Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Aging Elk Meat

Shot my elk this year at sundown thirty- had him gutted, hung, skinned, and halved in a couple of hours. Nighttime temp was around 27 degrees.
Took it to the processors the next day- they had the meat cut up, frozen, and ready to pick up a week later. It probably hung at the processors for a couple of days before cutting, just due to the volume of animals checked in at that time.
We had elk steak for lunch today- if there is any better elk meat, I'd like to know when, where, and how!

Alectoris,

Meat in rigor mortis is very stiff. An animal is out of rigor when you can move the legs again relatively easily. They won't move as easily as when the animal was first killed, but it will become easier. Usually meat comes out of rigor within a few hours, and is certainly out within 24 hours.

Salt in ice water tends to draw the blood out of meat, and some people feel meat tastes better with as much blood removed as possible. Fresh water will do the same thing, however.

Shag,

I've also talkedf to a lot of butchers who firmly believe "aging" means meat starts to rot. The fact is that most butchers have no real idea of what aging does or doesn't do, since they have no background in meat science. Instead they just learned to cut up meat. But you're right, there is no need to let most wild game hang until it dries out and starts turning colors.

Beef carcasses are protected from drying out while aging by the layer of fat on the carcass surface, but as I pointed out in my thread, either leaving carcasses in the hide or covering them in plastic keeps moistue inside and prevents the exterior from drying out.

I must also point out that somehow "aging" meat has come to mean hanging it for days or weeks. In reality meat starts aging as soon as rigor mortis starts to leave, because that's when the lactose in the muscle breaks down into lactic acid. Simply waiting overnight before butchering allows a little aging, and 3-4 days even more.

As I pointed out to Alectoris, a young animal doesn't really require any "aging" beyond cooling down and letting rigor leave the meat--and most deer and elk killed are at moost three years old.

Even older animals that have fattened over the summer and not gone into the rut are usually pretty tender and don't need much aging, because a lot of their muscle is new, put on since spring.

Bighorn,

As I pointed out in my previous post, aging begins as soon as rigor mortis leaves the meat, usually a matter of a few hours.
It does NOT begin after week. Your elk meat aged for a few days.

I am curious about the age of your bull. Was it a big 6-point with worn-down ivories, or a spike or raghorn?

One more comment: Aging of meat is accelerated at warmer temperatures. Long-term aging of beef is done at temperatures a few degrees over freezing, but meat 50 degrees tenderizes far more quickly, because the higher temperature accelerates the chemical process. A deer that goes three days at 50 degrees or ages at least as much as a deer hung in a walk-in cooler for a week.

Mule Deer, another question if you wouldn't mind.

Your's is one of the very few posts I've ever seen advocating the use of plastic. The rule of thumb I've always understood is to use plastic only below 32 degrees. Even if outside temp is acceptable (say 40) the temp inside plastic, especially sealed, can escalate fast and become too much. Is this true?

Another question. I use a game processor who usually takes 2 weeks before cutting the meat. Is this de-facto aging of the meat helping? Is loss due to drying out during hanging countering any bennefits of the aging?

Thanks for your comments.

Plastic is fine as long as long the meat is cooled down first--and kept either in a cooler or in the shade afterward.

I dunno about "sealed." All I do is put it in plastic garbage bags to prevent drying out, or cut the bags up and place 'em against the carcass once it's cooled.

How does your processor keep the meat while he's waiting to cut it up?

JB,
My bull was a 5 point, probably 3 1/2 or so years.. It simply wasn't going to be bad tasting or tough, no matter what. By your criteria, I guess it was probably adequately aged, with around 3 days hang time.

I'd rather have a bit of dried meat than covered with plastic.

As mentioned before, any humidity is a good spot for bacteria to grow in and a plastic covering would promote this, It would be OK for a temp covering to keep clean, but not for longer periods during hanging.

If that's what you prefer, then you should do that.

