Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Aging meat after it has been frozen?

I know this can be done but I don't trust that it will work in a refrigerator due to humidity. Typically once I thaw meet I will keep it in the fridge for a week maximum and preferably four days maximum. My only other option for aging is a laundry room with an AC unit. I know it will cool down the area to at least the 40s but will it eliminate enough humidity to work. It is a 10,000 BTU energy star and rated as a dehumidifier. Any other options or ideas until we get some real cold fronts?

I know that folks will differ with this opinion. However, I asked about stuff like this when I worked for a frozen food company and had access to their lab staff.

1) Venison lacks the interstitial fat that beef does. Therefore, dry aging does little to change the flavor except make it worse.
2) Freezing actually does a pretty good job on venison in breaking down the cell walls, etc. It kinda/sorta takes the place of aging.

I really don't like the taste of fresh venison, at least in steaks and such. On the other hand, if I leave it frozen for a month or so, the taste changes enough that I enjoy it a lot more. Our venison-acquisition ends right around Dec 1. I usually start hitting the new venison after New Years so it has 30+ days in the deep freeze.

My advice is to keep the meat frozen until shortly before you intend to eat it and then thaw and cook.

There is bound to be others that disagree with what I've said, but that's my taste and my experience. We fill 2 freezers every year.

Also: I do not thaw venison in the refrigerator. I thaw it as quickly as possible.

As we always hang our meat (temps in Novemeber, actually more chance of freezing the meat, than heat spoilage) I have no real experience, but I do have a question, derived from your question ?

If humidity is your enemy, why not eliminate it by vacuum sealing the meat - This would also eliminate oxygen & leave an untainted product.

Then wet age in fridge / coolers ?

I found this interesting, but who knows if it is based on science. Dry Aging

Tejano, another possible option might be to call butchers or meat processors in your area. One near me will hang a carcass for $10 for as long as I like.

That's good information--and is basically the same as my wife Eileen Clarke talks about in her game cookbooks, especially SLICE OF THE WILD. One thing it does NOT specifically point out (or at least not well enough) is that collagen increases in older animals--with some exceptions. Pronghorn, for one example, do not get tougher (build mote collagen) as they get older, for whatever reason, so don't require anything more then thoroughly allowing the meat to cool (and come out of rigor mortis) before butchering.

It also does not mention that yes, aging does work for frozen meat after it thaws, because the same enzymes are present. The exception is if the meat was frozen while it was still in rigor mortis, which shortens and toughens the muscle fibers. Aging doesn't help that.

It also does not mention why dry aging can improve flavor in game meat, despite the lack of interstitial fat. Dry aging does "shrink" the meat somewhat, due to loss of moisture, which concentrates the flavor. Of course, some people don't really like venison all that much in the first place, preferring it as bland as possible--or made into jerky or sausage.

We have dry-aged various older big game animals up to three weeks, and the aging has always made in tender and more flavorful. Younger deer and elk are fine with a week or so.

I am among those that convert 100% of my venison to sausage. It goes like this:
day 1. shootem, gutem, skinem, boneem, bagem, and put in a cooler with ice for a day. Weigh the bags of meat!!!
day 2. go to the meat market and buy an equal weight of pork butt. Bag it and put it in a cooler with ice until the next day. Don't forget to remove the bone.
day 3. grind the pork and venison in equal weights and put the ground meat into bags and another cooler with ice.
day 4. assemble seasonings and casings and stuff them with a 50-50 mix of ground pork and venison. Put the sausages in a smoker and raise the internal temp of the sausages to 160 degrees.

If you only like one kind of game sausage that will no doubt do.

We prefer a wider range, the reason Eileen wrote SAUSAGE SEASON.

I’ve substituted chicken thighs with the skin on for pork a time or two in sausage. Usually have to buy them whole and remove the bone in this low-fat world. Good flavor, but it needs a little fat or oil in the pan when frying. These days, I usually cook my sausage and burgers in the oven on 350 instead of frying anyway.

I skin it, quarter it and then place it in refrigeration for seven days. Then after seven days I cut it all down into steaks, chops and roasts. The gameyness is gone.

Please explain what you mean by "gameyness." Not being contrary, just curious.

I enjoy a deer steak any time I get it.
Even have been known to fry one (or three) with onions
and eat it while still cutting one up. (Wife finds this disgusting for some reason)


Anyway, the only bad thing in fresh deer meat is it gives me gas.
Bad!

Deer meat farts will clear a room and cause windows to open!

Wondering the same.....

I've done it many ways, depending on when and where the deer were taken. At home hang them for three days and butcher, other times no time to or place to do that. Butchered/ broken down and frozen the same day they were shot. Never really tasted a difference. Older deer can be a bit different to my tastes however. A bit more chewy and stringier.Tto me all deer have a bit of "gamieness" Not near as bad as antelope, guess it depends on their diet.

I have noticed that if I cut up a deer into steaks, chops and roasts right after killing it the deer has more of a gamey taste. If I let it sit a week in refrigeration the deer doesn’t retain as much of that flavor. Furthermore, letting the meat sit for a week seems to make it more tender.

Thanks--but you still didn't explain what a "gamey": taste is.

I think that's code for "it doesn't taste like the burger and steaks from the grocery store".

Of course lamb can come from a grocery store and not taste anything like the production pork, chicken or beef, simply because they arent raised similarly.

I believe so many eat meat raised in mass production environments that anything else emits stronger flavors than what they are used to.

Of course the opposite is any production meat that smells like the [bleep] the animal lived in (during cooking).
Production pork in particular, and Ive been around a lot of it.

To me venison has a stronger flavor than domesticated animals. I am sure it’s due to diet and activity. The flavor is almost metallic.

I am not following you here....how did whatever you have get frozen if you're still waiting for "some real cold fronts"? Did you shoot something, quarter it and put it in a freezer or something? If that's the case why can't you just keep it in the freezer until it is cold enough outside to age, then thaw it and age it?

To answer your question: The hell if I know. I can break down a couple of different critters of nearly the same age and size, in nearly the same temp conditions and then have one be chewy as hell, and one that is just fine. I'm still trying to figure it all out but I am convinced keeping it on the bone until rigor mortis has passed helps with the chewiness. That's about the only conclusion I have come to.

Yea, I guess the taste difference is between Beef and Pork from the "store". Biggest difference for myself and family has been feral pigs, noting like store bought pork. Saying that I like venison, and will take what I'm allowed willing to get.