Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Rigor mortis and tender steaks

shortfinger,

Blood content has little (I would say nothing) to do with "gamy taste." Either wet or dry aging will work fine (we have used both for many years) as long as the temperature is right.

That said, many Americans prefer their red meat comparatively bland these days, probably due to fast food. Wet aging generally results in blander meat, while dry aging concentrates the flavor, because of some liquid loss. One sources suggests as much as 5% in the first 24 hours, even in field-dressed carcasses with the hide left on--which is pretty close to what we've seen in our own experiments. (Eileen bought an 800-pound freight scale several years ago, in order to test various stuff.)

Wet-aging does indeed work--but is enhanced adding some salt. But dry aging works very well too--if you can control the temperature. Killed my biggest bull elk in early November a decade ago, after it had time to gain some weight after the rut. It was about 10 years old, but the flavor was fine. (It generally is, post-rut, when they're gaining weight.) The problem was toughness, even though the carcass was broken down after rigor mortis.

As a test, we cut about a foot-long piece of backstrap, and every couple of days cut a 1-inch slice off and fried it medium-rare. After 14 days it suddenly became much easier to slice--and far more tender when cooked. It was not as tender as a young cow or bull, but definitely quite edible,

One of the points of SLICE OF THE WILD is that wild animals are not a "consistent product," like 2-year-old, corn-fed steers. There are several ways to turn all kinds of wild game into tasty meals, due to that variation.

Interesting info. I was a commercial meat cutter for 24yrs and had never heard that. Makes sense.

I just this year hung a small buck for 2 weeks and am quite pleased with the results.It did cool slowly with the hide on and was not skinned until I butchered it.

The two biggest factors for reducing that gamey flavour you mention is to remove ALL fat from any deer you process and have it boned/filleted out. Bone dust left by a band saw cut will leave a bad taste behind on the muscle. I fillet all my big game, including moose.

Perfect. Thanks John.

I had never heard of "thaw shortening" until I read this thread and am realizing lots of years later that is exactly what happened with a spike horn meat deer that I shot once in late December. The deer lived in an apple orchard and I was really looking forward to eating that one. One tough little critter that shouldn't have been. Thanks for the explanation.

Hanging deer here in the north is always hit or miss to have the right temperature without freezing them or getting too warm. When I worked summers in the packing house, the cattle were killed, skinned, gutted, washed, cut down the spine, partially cut through the torso, shrouded, weighed and hung in a temperature controlled cooler for a couple of weeks. If that works in the meat industry, it should work for game processing as well for helping to break down the meat for consumption.

One of the guys that I hunted with this year is an EMT and we got talking about muscle tissue breaking down over time. I thought that these guys just dealt with emergency medical issues and found out that isn't always the case. When the coroner shows up, they are by themselves and need help moving a body. The EMT's are the guys who get to help and I heard the story of them needing to cut the carpet out from under a guy to even pick him up due to the jelly decomposition of the muscle. More information than you probably wanted to read, but interesting what happens with muscle fiber.

Excellent thread!

I like my back straps cooked "Black & Blue" I have converted many people to the rare side but if the fillet is also sitting in a pool of blood many would be turned off. With game it is cook it hot and fast or slow and low with no in between. I think more game is ruined by over cooking than anything else besides poor handling.

Yep!

Especially gamebirds, geese in particular. Many people roast a plucked Canada like they do a typical domestic turkey weighing more thgan twice as much. One basic rule of cooking waterfowl is the longer you cook them, the more they taste like dry liver.

This is exactly what we do. Usually 7 to 10 days, almost always have tender delicious meat. Works with wild hogs too.

There a a lot of opinions about what constitutes "gamey" taste and what causes it. So many so, it probably deserves its own thread. But, that is why I mentioned the blood in the meat as only one of the possible factors that can contribute to it. As other in this thread have mentioned, other things, like fat and bone can also contribute to it as well as what the animal was doing when the shot was taken and how it died, mostly attributed to the amount of adrenaline in the animal. Lots of opinion, discussion, speculation, and myth on that subject for sure. Proper handling of the meat as discussed here has to play a BIG role too. Good discussion here, and I find it interesting that folks have varied ways of doing it, but getting to the same point...tender delicious game meat.