But right now I have the skinned parts of a buck in plastic, and they've been there since Tuesday noon, a day and a half after he was killed, gutted, skinned and cooled down. There isn't the slightest hint of bacteria in or on any of the meat (I just checked it) because the meat has been kept at less than 40 degrees, which represses bacterial formation.

I've done this a number of times over the years and never had a problem. The only two tricks are cooling the meat thoroughly before putting on the plastic, and keeping it really chilled afterward.

If you don't want meat to dry out and don't want to use plastic, the most effective technique is to leave the hide on, as it's been proven meat is close to sterile while still inside the hide.

This means, however, the temperature has to be cool enough to chill the meat even with the hide on. This isn't as difficult as most folks think, however. I once cooled down a 5-point bull elk killed on September 5th by hanging the entire gutted carcass up overnight when the temperature got down to around 40.

I much prefer the meat we cut to be cold and firm. Even at 38deg in a walk in cooler come the 4th day the firmness I prefer is headed south. My son is just ending his second year as a professional meat cutter. We have started to build his own custom cut shop here at the house as next fall he'll be open for business. We both find that 5 days would be the absolute max we'd hang vension in a walkin cooler at 38deg. There is no way either of us would hang venision at 50deg for 3 days. Which means we'd not on purpose let venison age in a cooler for 7. Once that nice workable firmness starts to go u simply are wasteing meat.
I believe the next generation of 24hrcampfire member will veiw the week or more theory as simply a "wives tale" that isn't a necessity for a guality cut.

Most of us prolly had a grandpa or a father mentor us on how to age meat. I never had that. I taught myself how to hunt and fish and take proper care of the bounty. So I feel i am totally opened minded as to which is the best way. I've listend to and spent alot of time trying to age venison the way the old timers believed it's to be done. And then my hand has also been forced due to temps to get it cut and wrapped asap. I simply have not found either to be better than the other. Except for the fact more meat is wasted the longer it hangs.

Here's an interesting link on dry and wet aging.

http://www.askthemeatman.com/dry_aged_beef1.htm

I find this statement in the link to be very true.

"This method has become more popular because it is cheaper and more profitable. Dry aging is more costly due to the approximately 18% loss in shrinkage and extra trim required, time, storage, refrigerator space, and labor".

I'll take my venison 3-4 days tops outa a cooler at 38deg. And if it isn't in a walkin cooler I'll continue to cut and wrap venison within 2 days or less as temps here will be in the 40-50's mostly because I just simply haven't found a benefit to week old aged venison. Getting the meat as cool as possible as fast as possible after the kill is much more important to me than how long I "aged" it.

I suspect that complete cooling and a slight drying of the outside of the muscle would make this work. This would keep the plastic from sticking to the muscle exterior and allow some air to pass.

As a professional meatcutter from 1978-2002, I never once saw swinging meat arrive from the packers packed in plastic. It was always hammered into us that a dry cooler running at about 32-38deg is the best condition to keep bacteria growth low.

Its good to see Mule Deer has chimed in here. I've emailed Eileen many times over our problem on our Jan. hunt. Usually it gets zero or lower over night and our problem is to keep the elk carcasses from freezing too fast. Its in a wood sided shed with 16' side walls with no real insulation. I kept the hide on last year to slow down the cooling (freezing). That was one miserable skinning job. This year I plan on using a couple of old army wool blankets and wrap them around the carcass as it hangs on the hooks - after I skin it.
I'm trying to keep the cow elk whole to left the weight of the animal stretch those muscle fibers.

I have heard that spraying the inside of the carcass with vinegar will help kill the bacteria is there any truth to this?

I agree 100%.

I've been doing it for over 50 years, and proper aging always produces better quality meat.

Anymore so many hunters aren't all that concerned about the meat, just antler-bragging. They have much or all of the animals ground up and use too much for dog food. Fewer people actually like wild game meat. I think some of this trend comes from improperly cared for animals and poor handling by the hunter, and all too often the processor.

