Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hanging deer/pronghorn etc

I’ve been a believer of hanging meat for a period of a few days.
Others have tried to convince me that cutting up meat and keeping the meat in a refrigerator for a few days has identical results. IDK.
What day you?

They tell me that hanging it in 38-40 degree temperature is what you need to age it properly.

Trouble is here, it tends to get a little warmer than that during the day, and if the sun shines on it makes the situation even worse.

So I debone the meat from the hanging carcass in a day or 2 after killing it, then age it in the frig where I don't have to worry about temperature variations, and sun on the hanging carcass.

I shot a doe earlier this month, deboned it after 2 days and aged it in the frig for 12 more days.

I then cut it into small cubes and my favorite lady canned it, it is excellent.

We hang out deer in our cooler for 2 weeks to 1 month.

I also believe meat ages as it is in the freezer as well. Fridge works fine too as long as you get some air circulation on it.

I keep mine in a cooler covered in ice and I drain the water everyday. I do this for a week and believe it makes a difference.

I've aged them 1-5 weeks in my garage (33°-35°) over the past decade. 3 weeks is what I generally go for having tested many criteria. If the weather isn't working I'll age them in a refrigerator but not beyond 2 weeks. Aged meat is always better. Anyone that puts their venison in water better stay seated.

Enzymes in the meat is what tenderizes them. It doesn't matter if they're cut up or not as long as you don't cut them until they're at least in rigor mortis but it's better if they're out of rigor. If you cut them sooner, the meat fibers will contract making them tougher.

Bugger,

What the enzymes Rock Chuck mentioned primarily affect is the "organized collagen" in muscles. Collagen is what makes meat tough, and tends to increase with an animal's age.

Pronghorns have very little collagen in their meat compared to deer, and hence don't need aging like older deer. This was proven years ago by the meat science department of the University of Wyoming, which has published much of the most useful research on wild game meat. They compared the meat of older pronghorn bucks with 6-month old domestic lambs, using a "shear test" with a sharpened thin blade connected to a pressure gauge, and the pronghorn bucks were more tender. So aside from waiting for rigor mortis to abate, there's no advantage in aging pronghorns.

So, if one kills a deer in the back country and needs to pack it out and can’t realistically let it hang until rigor does it’s thing, what’s the best procedure? I’d guess quartering it rather than boning right away even though you have to pack the extra weight. And with backstraps and inner loins they just get tough? Or will aging offset the toughness of the muscle contracting? Apologies if this is a high jack.

That is interesting. When we were hunting lots of antelope in SE NM it was obviously very warm most of the time, often in the 90's. We would try and have one skinned, quartered, and into the freezer in an hour and it was always some superb venison. Your information is likely why. Thanks for that tidbit.

JG,

Thanks! I ran across the information when a wildlife biology major in college, by using the old-time version of Google, the Index of Periodic Literature. That was just a few years before the Internet changed things considerably! Will add your info to the list of "tests" relevant to the UW info.

They do have a GREAT collection of research on game meat. Eileen includes much of it in her game cookbooks--which are not just the typical collection of recipes, but information both on field-to-table meat care and cooking techniques specific to game, due to how it differs from domestic meat AND from animal to animal.

Letting it come out of rigor is best but just letting it go in is a major improvement over cutting it hot. The elk I shot last week was in full rigor in under 2 hrs. No, aging won't counteract muscle contraction. It's worth waiting a couple of hours for it to stiffen up.
The current trend is to use the gutless method and bone them almost before they fall down. I've done that with a half dozen elk and a couple moose. Every one was very tough eating. I haven't had a tough one since I quit doing that.

Humm, Mule deer this publication states just the opposite about pronghorn. The bucks have more collagen that the doe. The paper also states that because pronghorn are usually more tender due to slow cooling of the carcass during warner hunting months. The shear test clearly shows that after aging pronghorn meat does get more tender but tends to get too tender or mushy.
The paper also talks about the odor of pronghorn meat an interesting ways to combat that odor some do not like,

Here is the paper Mule Deer is referencing : https://www.wyoextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B-565R.pdf

Thanks Rock, I’m gonna be careful about such things in the future.

We have unpredictable weather here and there are times when I shoot a deer and it’s plenty cold, other times way too warm.

I tend to leave meat in the fridge for long periods of time whether it hung in my garage for a few weeks or not.

I half joke w/ my friends that I know venison is ready to be eaten when my wife tells me it’s going bad in the fridge.

i feel because i live and hunt in northern Minnesota one day it could be 40-50 degrees and the next day 0-10 degrees in late fall , so what we do is skin it warm because that`s much easier and leave it hang to cool down maybe over night depending on the temp in the shade . most of the time once its cooled down we either debone deer or quarter deer depending on how nasty it is outside , put the meat in a big cooler with ice or snow for a few days or a week when ever we have time to finish the meat but i don`t let it freeze tell we have all the meat finished and packed up.

At my camp, we always hang it right up and dressed it right there => take all the meat we can off the body, then stash/keep it on ice in coolers for several days. Pulls the excess blood and gaminess out of the meat. After 7-10 days, we parcel it up for sausage, grinding, and steaks.

Since I hunt in the farmlands north of Abilene, TX, deer camp temps can be 19-40 degrees for the week, or 55-75 degrees for the week. Not a fan of letting meat just hang in 60-70 degree weather - too easily blown by flies.

YMMV.

For whitetail, I never hang my deer. I get it stripped down and in the refrigerator and package it the next day and into the freezer. Hanging it doesn't just make it more tender, it dries the meat and concentrates the flavor. This is just my experience with eating venison over the last 30 plus years but in my opinion venison that has been hung and aged tends to be more "gamey". There is a world of difference between the meat I process and that done by a professional processor. I can never go back to having my deer processed. I meet people all the time that don't really like it but will eat burger and jerky. I know its because they ate some aged and more than likely overcooked venison and I would not eat venison either if that was my only choice.

I will vouch for Eileen's cookbooks as having much more useful information than just the wonderful recipes.

I have done it both ways many times. I have an old frig for when the weather is to warm to hang meat. When I hang it, its usually for 3 or 4 days. If its plenty cool I may hand it up to 7 days. I can't tell the difference in taste. "Gamey" to me, means spoiled meat. Get the hide off, and keep it clean and cool. Always comes out good.

You live in an alternative universe anyway. Anyone who would believe anything you have to say on any subject is a complete dullard