Guys, my garage fridge died and I shot a buck. Have ice and a cooler . Question is ; put the quarters in plastic bags or directly on ice? Our temps are unseasonably warm so no hanging possible.

I usually quarter the deer and put in large ice chest. I drain the water from the cooler nearly everyday and add Ice as needed until the next weekend when I have time to process the meat. I don't get hung up on the meat touching the ice or setting in some water. Since starting to do this to my deer, it has made a big difference in how the deer taste (in a good way).

No plastic bags. Freeze water bottles for the bottom and lay the meat on top. The ice will last longer and the meat will stay dry.

Agree being directly on the ice matters not.

My hunting buddy does it every year. I think it's ok as long as there is ice above and below the meat, actual contact with bagged ice. We keep the meat wrapped in plastic so that it is not actually touching the ice but has two layers of plastic in between. Leave the drain plug out. Water isn't going to help anything.

The water isn’t going to hurt anything either.

It works well. A lot of the blood will seep out and make the meat better. I do it all the time. Sometimes I put it in an extra fridge for a few days, sometimes in a cooler, and sometimes straight into the freezer. It all works. Water on the meat does not matter for short term, but I would not leave it that way for too long. No big deal. Just keep it drained. It helps to set something in the bottom of the cooler to keep the meat up off the bottom.

You could also butcher and package the meat first and then age it for another week or more in coolers or in a fridge. Ive done this several times and its a good option as well depending on circumstances.

The cooler thing is my standard procedure for handling venison at home. Skin and quarter, get it on ice and cut, wrap and freeze at my leisure.

If you knew how long commecial beef hung before you buy it, you'd stop worrying.

I used to hang mine. After I tried the cooler method 20 years ago I have never turned back. The ice water drains all the blood out of the meat. I drain it a couple of times a day, and begin to process the quarters and loins after 3-4 days. Much easier and better taste to meat.

Back when we were collecting deer year round, we did this with the occasional animal in the summer that the usual suspects (nursing home, the county jail, etc,) didn't want. Enjoyed a lot of venison aged that way!

if you can get some of the "YETI ICE" or dry ice, put it on the bottom and the put a layer of ice on top, and it will keep your other ice well preserved. if you put either one of those on the top layer, it might freeze all out meat...

The dry ice will freeze the meat no matter if the ice is on top or not.

Thanks, so the consensus is meat directly on the ice? Not inside of plastic?

We do it for about 3 days draining water and adding ice if needed.

When cutting your hands get so cold that you have to take breaks from time to time just to warm up.

The meat tastes darn good.

I used to hunt in a hunting camp where they'd take a doe specifically to be made into deer sausage. All of the meat was cut into stew meat sized chunks and put into a cooler full of ice water to which was added a couple of pounds of salt. The meat was transported to the butcher in the cooler for processing into sausage. Made some of the best tasting deer sausage I've ever had.

How big is your cooler? Use a big cooler an a lot of ice and you could go either way.

I haven't been in your situation but if I was, I'd put 40-60 pounds of ice in a 120 quart cooler. put the boned out buck on that and layer another 20-40 pounds of ice and check it every couple days.

I use plastic bags in the fridge, but only to avoid making a mess on the bottom of the fridge,

On the advice of a lady hog hunter, we started putting the stinky smelly boar hog meat over ice and salt. Took the gamey taste out of the meat. So, we tried it on a smelly buck I recently shot. Gamey taste gone. I wish I’d known this decades ago.

I use a large 120qt cooler filled 1/2 to 2/3 full of ice. I place the dry meat in aluminum trays, the disposable ones like lasagna comes in, and then place the trays in the cooler. However, I flip the meat over every day as the meat will spoil on the bottom if you don't. I keep the cooler in my garage. I have aged meat as long as 9 days this way. I'm sure you can go longer. This has worked well for me in our warm fall seasons.

I soak a lot of our deer in big coolers full of ice, water and salt.

I don't drain any water out of the brine for nearly a week before we process.

Clean meat with almost no smell.

I’ve used the ice and drain method on deer and elk with very good results. My hunting buddy in Mississippi does it that way every time he leaves the cooler in the back of the truck to agitate the icey water.

