Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game aging meat in a refrigerator

Here in Montana, we have been having warm weather for most of antelope season and even into deer season. I am thinking of buying a used refrigerator to age quarters of deer and antelope. Think it would work?

fred

Fred, I've done it a number of times with elk killed during warm fall weather and never had any problems with short term cooling like 3-4 days. We have a couple of older style refrigerators with very small iceboxes that allow for maximum height with all the racks taken out. Each frig will hold a couple quarters (fronts minus ribs) stood up along with the backstraps and other trimmed meat. I usually leave the door open just a crack to allow for some air flow and turn quarters once or so each day. Any blood that collects in the bottom of frig is also cleaned out periodically.

For something smaller like deer and lopes the racks might be nice to have in to stack meat on.

Lonny
Thanks- Last year, I gave in and took my meat to a processor because I didn't have a place to cool it, and I would have been about as well off to throw it away- never again!

Fred

I did it for the first time last year it worked great,my wife even like it.I left the top rack in the fridge hung the quarters from that. I left my deer in for around 10 days ,trimmed the dryed outer meat off and ran it thru a grinder with a 5lb. pork butt.I've heard that beef is aged around 3-5 days per 100lb. so I used that as a guideline.

Just keep the refrigerator high enough temperature inside to not freeze the meat being aged. About 37-38 degrees is perfect, but up to 45 degrees or so work fine. Really -- getting it a few degrees low is worse than a few degrees high.

Antelope don't take many days, so a couple-three will do it. Sounds like getting the frig is a good idea down there.

Hope you get lots to work on...

Dennis

Fred;
I hope this finds you and yours well tonight.

We've used a big fridge for 22 or so years to store upwards of what has to be 150+ head of game and although it has some limitations, overall it works quite well.

If the animals come in one at a time, we like to leave them hang whole at least until rigor leaves the body, or usually overnight. Then I take it apart before I head off to work, putting the legs, back, neck and ribs onto the racks in the fridge.

A friend has one that he gutted the inside out of and installed a metal rack that enables him to hang halves.

The only downside of a fridge that we've found is that it doesn't have the air movement of a commercial cooler, so the meat needs to be cut after about a week or perhaps few days more, before it starts to begin to change color.

Last year I experimented with putting in a 6" fan and while it showed some promise, I think something a bit smaller would be better.

Anyway, hopefully that was some use to you Fred. Please feel free to give me a shout if you think I can be of any assistance to you.

I hope you and yours have a good week.

Regards,
Dwayne

A little trick I learned for making sausage is instead of sing the reccomended 30% pork do about 15% bacon like the ends and pieces you can get for cheap then season with your normal recipe or kit simply fantastic!

I age mine in the refrigerator for 4-5 days this time of the year.

I've been doing it with a refrigerator for years.

I'm going to do that this year. Thanks for the tip. - Denny

We have also used refridgerators to age deer for more than 30 years. Always on the lookout for older units that have a good compressor, but may not work just right anymore. Often you can get them free....just to haul it away!! We cut the deer into shoulders, hams, neck and back (with the backstraps removed).

As Muledeer pointed out the key is to get the meat almost as cold as you can without freezing. I aim for 38-40 degrees and age for as long as 10 days without problems. I also use small fans as BC30cal suggested for air circulation. The ones I use are made for hanging on a car mirror and work on 12 volt power.

One other thing to watch is to make sure the meat is not "piled" up and air can freely get to all sides. If piled, it can sour before the internal temperature drops below the critical 45 degree mark.

We converted a stand up Ice Cream Freezer with glass doors to age meat. We have it rigged to stay below 40 deg.

The stainless steel type grill racks allows the air to freely circulate around the venison.

I've done it with a chest freezer and a cooling thermostat from a greenhouse that's set to come on when the temp gets up to wherever I set it. The stat is set to kick on when the temp gets up to about 38. I run the freezer power cord under the lid to the stat inside, then I added another cord to the stat that runs back out to the wall outlet. This will override the freezer's built in stat that isn't adjustable to a high enough temp for meat or fruit.
I originally set this up to store apples until the outside temps get cool enough to hold them, then use it for a freezer again.

I tried that once and much prefer using pork shoulders boned out. I also buy cheaper beef roast to make hamburger with instead of using fat. Have thought about getting stew meat but have not priced and compared it. miles

Boston Butts work good.

Men: I have yet to try to age any meat as I am afraid it will turn and go bad. I have heard of this, but can one of you take the time to exolain this process? I know if I put a fresh steak (store bought) in the refer...after a few days it changes color to a grayish and get absolutely rank soon after. I get that it produces enzymes to break down the toughness etc, but where is the fine line between spoilage and perfection?

You need to age it in large pieces. Small ones just spoil. I am not a big fan of long term ageing on deer. I do like it on beef. miles

Thanks a lot everybody- I have a few weeks to find an inexpensive refrigerator and this will make my meat care a lot more simple. The last two nights I have been feasting on chicken fried steak made from antelope steaks that had been brined and it reminded me how good the wild meat is.

Fred

I have a deer fridge in the garage for just that reason. It's never cool enough here to hang a deer.

Good stuff in here. I have only read 3/4 so this may have been posted: when aging/keeping a deer for a few days in a refrigerator, I have placed red cedar slats under where meat touched the bottom, to keep it off the bottom, out of any fluids drained and allow air access. Also stuck such pieces of wood between larger pieces of meat to allow air to circulate. All the racks gone from the fridge I've used. As others have said, we open the fridge and rearrange the meat quarters/chunks every day or so.