Venison Aging/Processing

[nchunterkw]

How do you handle your deer after the kill?

I process my own...and with generally warm temps, I have to do it on the day/night of the kill. 2 years ago I started researching meat aging....and I must say it makes a difference.

I used to bring them home and skin them, then cut up the roasts and backstrap and get that in the freezer. Meat was fine.

Now, I bring them home, skin them, take off the front shoulders whole, backstraps whole, and hind qtrs. whole. (the rest of the deer gets trimmed out and that all goes to the grind.)

The 6 big pieces go into a "refrigerator" for at least a day...but 2 is better...and then, I cut the backstraps in half and vacuum seal them, and break each hind qtr. into 3 roasts and vacuum seal them. All of these packages go back into the refrigerator for a week, then get frozen. That week at between 34 and 40 degrees does wonders as the enzymes break down collagen and "stuff" and the meat is very tender. This process is called "wet aging". "Dry aging" would be if I left the meat hang for 7 days before cutting it into roasts etc. This is OK too...I tried some both ways last year...but the meat gets that hard dried out "casing" on it. I don't care for it so I trim it (it goes into the grind) so the roasts get smaller.

For my "refrigerator", I just switched from a smaller true refrigerator to a small freezer. I set the freezer on max cold, and then use a temp controller to cycle it ON and OFF based on a thermo couple inside. Works great. I found the refrigerator just could not handle the load of all that hot meat. Either the compressor ran continuously and froze up or it took way too long to cool. The freezer does a great job and stabilizes within hours.

[elkaholic]

Similar process. Skinned out , cooled down,, broken down into new gamebags, loaded in old refrigerator. Processed and wrapped up over a few days. Ususlly right into freezer..

Animals are usually transported from field to home in gamebags and put inice chests. As hunting is normally in warm weather and sometimes hundreds of miles away. Cooling and proper transporting gamemeat is a priority,!

[CT.HNTR]

It's called wet aging and if you don't have a walk in cooler it's the way to go. Danielle Prewett of Meateater posted a great article on this a few years ago (see link below). Danielle also posts many great wild game recipes. She has one I have used for squirrel noodle soup which is awesome.



https://www.themeateater.com/cook/butchering-and-processing/the-why-and-how-of-wet-aging-big-game

[BrotherRon]

I prefer to hunt late season so that I can let the meat hang for 4 or 5 days before processing, then trim the dried meat off for grinding.
If I happen to shoot something early season I generally pressure can with some spices.. cajun, onion & garlic, a couple slices of jajapeno's, and also pressure can meat loaf.

[nchunterkw]

Similar process. Skinned out , cooled down,, broken down into new gamebags, loaded in old refrigerator. Processed and wrapped up over a few days. Ususlly right into freezer..

Animals are usually transported from field to home in gamebags and put inice chests. As hunting is normally in warm weather and sometimes hundreds of miles away. Cooling and proper transporting gamemeat is a priority,!

That's what I was doing...the old refrigerator....but then I found it couldn't always keep up. The freezer with the temp controller seems to be the ticket because of the increased cooling capacity.

[lituani]

I've been aging my deer for decades. Deer are brought back to camp, meticulously field dressed, washed out very well, then hung on gambrel (skin on) to age. Helps that I live in Michigan and temperatures have generally cooperated by remaining under 45 F (when they exceed, we process them right away), and generally in 20-40F range in November & December. Venison will typically hang 2 weeks, then we skin them, process in garage by fully deboning, and wrap everything using freezer paper, including grind. Backstraps are cut with silver skin intact and removed only after thawing. All grind gets 100% silver skin & connective tissue removed.

[Boo]

I don't hang or age my deer. One because I don't have a cooler, second because I'm happy with how the good cuts eat. I use very little for steaks and none for roasts. Most of it gets ground except for cust like the backstrap and some parts of the hind quarter. Aging does happen in vacuum packs. There is an interesting read from MU from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition

https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g2209#:~:text=Aging%20period%20For%20practical%20purposes%20most%20of%20the,should%20be%20of%20Good%2C%20Choice%20or%20Prime%20grade.

[gerald strine]

In a pinch I have used big colers with whole bags of ice ,skinned quarters sitting on top on cutting boards to buy time until I can process.

[gerald strine]

I've been aging my deer for decades. Deer are brought back to camp, meticulously field dressed, washed out very well, then hung on gambrel (skin on) to age. Helps that I live in Michigan and temperatures have generally cooperated by remaining under 45 F (when they exceed, we process them right away), and generally in 20-40F range in November & December. Venison will typically hang 2 weeks, then we skin them, process in garage by fully deboning, and wrap everything using freezer paper, including grind. Backstraps are cut with silver skin intact and removed only after thawing. All grind gets 100% silver skin & connective tissue removed.

I do the same for firearm season but bow season in October creates unfaverabel conditions.
I normally just hang for a week..

[nchunterkw]

I don't hang or age my deer. One because I don't have a cooler, second because I'm happy with how the good cuts eat. I use very little for steaks and none for roasts. Most of it gets ground except for cust like the backstrap and some parts of the hind quarter. Aging does happen in vacuum packs. There is an interesting read from MU from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition

https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g2209#:~:text=Aging%20period%20For%20practical%20purposes%20most%20of%20the,should%20be%20of%20Good%2C%20Choice%20or%20Prime%20grade.

You can age it even after it's been frozen according to MeatEater. Just take it out of the freezer and leave it in the refrigerator for a week or so before cooking. Do an experiment......one aged and one not and see if you notice any difference.

[artifact]

During buck season here in PA you would often see buck hanging from trees in yards for at least 3-4 days before they did them up, there was also an ice house where guys would hang deer to age them before doing them up, that ice house is long gone. When we hunted Maine, we often had deer hanging for 3-4-5 days or more, as mentioned, they were meticulously field dressed, the cavity trimmed out and wiped down with a wet rag, and then hung by the horns so any liquid could drain out, then we used a stick to prop open the cavity, we never lost a deer and they were delicious.
When we get deer during archery season we do them up right away and put them in the frig for 3-4 days and then process them, never had a problem with that either.

[longbow joe]

Load deer in truck.....drop of at bill the butcher ...he makes deer slim Jim's pepper sticks to die for....pick up meat and sticks ...shell out a hundred bucks ..that way I'm in the woods hunting ..no more ticks crawling in my garage no wife bittc..in about smells n blood in the garage its priceless honestly l give him more l think he is too cheap. I get it its fun but for some reason l never found it fun....I must have missed something. It was awsome fun cleaning the meat grinder l really miss that and disposal of all the bones n stuff that was fun too.the stinky bloody clothes.. with ticks on them.
Lol. Just being sarcastic but truthful. Most people worry about the butcher stealing Some meat l actually hope he does the less l bring home the better.
I do really enjoy making sausage and jerky its much more enjoyable in the smaller scale.

[IronNoggin]

I've been aging my deer for decades. Deer are brought back to camp, meticulously field dressed, washed out very well, then hung on gambrel (skin on) to age.

Pretty much the same here.

These days I generally wait until November for the Blacktail hunts. Well cool enough to hand with hide on for up to a week.

Even colder for our December hunts, where the biggest concern is that they might freeze.

Skinning is of course a tad tougher, but there is zero loss due to crusting. Worth it IMO, simply because we LOVE venison!

Cheers,
Nog

[elkaholic]

Just as an added note,

All icechests,coolers, have the drain plug left open.
Nothing worse than game meat left soaking in a blood brine!

Add ice as needed, can be left for several days this way. Shifting or rotating gamebags as needed.

[IronNoggin]

OOPS