We put our deer in a cooler cover with ice salt it and drain it. Tastes better than a hung up deer to me. The ice draws the blood out of the meat.

I evolved into using a 100 gallon watering tank.

http://gototanks.com/100-gallon-poly-oval-stock-tank-arm-10116.html.

It has a built in threaded drain. Added a brass hose barb and a length of hose. When transporting have a drain hose exiting the rear of the suburban.

There is a wooden pallet in the bottom too keep meat off bottom of tank. Line pallet with bags of ice. Then add a layer of bagged elk or deer pieces. Then more ice/meat etc. Cover top with old sleeping bag. Add more ice bags to top as needed. Have taken meat across the country and have kept it very cold for over 10 days this way. Perfect storage as I butcher the meat.

Yep... Preach on... Venison does not benefit from aging like fatty beef does. If you could shock the deer and hang it upside down, while draining the blood from it's slashed throat like cattle do, it MIGHT BENEFIT FROM AGING. Conversely, cattle that are shot and then dressed out later do not taste like what you get at the store...

S&A,

Yes, "venison" does benefit from aging, exactly like beef, and for the same reason: Lactic acid breaks down the collagen in the muscle. This has been proven by plenty of research, in particular by the meat science department at the University of Wyoming, which may have the most comprehensive information on wild game meat around.

I generally do about 4-6 days in ice, draining every day or so. Have not had any strong-tasting meat in many years. And yeah, your hands do get quite cold...

I've aged venison in a cooler for up to 3 weeks in mesh game bags on ice. This was in a garage, draining daily and adding ice as needed. The biggest positive change in the texture and flavor of the meat occurred after 2 weeks. The only downside was more loss from trimming.

I do about 5 days (no bags) and keep it drained.

When my daughter and grandson were out here last year, we boned out the cow elk that he shot and iced it down for the trip back to south Texas the day. It was another another three days before she was able to get it to the processor, but she drained off the water every day and added more ice. It was some of the tenderest and best tasting elk that I have ever had.

Might be the solution to our very cold elk hunts in January, seeing that typical hanging and aging is not possible.

Same here. The draining of the blood/ageing helps the taste a good deal and it is too warm here to hang the meat.

For perhaps the past 20 years now, we've been using the practice of aging both venison and pork on ice, and it works quite well, rendering a very nice product for the table.

Hanging commercial beef is beneficial...it is marbled with fat and hanging (aging) is acceptable. Venison...very lean...hanging is not beneficial in the same way as commercial beef. Apples to oranges

Did you miss this?

Yes, I did miss that. Thanks for pointing it out.

I've heard the myth that wild game doesn't benefit from aging a bunch of times over the years, and often the fat in beef is mentioned. The only benefit from the fat in beef, as far as my research indicates, is that it results in less moisture loss during aging, since it usually covers most of the outside of the carcass.

Which is why leaving the hide on wild game--if possible--results in less moisture loss. This has also been documented by the U. of Wyoming meat-science department. (A good example is www.wyomingextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B594R.pdf)

Not only does most deer and elk meat benefit from aging, but gamebirds as well. Aside from meat science "shear tests," made with a sharp knife connected to a pressure gauge, we've proven to ourselves many times how much more tender wild game from Hungarian partridge to bull elk can be after aging.

That said, one problem with wild game is it's not a "uniform product," like commercial beef. Younger animals don't benefit as much from aging as older animals, and even different species vary. Pronghorns and pigs, for instance, don't have as much collagen in their muscles as deer and elk, so don't require much aging.

All of this is explained in far more detail in Eileen's book SLICE OF THE WILD, a "cookbook" that details how to deal with big game from bullet to table.

Here's a link to all their publications on wild game: http://www.uwyo.edu/foods/educational-resources/wild-game.html

I go with the ice bath and salt routine. I leave the plug out of the ice chest after the initial cool down. Keep the tenderloins separate or on top as they don't need as much aging and can get water logged. Two weeks is max or pushing it in our climate. I have had several deer start to turn and smell slightly sour but scrubbed them off with salt and then vinegar and they turned out very tender.