As long as its cool enough outside we've always hung the meat hide on for 5-7 days. If its hot then yes the hide comes off but its usually cool enough here in Idaho to leave it, then you only have to skin it once. Many times the backstraps get eaten the same day its shot.

Dick

I and the preceding generations here use a cotton bag to hang the carcases in.

My favourite is a cotton doona cover closed at the Gambrel with some clothes pegs, stops dust and blowflies whilst still allowing cooling.
I have killed and hung God alone knows how many carcases in over 40 degrees Celsius heat and have never had any spoiling.


Ps, my wife has sewn in some cord at the top of my current three bags so that the top can be pulled shut and tied without pegs.

Vinegar is acidic and will inhibit bacterial growth.

Here is my opinion. I agree with JB 110%. I firmly believe in aging venison. The first time I did it was a mistake though.

I shot an old buck, GFP aged him at 10 years old. I immediately skinned and quartered him. Put him on ice in a cooler.

Between work and trying to fill an elk tag, that meat was in ice water for 7 days. Finally got that deer processed and it was the best deer we had ever eaten. Light bulb came on!

My rule of thumb for aging meat is as follows:
Pronghorn 3-5 days
Deer 5-7 days
Elk 7-10 days
Moose 10-14 days
This is at 34-36 degrees in a refrigerator or on ice. Higher temps shorten the time needed. I can adjust my fridge temp easy enough to have the venison ready for when I have the time to process.

I am very type A about controlled temp and believe that is important, or maybe I just tell myself that. I cringe at the thought of future meals hanging in a shed or garage, or worse, hanging outside in a tree! Many have luck with it, but I must be too much of a control freak to allow that to happen.

I have gotten better about leaving an animal hang overnight though, as long as the garage is nice and cool.

I have aged venison in plastic bags, game bags, ice water, and even uncovered after a crust has been formed. It doesn't take to long for a quick crust to form, especialy if you can place it in the sun for about 10-15 minutes. This is a very good practice if you are on an extended trip without the comforts of home. ie an Alaskan float trip or backpack hunt.

I age all of my venison, the only exception is if I know that I will not have time. Then it is processed, vacuum packed, and in the freezer before it even cools. It is more work to process still warm chunks of meat though.

I highly recommend Eileen's book to anyone just starting out processing their own venison. It just confirms what I have learned on my own over the last 30 plus years.

So to answer the OP's original post, I think you can process your elk anytime now because of the warmer temps it has been exposed to.

I did a bunch of research in the past, including links to studies on the subject with a number of universities on various game department sites. Wish I had some of the links for you, but they all agreed with my personal experience. To sum it all up succinctly, it was found that there was benefit to aging game (most studies involved venison, but some elk), 5-7 days at an optimum temperature of 40 degrees F. Higher temperatures shortened the optimal time. There was little to no benefit cited, whether for toughness or flavor, in aging longer, but some real potential problems in aging longer at higher temperatures.

Terry,

We've probably read some of the same sources, but we've found that certain animals do benefit from aging longer than a week. Three years ago I killed an old bull elk here in Montana. We left most of the meat in the garage, where the temperature was just right for aging, but put a foot-long chunk of backstrap in the refrigerator.

After a week I cut a steak off the "fridge strap" and cooked it up. It was still pretty chewy, so we waited another week before trying again. There wasn't much change, and still wasn't until three weeks after the elk had died. All of a sudden it got a LOT tenderer. It still wasn't as chewable as a spike, but it was pretty damn good!

One of the things many hunters apparently don't understand is that unlike beef steers, deer and elk aren't all the same age. The state of the muscles of bucks and bulls also changes across the fall, as they go from fat guys in September to much leaner in November. Then there's the temperature at the time they're killed, and other stuff. Aa a result there's no single answer to care of wild meat, and sometimes some animals just aren't as good as others, no matter what we do.