Best that I have found is to let hang outside for about 5 or 6 days if temps stay around 40 deg. or so.
Problem is that seldom happens around here.
I have quartered and put on ice for several days and that seemed to make it very tough. I think that would work if I had a way to keep it from touching the ice though. Seems that if the meat freezes tendrizing never occurs.
I know, a meat cooler would do the trick, but that aint an option.
I'd like to hear what you guys do.
Thanks
I freeze it and use "adolphs meat tenderizer" -just sprinkle some on the meat, then use a fork to make a bunch of little holes in the meat.
Just cut the same day you'll not regrete it. Wild animals don't need to age. Indians never did it. Its just a beef thing
Robert, I have in the past used an old fridge with the racks out, quarter, and stand up in a drip pan or plastic to catch blood.
Do you skin before hanging? I try, if weather permitting, to leave on. Be suprised how well it helps to keep it cool, even in warm temps.
Have also placed bags of ice in rib cage.
I have lso skinned right away and cut up, depending on the circumstances. Sometimes, no choice
When you say tough, what parts? Good shootin, Steve
Once you have done all above marinate it in red wine for a couple of days if you want real tender. Good red wine - cheap stuff's no good.
I like stirfry and marinate the venison in pineapple juice. Acid in the juice will tenderize.
I've never understood the "aging" thing with deer or wild pig. I skin, let glaze over (an hour or two) then chop and freeze. Never had anyone think it too tough - just don't overcook it.
You can tell the difference here when you age the deer. Aging is a controlled decomposition, no matter whether it's beef or deer, etc. And it's as important, actually moreso, with deer than with domesticated game.
Deer meat is not marbled so it is inherently tougher than marbled meat. Aging for a few days, under 40 degrees is the key to good aging.
Best deer I have ever eaten hung for five days in the hide at about 35 degrees. The rule for temperature is to avoid the danger zone where bacteria can grow; that is between 40 and 140 degrees.
I have extra frig in my basement and I take the deconstructed deer and age it is there. I generally take both shoulders, both hams and the back divided into two pieces, place them on the shelves being sure they don't touch each other and allow them to age for 7 to 10 days, checking periodically to be sure everything is OK. The meat will skin over with dry meat but after a close trimming the meat underneath is bright red and very tender. The flavor is enhanced by aging also.
QuoteYou can tell the difference here when you age the deer. Aging is a controlled decomposition, no matter whether it's beef or deer, etc. And it's as important, actually moreso, with deer than with domesticated game.
I agree 100%. Deer that I take in late November and early December hang for 2 weeks with the skin on temperature permitting. They are a bugger to skin, but well worth it when it comes to great meat as compared to the deer that we take in October when we have to process them right away.
Hang it outside for a few days,If it get's hot I put a body bag (I work for the medical examiner,you could get one from them)or a large tarp with an opening at the top around the deer and dry ice in the bottom works well.
I've literally had hundreds of customers from when I butchered deer for others tell me they had never had properly aged venison before, and would never NOT do it again.
Some traveled an hour or more one way to bring deer in.
Without a proper cooler, an old frig or even a big ol junk freezer it's difficult unless weather is flat cold out.
Rule one (for me) is get the body heat out. That hide WILL hold the heat a LONG time if ice isnt applied.
In a freezer/ packed in ice whatever for 24 hours then kept in whatever you have that is below 40, 35-36 is better, HIDE ON, no drafts, no sunlight.
If you remove the hide the meat WILL dry out and toughen it.
A week is good for most, 10-14 days is better. Ive hung 200plus lb bucks 21 days solid in a cooler.
Aging is an enzyme breakdown of protein and since, as accurately described, deer have no inter-muscular fat, its a superior thing for deer or elk meat.
At one time BEEF was aged much longer too but the cost of doing so commercially, plus the slight loss of body weight (sold by the lb) now results in 7 days being normal.
High class restraunts that serve WELL aged, super tender and juicy beef charge much much more for this quality of meat.
Keep in mind that once the heat is out and the carcass temp is below 35, it will not warm up fast at all.
Without a cooler in just a closed garage, 45 degree days and low 30s at night on average, I can hang 2 weeks, no problem, even if one or two days hit 60 degrees.
Nothing WRONG with fresh killed venison, but it don't hold a candle to properly aged venison, neither in taste nor tenderness. Even the burger tastes quite different to me.