We've been soaking our deer in ice water and salt for years and I truly believe it provides the best meat. It draws a lot of the blood out turning the meat pink in color and there's no gamey taste. SOP has been placing the meat in a large cooler, filling just above the meat with cold water, dumping about 30lbs of ice on, then sprinkling approx 1/2lb of salt on. We drain and repeat every other day for about a week, then process. That process provides a much better taste than dry aging in a cooler IMO.

It works well on hogs as well and for a smelly boar you can add baking soda to the process, which will remove the smell and provide a great taste.

My Father-in-law does this so often for the local family's meat that he found a couple of old iron bath tubs and placed them near the skinning rack. He plumbed them, insulated the tubs, built a sheet metal base around them, and made some foam lids as well. He has a nice ice machine as well, so it's a pretty simple process to brine one around his place.

I also soak tenderloins in salt water in the fridge for a few days before cooking after a fresh kill.

I'm sure the ice method works, I'm just not in the mood to fugg around with it.So far, there has been only one deer I've shot in the past 6 seasons that I haven't been able to hang.

If I feel it needs it, I'll 'age' it when I take it out of the freezer.


If I owned an ice maker I'd likely give it a try, but driving 30 miles round trip just to get ice takes the fun out of it for me.

R7RM...

I'm not quibbling here, but I have two problems with your post & process. I'd like some info back from you (or others) to clarify.

First issue: salt water doesn't "draw out blood". Salt (sodium chloride) in solution, depending on its concentration, can result in sodium ions perfusing into the meat and/or water diffusing out of the meat. Blood, by which most people mean red blood cells (RBC's) isn't "in" the meat at all... what blood you don't drain out of the carcass in the butchering process remains in the blood vessels. Myglobin, the molecule in muscle cells that gives it its red color, is likewise trapped in the muscle tissue for the most part because the molecule is far too large to pass through cell membranes.

The red coloring you see in the ice water around your meat is mostly extravasated blood that diffuses out of the exposed blood vessels of the carcass. It has no effect on the meat, positive or negative.

The effect of the salt water on your meat may be real, however, depending on the salt concentration in your water bath. If the concentration is less than 0.9%, the water in the bath will soak into the meat and soften it up some. If the concentration is greater than 0.9%, it will "suck" water out of the meat, which will make it firmer and possibly tougher. But if it's exactly 0.9%, there will be no net movement of water or salt, and your meat will simply benefit from aging.

It's my belief that using hypotonic saline solution (less than 0.9%) will enhance the tenderness and possibly flavor of old/tough/gamy meat. But I don't know, as I don't use ice water aging. Yet.

Which brings me to my second issue... what concentration of salt are you using? I want to try it on the next big hog I kill.

Some use salt some don't...what are the benefits?

As have I, but I was lucky to have been born into a farm family that knew better. I've not bothered arguing or trying to educate hunters, though.



I didn't used to do this to my pheasants, for some cockamamie reasoning that I have since renounced... I've been "aging" duck breasts for decades, but somehow never tried it on pheasants and partridges until the past few years. And it makes them much, much more tender, which is wonderful. My favorite game birds to hunt are wily old cock pheasants, the ones with long spurs. They are the biggest challenge to hunter and dog, and every time I collect one I get a great feeling of accomplishment.

The only problem is that a 3-year-old cock pheasant is pretty tough chewing, relatively speaking. But I've found that aging these birds in my fridge for a week does wonders for their tenderness.



Great book, especially the game care section.

Same goes for ducks, Doc.

This ^^^ in early season with warm weather but I drain the water frequently and add ice and a little salt as needed.

After a week in salted ice and water the blood is drawn out to the point it looks like armadillo meat, whiter than skinned chicken. Delish.