I appreciate all the insight everyone has shared. I suppose we’re mostly getting them at least quartered before rigor sets in.

I grew up eating almost no other red meat at home besides deer and elk and while my mom is a great cook she always cooked deer all the way through. I discovered, probably from reading here, that it would generally be much more tender and milder flavored if cooked no more than medium. I’d say that in the last 10 years or so that has probably done more to improve our game for the table than any other factor.

I have also always heard about pheasants being tough and stringy but I have never found that to be the case. Of course after reading this thread I realize that we’ve been inadvertently aging them all these years. We always clean our birds at the end of the day, skin and gut them. But we always put them in a dedicated ice chest full of ice and water. The sloshing around in the back of the truck helps wash the carcasses and they’re usually in the ice water for 3 to 5 days by the time we’re done with our 3 day hunt and make the 13 hour drive home and then get around to butchering them up.

Of course I think some times with anything you can just get a bad one. Dad killed a huge old mulie one year that we skinned and hung for over a week before he was cut up. It was the strongest smelling and tasting venison of any I’ve ever seen and took him most of a year to cook and feed to his old bird dog. On another occasion my uncle killed an old warrior of a 7x6 bull elk which also was cooled promptly and hung for over a week. Didn’t smell or taste bad, but was akin to eating a tire it was so tough. A raghorn 5x was killed by the same uncle out on the ranch that was very strong and gamey. He watched him come at a fast trot for almost two miles before he ran within range and he rolled him with one shot.

I think some times you just get unlucky even if you do everything more or less “right”.

As I mentioned earlier, wild game animals are not a consistent "product" like commercial beef!

We have had some oddities over the decades as well--which is why Eileen has so many different cookbooks, with techniques for compensating for odd flavors and tough meat. One of the weirdest was a young cow elk I killed early in our marriage. It was perfectly healthy, and killed on a cool day in late November, with a neck shot that went through the carotid arteries as it trotted through lodgepole timber.

Had to leave it in the woods overnight, so field-dressed and left it spread-eagled on a log, to lift it enough so air could circulate, even though the night was going to be quite cool (though not really cold, at least for Montana). Went back with friends the next morning, and quarter it with the hide on, then aged the quarters for several days before butchering. It was tender, and didn't exactly taste bad--but had a mild but distinct livery flavor we've never tasted in any other elk--or for that matter, any other big game animal.

At the other extreme, I once killed a 6x6 bull on September 12th, into the rut but not very far, when they're generally fine. Instead of being gamy, it was the BLANDEST elk we've ever eaten, nice and tender but just about zero flavor. Had to use various techniques to enhance the meat.

Have also had meat from herd bulls taken in October that had a definite musky taste.

The biggest bull I've ever taken, in both body and antler, was killed in early November, when it had time to recover from the rut. The flavor was great, but had to age it TWO weeks before the backstrap became pretty chewable. But between the aging and various cooking techniques, we enjoyed eating every piece of him.

Some kinds of male deer are notorious for turning gamy during the rut, especially caribou, which can get so raunchy even sled dogs won't eat 'em. Mule deer can become a little that way as well, and fallow deer. are often worse. But with mule deer there are exceptions, such as the big 3x3 Eileen killed a few years ago toward the tail end of the rut. It had been rutting so hard there was just about zero fat on the carcass--but the meat turned out to be tender and mild.

One thing we've learned about gamy/musky flavored male animals is the flavor is often concentrated in the connective tissue between muscle groups--and can "grow" the longer the meat's in the freezer. Eileen killed a big 5x6 mule deer on November 17th one year, right out of the herd of does he was tending, and while the bigger cuts were fine, the stew meat and burger acquired a musky flavor after about six months, and he had to turn them into relatively spicy sausage.

On the other hand, we've never had an off-flavor whitetail or pronghorn buck taken during the rut, and we've taken a bunch of both in several states at various times during autumn.

Black bears are notorious for varying in flavor depending on what they're eating at the time. Have had black bear meat several people could not distinguish from cow elk meat cooked at the same time, and some that had been eating gutpiles that were barely edible.

MD, fwiw:

Sometime in the 80's the grading scale for beeves was lowered i.e. a USDA choice grade was subsequently closer to a USDA standard. The big packers worked in conjunction with the USDA.

