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.

Fresh steak from the store has already been aged before it was cut. Trying to age it more is sure to let it rot.

I use a fridge to age venison when it's warm. It's just above freezing in there. 4-5 days is max. When it gets to 7 days you can definitely tell it's going downhill. If the skin is left on the quarters I just put them in there. For backstraps or other meat out of the skin, wrap it tightly in plastic so it stays moist.

Fred,

Look for a second hand larger "semi commercial" catering style fridge or coke chiller/display. If possible get one which as a small fan in it (most of the larger fridges do)

The one below cost me about $90 delivered from Ebay and has lasted about three years..





Mine is about 65" tall by 22" wide by about 19" deep...It will hold an 80lb Fallow carcass as long as the head and lower legs are removed.

The double door drinks chillers are a better size, but check the usuable internal space as sometimes its not as such as the exterior suggests.

I bolted the hanging rail through the sides...If I was handling more Fallow, I'd probably reinforce the exterior to make it stronger.

Whether hanging jacket on or off, hanging the carcass whole is said to be better than hanging it in quarters, as the weight of the carcass stretches the meat fibres and helps the aging process some what. I'm not sure its a big deal, but if you can get the right size fridge, why not?

I should say that I hang mine for around 7 to 10 days with no problems. The fan is a big help in that respect plus, rubbish in, equals rubbish out, meaning its best to treat the carcass properly at all stages of the process, including placing the shot in the first place! Ideally, the carcass should not touch the sides of the chiller or each other when hanging..From the pics my fridge a bit on the small side but it just about copes with two reasonably sized roe as in the top pic..

Carcasses that are jammed in tight with no air circulating around them tend not to last as long as properly hung ones..

Regards,

Peter

Peter
That is a heck of an idea. I am going to keep my eyes open for one of them.

Fred

Yeah...me too. I like that concept a lot. Would be just the thing for shooting deer/caribou/moose/goat et al up here in August and September.

Dennis

Over the last few years we have been seeing proper "game fridges" being imported from German but they are *very* expensive for what is just an over size fridge.

Have a look atCool Game UK

Prices for are in �� and the $$ is probably about $1.55 to the Pound at the minute.

The site is useful though as it gives you an idea what to aim for and different ways of hanging the animal, plus an idea of sizes.

With a hanging rail "across" the fridge as I've done, it can be a struggle to lift a heavy carcass onto the rail as your standing outside the fridge trying to lean in and lift with your arms out stretched at the same time.

Arranging the hanging rail(s) front to back as in the pic from the Cool Game site is a much better idea.



As you can see they rig up a temporary "loading bar" one half which slides into the fridges hanging rail and the other end you'd hang by a bit of chain from the ceiling.

This enables the carcass to be lifted outside the fridge and slid inside with much less drama and no damage..Not such an important consideration for our small roe carcass, but once the carcass gets over 75lb -100lb, it makes life *much* easier and avoids buggering up your back, or knocking the chiller unit about as you try to hang the carcass.

Regards,

Peter

A few more pics of a chiller that appeared on a now defunct British site.

The chiller is a standard single door display model and cost the guy about $20 as it was being chucked by a shop owner. IIRC its about 24" square externally and about 72" to the top of the motor unit. The carcass was something like a 70lb Sika I think.









As you can see the guy added external metal work to take the hanging weight. There is an upright each side of the chiller plus a bar across the top that the eye hook screws into.

Personally I would use a hanging rail rather than an eye hook for the reasons mentioned before ie ease of loading. Plus I don't bother with gambrels but use two short "S" hooks, otherwise you loose too much hanging height and thats a pain with bigger carcasses.

Regards,

Peter

Re-arranging the quarters every few days is an excellent idea.....something we always do. Air MUST reach all sides of the meat to cool properly and defeat the souring that CAN happen.

Never tried using wood slats instead of wire.....but it makes sense to me. I don't know that there is any limit as to time.....have gone as long as 2 1/2 weeks with no problems.....and have seen problems at just a few days if meat is "stacked" and not properly cooled.

Aging really isn't required if the animal is properly cared for from the first, but it does seem to render a bit more "tender" steak. The idea of aging wasn't so much an idea of making better meat, but of convinience as most years opening weekend resulted in 6-10 deer killed and no time to process without giving up hunting time. The side benifits of "more tender" just sort of happened and became habit.

I agree with Pairie Dog Shooter, that it is seldom in Texas that a deer can be held for more than a day without cooling.......just have to adapt and overcome!!

Aging also makes it much easier to trim the meat.

Pete E;
I hope this finds you and yours well this evening Peter.

Thanks for putting up your cooler photos again, I really like your commercial fridge idea. I keep on waiting for our old one to die so I can look for one, but it seems to keep going somehow.

Ours was a vertical chest freezer that the repairman put in too small a compressor so it will not quite freeze anymore. This type of thing is locally called a "beer fridge" and are pretty common, although ours is a bit larger than most and does have a small fan at the top already.

This is what ours looks like with a deer stuffed inside.


It definitely isn't as slick as your setup, but it does beat nothing as our Okanagan Septembers are still quite hot at times - +34�C - 90�F.

Thanks again and have a good rest of the week.

Regards,
Dwayne

Have done MANY whitetail in a setup like BC30s. About 14 days, turn several times. Works great.

I'm kinda on the lookout for a big, older frig to help with feral hog processing. Because of the temperatures on the Texas coast, we normally keep deer and hogs on ice for 3-5 days, draining the water and blood and adding more ice every day. Doesn't "age" the meat, I guess, but it cools it down thoroughly and bleeds it out better. Needs to be clean and free of hair first, of course, and not left too long out in the heat before skinning and quartering.

Have 2 extra refrigerators in the garage for aging venison,works great

The club I belong to has a walk in cooler we are allowed to keep our deer in for up to 5 days. I always cut my deer up right after tagging them in. I never liked to let them hang, even in cold weather because bacteria is going to work on that meat.

Well, I hang them in the refrigerator now. I also cut up about 20 deer a year and they all come from the walk in too. I know the meat is easier to cut. It firms up, but I have doubts about it changing the quality of the meat. I certainly haven't noticed a difference in taste or tenderness.

Places that age beef use cultures of mold to break down the meat. I've seen David Burke's Prime, and they have mold growing over everything. You pay $60 for a ribeye but you can tell it's different. It's a lot more tender. It's also richer tasting. I think maybe a little bit dryer but still good.

I don't know what just letting the meat sit in the cooler does. I see it come up a lot here, and other places, but without the specific cultures of mold working over the meat, I don't know how much it changes.

Depends on a number of factors, but the main one is the temp its stored in..At freezing or just above, you should have no problems when hanging a clean carcass following good practice.






I've never heard of mould being delibertely introduced to hanging meat...

Mould does grow on carcasses hung in a chiller especially when a cold carcass has been washed.

Some chillers seem to be worse for this than others, but I'm not sure why. Possible some chiller get "contaminated" with spores, or it may be to do with the humidity inside the chiller.

Either way a little mould is not usually any reason to chuck the carcass as it is easily removed with a clean paper towel dampened with a water/white vinegar mix...It removes the mould without tainting the meat but I usually take it as a sign the carcass is ready to butcher..

I know they do it for aging hams and salami. They use Penicillium, just like they do with blue cheese. I saw Samantha Brown on TV at a steak house where they built the walls of the cooler out of Himalayan rock salt blocks and introduced mold cultures. She asked "how do you do that." The guy replied, "go get a piece of meat from another aging place and bring it over here. The strains get established and will last for generations. They had white coated salamis hanging in with the beef. I always figured it was part of the process.

Never heard of that. Interesting.