Sir, I honestly can't tell you any of the science behind the process, but I can tell you with certainty that it reduces the gamey flavor of the meat(At least my wife and I agree that it does). When I was much younger, we processed our own meat. That usually consisted of quartering game, placing the quarters in a refrigerator, then later either cutting the meat and freezing or freezing whole quarters and cutting when we thawed to cook. That meat was often dark red in color and always had a gamey flavor. I personally didn't mind the gamey flavor, but many people I knew didn't care for it at all. Approx 15-20 years back a man told me of the salt/ice water process, so I gave it a try and liked it so much that I continue to do it to each animal. I have to admit that I sometimes forego the salt depending on where I'm at, but I prefer to use it when available. I also have not computed the concentration either, I simply apply approx. 1/2lb to a large cooler(120-150qt with water/ice just above the meat to keep it submerged). The first couple of times you drain the water from the cooler, it definitely has a large enough blood content to make the water bright red, but after a few days the water is nearly clear when drained. The resulting meat does not have that dark red color except twd the core, its more of a dark pink color. On some smaller cuts it's pink all the way through, but on roast and such the meat will still be dark red at it's core. I can say that for me, it definitely impacts the taste of the meat by vastly reducing the gamey flavor. It also does not taste salty if that is a concern. So, as mentioned, I can't explain the science behind the process, but I can simply state that for our family this process provides a better tasting meat and I definitely do not feel it makes it tough.

I never would have believed the process would work on a smelly boar hog as the boars I've killed in the past and tried to eat had a terrible smell and taste. That changed about 8-10 years back when a fellow hunter told me that the combination of salt and baking soda added to the above process would remove the smell and taste from a boar's meat. We gave it a try on a 200lb boar, then smoked the entire pig for 24hrs. It was some of the best pork I've eaten to date and was every bit as good as farm raised pork to my taste buds.

Give it a try Doc, I can promise you it will not ruin the meat.

So if I want my deer to be tasteless like boiled chicken..
Phouc that, I like deer meat.
We rinse after skinning, or wipe with vinegar water.
Then let it hang.
Would do the cooler thing I guess, with out pooled water
I don't like the grey look of soaked meat

^^^^ +1, I'm with you !

Gut, Hang with skin on, clean with water vinegar solution, trim bloodshot areas & thoroughly clean with water vinegar (again).

5-7 days later, skin, wash with water vinegar solution again, break down, butcher to our "exacting" standards, vacuum pack & freeze (including trimmed "chunk" meat for later grinding into burger).

P.S.; Water alone breeds bacteria !

Ok helps draw the blood out....gotcha!

I find that dried blood in the body cavity IN COLD WEATHER provides a good crust which helps prevent drying in deer left hanging with the skin on.

Lots of differing opinions, theories and "eating evidence". Those who have the luxury of proper "hanging weather" have no issues. Others who deal with late seasons and below freezing temps need to "hang" in other ways. The water bath/salt seem noteworthy. But as some have already said, water ususally is considered taboo as it can introduce bateria. We've cooled game in the field in creeks, but with the meat in plastic sacks to prevent contamination. We'll what happens if I punch my tag in a few weeks.

Remember clostridium is the eitiolgy of botulism.

Clostridium is an anerobe as in it needs no oxygen to flourish. It actually cannot multiply WITH oxygen. There fore wrapping meat in plastic is contraindicated in the ageing process.. l prefer using pillow cases to wrap the meat in. Gallon jugs or so frozen and big coolers with a sight air gap. Then at night when it is cool hang it out side to get more air. I got meat panniers hanging from steel fence panels.

Or out in the woods use motorcycle tie down straps to lift the quarters. When I finally butcher I will soak the quarters or meat in cold vinegar solution. I have also seared hair off with a blow torch. I am iganorant about postg pictures so if some one wants photos pm me . I can email them. Just stay away from plastic wrapped.

I dont like putting meat in plastic until ready to freeze it. If i put ice in a freezer in garbage bags and lay quarters on it to keep meat out of the water to keep color, i turn the meat daily for air exposure.

There are other bacteria that are not clostridium that can proliferate without oxygen.

They can use the element called sulfur like we use oxygen. That is where the sulfur smell of " rotten eggs" comes from. So plastic and meat should be avoided if possible. Also garbage bags and what not are not held to the same food safety guidelines as food bags so there is another toxicology issue when that is addressed.