Results: lower internal fat content, less "marbling." Easier & cheaper to be market ready. My Dad and I got the dog and pony at the time, courtesy of Monfort.

As aging was already a thing of the past, blander just got blander.

Too, I think the uniform diet fed is somehow a contributor. Think chicken. My Dad said back then mass produced chicken just didn't taste like chicken and avoided it...

I just finished cutting up the loins and a rear quarter off of an antique bull elk my dad killed last Saturday. He was huge bodied and obviously old judging by his teeth. We quartered him using the gutless method like we usually do about 30 minutes after he died. Hung everything in the barn in the shade but with the door open so air could circulate. Temps have been in the teens or 20s at night and up into the 40s to low 60s during the day. Everything has a good hard crust and no mold.

I was worried a little since the first backstrap I cut into steaks had a faint “bully” smell. Hard to describe but just a little bit musky. But I put one steak in a blazing hot skillet with a pat of butter and a little salt and pepper turning it once and pulling it out to rest for a couple minutes at medium rare. Turns out I was needlessly worried as it was great, a little tougher than the small bull I killed this fall but pretty tender and not the least bit gamey.

Now the only problem is that this bull is a full %30 larger than the raghorn I killed last month. We’re about 1/3 done cutting and wrapping and it seems like it’s going to take forever! I’m sure we’ll manage though.

On a semi related side note, my Grandad gave me an old meat slicer last month. It’s a giant old US Berkel from the 1940s. Was in a grocery store here and my great uncle bought it after they closed down and used it in his cafe. When he sold the cafe he gave it to Grandad to use cutting up deer and elk. It’s been sitting in my grandparents’ garage unused for at least 20 years. He cleaned it up and gave it to me since my wife and I are the only ones who do our own meat cutting.

I used the built in sharpener to touch up the wheel and put it to work on a deer the day after I got it moved to the house. Holy moly why did I wait so long to get one of these? I can steak up a loin in 5 minutes and the steaks are all the same thickness. The carriage is big enough to fit big muscles off elk hindquarters and it really makes cutting consistent sized steaks a snap.

Huntsman,
Why do you like the Pack Wheel and Badger better?

If alone, I would think the two wheels of the Neet Cart would be better for over logs?

Think motorized versus non-motorized. After talking with huntsman, I'd like to get one, but need to pick up a lot more cans to be able to.

I'll second the thumbs-up for the Pack Wheel (non-motorized in my case). I used one to pack out a whole mule deer buck as well as elk quarters on different occasions this season and was very impressed. If you hunt where there's a lot of old sage brush, a one-wheel cart is a godsend.

If you want to really delve deep into meat science Google Warner-Bratzler shear test....

There’s no doubt that meat handling post kill will affect meat quality. I’ve always felt the most important aspect is what happens immediately after the shot. Google-fu dark cutter....the entire reason we stun animals with a captive bolt and immediately follow with the blood letting.

Without getting too technical, mainly because it’s been far too many years since my meats lab....the struggle that follows the shot can lead to anaerobic muscle metabolism that leads to lactic acid production and a whole host of muscle metabolism faux pas that will lead to a dark, tough hunk of meat.

If you think back many of these tender memories are from the proverbial bang flop from a shot that takes out some part of the central nervous system. While I’ll never advocate the neck or head shot for the annual get something with horns and put Bessy away hunter, a higher shoulder shot that takes out the spine leads to FARR better meat than the pop the lungs and head around the ridge for the Easter egg hunt. The ugly kills leave a bad taste in your mouth for a reason.

BeardHunter,

My wife and I have not found that to be any sort of rule, in fact many of the very best-eating and tender animals we've taken over the years have been killed with traditional lung shots--sometimes with arrows.

Stared writing about the shear test when still in college, when I was a biology major and we still had to find stuff in the library, instead of Googling. Among other places, the U. of Wyoming continues to do considerable research in meat science, including both domestic and game meat. Ran across one of their shear tests comparing the tenderness of domestic lamb and pronghorns way back when--and it turned out pronghorns tested tenderer, which was eventually determined to be due to a relative lack of "organized collagen" even in the meat of mature bucks. Which is why pronghorn meat doesn't require much aging at all.