apples to oranges


Did you miss this?

Originally Posted by Mule Deer
S&A,

Yes, "venison" does benefit from aging, exactly like beef, and for the same reason: Lactic acid breaks down the collagen in the muscle. This has been proven by plenty of research, in particular by the meat science department at the University of Wyoming, which may have the most comprehensive information on wild game meat around.

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Yes, I did miss that. Thanks for pointing it out.

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I've heard the myth that wild game doesn't benefit from aging a bunch of times over the years, and often the fat in beef is mentioned. The only benefit from the fat in beef, as far as my research indicates, is that it results in less moisture loss during aging, since it usually covers most of the outside of the carcass.

Which is why leaving the hide on wild game--if possible--results in less moisture loss. This has also been documented by the U. of Wyoming meat-science department. (A good example is www.wyomingextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B594R.pdf)

Not only does most deer and elk meat benefit from aging, but gamebirds as well. Aside from meat science "shear tests," made with a sharp knife connected to a pressure gauge, we've proven to ourselves many times how much more tender wild game from Hungarian partridge to bull elk can be after aging.

That said, one problem with wild game is it's not a "uniform product," like commercial beef. Younger animals don't benefit as much from aging as older animals, and even different species vary. Pronghorns and pigs, for instance, don't have as much collagen in their muscles as deer and elk, so don't require much aging.

All of this is explained in far more detail in Eileen's book SLICE OF THE WILD, a "cookbook" that details how to deal with big game from bullet to table.


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Originally Posted by Mule Deer
This has also been documented by the U. of Wyoming meat-science department. (A good example is www.wyomingextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B594R.pdf)

Here's a link to all their publications on wild game: http://www.uwyo.edu/foods/educational-resources/wild-game.html

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I go with the ice bath and salt routine. I leave the plug out of the ice chest after the initial cool down. Keep the tenderloins separate or on top as they don't need as much aging and can get water logged. Two weeks is max or pushing it in our climate. I have had several deer start to turn and smell slightly sour but scrubbed them off with salt and then vinegar and they turned out very tender.


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We've been soaking our deer in ice water and salt for years and I truly believe it provides the best meat. It draws a lot of the blood out turning the meat pink in color and there's no gamey taste. SOP has been placing the meat in a large cooler, filling just above the meat with cold water, dumping about 30lbs of ice on, then sprinkling approx 1/2lb of salt on. We drain and repeat every other day for about a week, then process. That process provides a much better taste than dry aging in a cooler IMO.

It works well on hogs as well and for a smelly boar you can add baking soda to the process, which will remove the smell and provide a great taste.

My Father-in-law does this so often for the local family's meat that he found a couple of old iron bath tubs and placed them near the skinning rack. He plumbed them, insulated the tubs, built a sheet metal base around them, and made some foam lids as well. He has a nice ice machine as well, so it's a pretty simple process to brine one around his place.

I also soak tenderloins in salt water in the fridge for a few days before cooking after a fresh kill.

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I'm sure the ice method works, I'm just not in the mood to fugg around with it.So far, there has been only one deer I've shot in the past 6 seasons that I haven't been able to hang.

If I feel it needs it, I'll 'age' it when I take it out of the freezer.


If I owned an ice maker I'd likely give it a try, but driving 30 miles round trip just to get ice takes the fun out of it for me.


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