Doesn't the salt melt the ice? Also, what kind of salt are you using? Table salt, Kosher salt, Sea salt, Rock salt or doesn't it matter? Thanks.

I pour an entire pound of store brand iodized salt into 100+ quart size coolers along with the meat and ice.

I have used this brine for decades to store and clean meat for up to one week.

Just like Ted, we use the one pound containers of table salt.

If you want to age it in a cooler without the soaking effect, keep about 10 gallon jugs in your freezer. I sometimes use cold water at first, while I'm breaking down the deer and quartering it up, as it gets the meat cooled quickly and gets off most any hair that I might have missed. After draining it, I will generally dump some bagged ice over it and toss on some frozen jugs. Sometimes I am short on bagged ice at home during the 4-6 days of aging, so I just keep draining off any residual water while adding more frozen jugs. This does result in much redder meat coming to my butcher table, but it still got to age the same amount of time. Tastes about the same to me. This might work for those who don't want meat that is grayish on the outside from a soak. And I might start doing the vinegar wipe-down before butchering, just to be a bit safer. Sounds simple.

Salt actually lowers the freezing temperature of water by a fair degree.

If you doubt this, make a clean water ice slurry, add a good wack of salt & insert your beer for 20-30 minutes - it'll be colder than you ever thought possible !

Do you pour the salt on top of the ice? Or put it in the water and then dump the ice on?

I use ice and salt in a cooler for 3-4 days draining the water and adding ice as needed. I’ve never measured the amount of salt I use, maybe I should. It works well that’s all I know.

You guys use regular table salt or rock salt?

We have a huge chest freezer that will hold 3-4 deer, depending on size. We keep quite a few plastic jugs of ice in there, preferably thick plastic that is tough enough as to not split. Field dressed deer can be stored with the hide on and frozen until after hunting season is over. Then, at our convenience, we unplug the freezer and the deer will thaw and stay very cold with the jugs of ice on top for 2-3 weeks. We hang them, skin them, de-bone butcher/vacuum seal the meat and label. It all goes back into the freezer til either it's cooked or processed into sausage or burger etc.

This yields the tastiest and most tender venison I have ever had. My brother does complain about how cold his hands get and the difficulty of getting the hide off of the deer.

Cheap store brand iodized table salt

Me to just wondered if it would make a difference.

Yes, I know all about that.

As stated earlier in the thread, our problem is hanging without the carcasses freezing.

Heat regulation by opening inside door to shop, if needs a little heat, or by uncovering & opening the external window if we need to cool.

On the up-side, it does make for great "butchering/cutting" meat !!

7-10 days on ice, direct contact, draining bloody water as needed, ice added as needed.

Never had an issue, meat always turns out nice and tender and mild.

We quarter ours up, pack on ice for 3 days, and this drains most of the blood out.

The idea of putting Salt on the ice is a very good idea, as we have done our Turkeys that way for ever, let them sit over night in ice and brine water, completely covered with herbs in the water.

White meat is never dry once you let them soak in brine water over night, best turkey you will ever eat. I don't know why this would not work with deer meat.

Some really good ideas on this thread.

I finished processing a fat little buck. Two weeks with the meat in contact with the ice. Added ice daily, with the cooler tilted and the drain open. Meat was superb.

I don't know any science behind icing and what it does. My method is to cover the quartered deer with ice and liberally shake table salt out of a 1 pound box. I probably use a 1/3 of a cup maybe 1/2 cup. I keep the meat drained and don't leave it in water. If I have time I add ice and let it sit 4 or 5 days. I don't salt anymore the meat is already good and cold when adding ice.
What I have found using the ice is my meat is less likely to have the unpleasant gamy taste that some deer have . I eat lots of venison and want it to be good. We haven't bought a pack of ground beef in over 20 years. We eat ground venison instead.If another method I have tried produced better results I would be doing it that way.It is my belief that the salt helps chill the meat quicker initially.

I would share your concern about creek water unless I was in the wilds of Alaska or Canada. Plus in my situation, the water does not get cold enough to help much during hunting season, if ever. I think perhaps that is why the whole thing with hunters believing that any kind of water grows bacteria came about.

