Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How to tell meat went bad???

Long story short, wife shot her first elk, a cow, Monday evening. Somehow despite having one lung totally "jellified", the other with the back portion taken off and the heart being blown to bits (couldn't find a piece big enough to ID as "heart") the cow went 600 yards and we had to leave it over night. Temps in town were 50, in the mountain cooler, we found the cow in a snow covered pile of rocks at 9AM and took it apart, had it in coolers with ice jugs by 1:00 PM.

Just changed the ice jugs (120 quart cooler with 5 frozen gallon jugs). Caught an "off" smell when I opened the cooler, not really strong, but something didn't smell right.

When we took the cow apart, it was "cool" but some parts like deep in the back quarters, was still a bit warm.

We are going to start butchering and freezing today, but how do I know meat is going bad and we shouldn't use it? Nothing is "green" or antyhing, but nervous about freezing "bad" meat and getting us (or others who we give meat to) sick.

You probably lost some in the hip areas. Your instinct is probably correct with the smell you got from the cooler.

When butchering it I would recommend cutting out anything that doesn’t look right or doesn’t smell right.
Another thing to keep in mind. Many times putting fresh/warm meat into a cooler even with ice and then closing the lid the warmth from the meat is then trapped. I will leave the lid cracked for an hour or 2 to let some of the warmth escape first while on ice.

If it smell bad,it is .Deep muscles like hind quarters cool slow. Having it lay in snow insulates it.Wondering why you had to leave it over night

I use the smell test, always. And I go out of my way to not leave animals on the ground intact for such a long period of time.

Tracked about 300 yards til dark, tried moving forward with lights, spent about 30 minutes looking for next blood, couldn't find it, between that, dark and thinking most likely hit was "liver" didn't want to bump her. Came back at first light, took 90 minutes of very slow tracking to find her dead after about another 300 yards

smell.

Things happen, but this is the main reason I don't hunt late afternoons anymore. Years ago me and my party trailed a gut shot elk that someone else had wounded .We came across a blood trail along the trail back to camp and trailed it well pass dark until it dropped below the snow line. Four of us, back the next morning, found it after about 3 hours. When we rolled it over, the entire side that was down was spoiled and leaking guts. I have pretty strong stomach, but I puked my guts out. I will never forget that smell and if the meat has only an inkling of that smelt, it gets tossed.

A few years ago, I killed yearling elk in ML season in the morning. I hung the quarters over night and then put them in a big cooler with milk jugs full of ice all around the meat. In two days, I lost half of it.Same thing. Even the smaller hindquarters retained enough heat near the bone to spoil

If it layed on snow overnight, and with temps lower than 50 I couldn't imagine it isn't OK. If you have that "feeling", take some of the suspicious meat to a butcher and get his thoughts. I've not found elk till the next morning in similar temps without it laying in snow, and they've all been just fine. In fact, I believe the body heat slowly leaving it overnight helped tenderize the meat.

To answer your main question though, for meat that I think may have been soured due to heat, as long as it doesn't have that greenish tint to it I have generally found it to be OK.

When the health department audits restaurants, they’ll write you up if your fridge temp is above 40*. That’s because above 40* is where food starts spoiling. Food left at 45* for 2 hours or more is considered unsafe.

With Elk having those super thick rear quarters, they have to get real cold air around them to get the heat out quickly from deep within to prevent Bone sour. Leaving an animal overnight without field dressing, and keeping the rear quarters spread apart and the cavity propped open to air out is rolling the dice.

I don’t care if it’s 20-25*. Not opening that body cavity, and getting the guts out to remove that oven still holding heat, is asking for spoilage.

There’s a reason refrigerators need to be 40* and cooler. Just remember that, and that’s not considering super thick pieces of “warm” meat like on large game animals which take longer for the meat deep inside up against the bone, to reach safe temps in the time frame needed.

You really have to watch close when hanging animals back at camp too for a couple of days with their hides still on if you want to help age / tenderize it some before skinning and quartering out. That sun beaming down onto that hide will warm it up and bite you in the azz too, when it’s borderline cold outside for keeping the meat safe, and you think you’re OK, but you’re not.

That's amazing. I was taught years back that meat needed to go from warm to cold as quickly as possible, so it would not linger long enough in the temp range where bacteria could start to grow, like every restaurant / fast food chain in the country follows.

I guess going offshore fishing no longer requires 100's of pounds of ice in the fish wells either when it's just "cool" outside...That will allow the meat to get tenderized on those overnight outings for a few days as the heat slowly leaves the body.

Less money for ice. More money for beer.

Never hunted Elk but--- Is it common for an elk to travel 600 yds after it's heart was blown to pieces ???

Only when it has gone through the Transponder.

I’d think cutting a steak and putting it in a frying pan and then trying it would be an easy way to tell.

That said we always skin and quarter elk immediately, regardless of temperatures. My Dad and his brothers had one spoil back in the 70’s or 80’s because they didn’t get the hide off in time. Since then it’s been policy to not take chances. Fortunately none of us have shot one and not been able to find it in time.

I've had to leave elk in the field overnight many times and at temps higher than that. The trick is to get the hide away from the meat and cut the legs away from the ribs so heat can escape. Also skin the neck. The neck hair is great insulation. You can also cut along the ham bones to allow cool air to get inside the thick part of the meat.
60F won't hurt it overnight if you open it up to get it cooled down to room temp.

As suggested, when butchering, just put a small piece in a fry pan and try it.

I always do this to find out how the animal tastes and is a great barometer for spoilage.

Beam me up Scotty , then return me back, but wait until the earth has turned a little

With that much “damage” in the vitals, it could also be coming from some spoilage in an area you didn’t trim close enough.

A whiff wouldn’t worry me as much as a “wow” - there’s a number of parts that will whiff bad that would not affect the rest.

I would generally agree that the deeper tissues may be affected by laying out all night without opening or skinning, but I’ve seen it go both ways. If she was run hard and heated up when she went down, I’d be more concerned.

We butchered last night, and were cautious on what we kept, coincidentally we did slide a piece of "questionable" and fry it and try it, side by side with a "good" piece. They tasted very different, so that was our "line".

The rear quarter that was towards the ground had some loss, maybe 10%, we also lost a portion of the backstrap, about a 8 inch portion.

the meat we lost was brown to dark brown as opposed to red. We didn't find any "green" stuff.

No need to age fish, IME and overnight offshore fishing trips off the Texas coast is a different situation. You know that. You may as well compare strippers to girl scouts. In the mountain west, I often travel home with fish not in a cooler at all, let alone with ice as long as it isn't hot out. I do go straight home, clean them and get them in the freezer though. I've never had an issue but I also am not out overnight. If I was I'd do it differently, for sure.

As far as red meat and going from warm to cold ASAP, you could have cold shortening issues but then again maybe not if you're just putting it on ice as that won't freeze it. If possible I prefer to let critters hang and age for several days in air temps warmer than most references suggest. The air temp can get fairly warm but once the meat is cooled down and in the shade air temp doesn't seem to affect the meat temps near as much. I do know that in a general sense, aging deer/elk at temps and for time periods that most people recommend has resulted in chewy meat for me. Aging it just a bit warmer has produced significantly better results. Critters not found until the next morning have often been really good eating as long as they were found promptly and taken care of, I suspect due to cooling relatively slowly overnight, and on the bone. If they died in a sunny spot and not found until mid morning, that's been a different story. I couldn't imagine leaving a critter out overnight in hotter weather.

Different experiences often lead to different conclusions.