Bacteria needs temps above 40 degrees to get rolling. The temp in an ice filled cooler is going to be somewhere pretty close to or just north of 32 degrees. Even the melt water is going to be too cold for bacteria. Also consider that the ice most everyone uses is going to be made from potable drinking water, some of it might have a touch of chlorine in it if it comes from city water that is not filtered.

I guess the point is that there is no way that you are going to have a problem with meat spoilage using this method unless you forget to replenish the ice, let it all melt, and leave the meat in warm water after the cooler heats up.

Have left lots of antelope and deer in a cooler with ice, sometimes for almost a week. I always drain the water daily to help get rid of the blood and add ice. Never had one taste bad yet.

I dont worry about my hands getting cold when processing, I use fleece lined neoprene gloves, the kind duck hunters use.

Bacteria can float and flourish in water.

It cannot walk.

Temperature control in a water bath is crucial.

Salt will cause some bacteriostatic effect.....but it may impact flovour.

Thanks for the reply! I have had a really busy week and couldn't get back online to check for a couple days.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the meat tastes better, as you've observed. I've noticed the same thing with gamy old cock pheasants and puddle ducks I've used the salt water soak for.

Just one more observation on wild pork vs farm pork... I partly grew up on the extended-family farm, and my uncles raised organic pork. We didn't call it that then, of course. The hogs were simply allowed to range freely in a 5-acre pen with access to the barn, and they were fed untreated chop and table scraps from the house/bunkhouse. They had wild grain and grass, etc, in their diet in summer, as there was enough space in the hog yard than they could destroy in their routine rooting.

The meat from these hogs was delicious. I had forgotten how good it was until I ate my first feral hog down here in Texas 6 years ago, when it all came back to me. Factory farm raised hogs are so bland as to be almost tasteless... feral hogs taste like the animals we raised for food when I was a kid. I usually restrict my kills to 150 pounds or so, although I've killed a couple bigger ones, but haven't brought the meat home.

I'll try your method on my next big hog and see how it goes.

The primary purpose of ageing is an enzymatic process allowing fibers in muscle and connective tissue to break down and tenderize. Approximately 28 days is the maximum for the process and 7-8 days is about minimum

Some of you are describing the difference between dry and wet ageing. Commercial beef typically wet age using plastic and no air to reduce overall mass loss. Dry ageing needs air, constant temp, and needs around two weeks. It will result in about 15+% loss but the flavor is outstanding.

We hang our beef, elk, and deer and dry age most of it when possible since we have large commercial refrigerators.

In a cooler it can be done, but wet ageing is easier and still effective.

And for the sake of this conversation, their is zero difference between beef and venison. Meat is meat when it comes to rigor mortis

I have two hind quarters from an older doe I killed this weekend that are on ice, in a big cooler,but blocked up so the meat doesn't touch the ice or any water. Have to cut it up before Dec19 though. Hope 12 days is enough

I soak and drain for a few days. Never heard of the salt trick.

I did test run grill on a whitetail loin chop I have had on ice since last Saturday( 1 week) .I' d say it is about 1/2 way there

This is great advice that has worked for as long as I've been hunting!

I have never aged a deer on ice in my life.I killed a young buck on 12-26-17.I put a layer of block ice on the bottom of a 154qt cooler.Then I quarter the deer and put the backstraps and tenderloins in a plastic bag,then the front shoulders in a plastic bag,then the ribs and flanks in a plastic bag and finally each hindquarter in a separate plastic bag.Then I kept a layer of block ice on top of the meat.I kept an eye on the meat daily adding block ice as needed,making sure it was covered well.I've been busy moving and just never found the time to take a break a stop and work up that deer.Finally today I said I've got to work up that deer.Well after 13 days,1-8-18, I got it all worked up and in the freezer.I saved some for supper tonight and chicken fried it.I must say,that it the most tender deer I have ever ate.I did not tenderize it in any way other than the ageing.The texture was nice and soft,not chewy at all.I have to say I was very impressed.The meat did not smell,have any gamey or off flavor,just delicious.I never would have thought it would make that much difference,but it did.