"life starts at 40"...bacteria growth aka ROT life that is."
my 2 cents to the pile guys.
God Bless.
PS.......washing out the carcass with water from the well isnt a real great idea if aging a long time. Distilled water if you must, I dont, period.
These rules were used for over 3000 whitetail. None "lost" never a complaint, hundreds of compliments.
Well me and the missus eat about 6 deer a year, dont buy beef. Here is a little tip. I either poke holes in the top for cut slits across of roast/loin/ steak, sprinkle genereously with Kroger brand seasoned meat tenderizer, then cover with Italian salad dressing and some soy sauce or terryiakki, cover and let sit 8-24 hours.I like to getem skinned and cooled down as quick as possible, key to good tasting venison for me. I often put my quartered deer in the bottom of a big coooler, ice down, drain water off every day and reice with a new bag. Deer meat is much more blood rich than beef and this helps the taste, smell overall for the new venison eater. Another thing I NEVER DO IS SAW THE BONE. I bone out all my roasts. Bone marrow can make beef, especially deer taste strong and gritty. A lot of people who said they dont like deer meat have set down at camp with me and eat 2 plates full and asked for recipes. Pm me for more easy to cook recipes, hope this helps. Sam.
Aging makes the meat much easier to cut up and grind or whatever. I use the bagged ice in the chest cavity if weather is holding below 50. Actually, I don't like the bugs and extreme foliage when I hunt, so I usually wait until it is cold enough that I can let carcass hang in my garage a week or so.
Out here on the west coast a 40 degree day is considered a blizzard. Here we have to cut it quick or it will go off. I have a walk-in box on my place in northern California and I can hang a buck there but here in San Luis Obispo County cool um and cut um quick.
With our little blacktails tenderness and flavor is more an issue of the animal's age. Our little blacktails here on the central coast are very tasty :)
I ALWAYS age venisen, either through the use of coolers and ice or the proper outdoor temps.
The first thing I do is flood the body cavity with cold, well water. (I know Slobowke does not recommend this) I can cool the entire carcass in a short time this way. I then hang it by the head to drip dry, and use paper towels to get as much moisture off as I can.
If it`s too warm to hang, then out come the knives and pre-made blocks of ice, and in the coolers the quartered chunks go. I wrap the meat in plastic wrap, so the water from the melted ice is not in contact with the meat.
I have heard many butchers say, Venisen does NOT need to hang, but I`m gonna stick to my methods.
I believe, Venisen is much better if aged properly.
There have been many nights, I was up late caring for meat, because it was too warm.
If the temps are correct, the hide stays on, and I allow about five days before it gets frozen.
There are always lots of kids at my house, and NOBODY ever wants to leave before dinner time.
When Ven` is in the freezer, dinner is rarely centered around anything else.
Not much to add here except that I use 100 qt coolers with a grate made from PVC and egg crating to keep the meat and ice seperate. This helps when it's too hot to hang them.
Thanks for all the responses.
I do know that an aged deer smokes a deer that is not aged in the flavor and tenderness category.
Like I said, weather here is rarely good for hangin.
Also if meat is kept below freezing it won
t allow the enzymes to break the meat down.
Just trying to figure a way to put it on ice without it actually touching the ice.
A grate or shelf of somekind with ice under it seems to be a good idea.
I gotta second pretty much everything slowebowke said except maybe the need to leave the hide on. I've aged deer for 14 days with the hide off and had no problems. The membrane between the hide and the muscles forms an almost cellophane like barrier when it dries. Sure, I might loose SOME moisture but not enough that I can tell.
I think the very best option for a do it yourself processor is to buy an old refrigerator and rig either some simple racks or even better racks AND hooks to hang quarters from with a drip pan underneath.
As for the line about not needing to age deer meat at all, I've heard it many times from many people. Most of whom heard it from deer processors who only wanted to get your deer cut up, wrapped and the h&!! out of their cooler so the next one could be brought in. At the price they get nowadays to cut up a deer, you'd think the least they'd do would be to give correct advice on care of the meat.
Bow season temps around here often top 100 degrees. The hide has to come off quick---One day hanging in the garage is about all the aging one can risk with a whole skinned carcasss. I usually bone the beast out at the kill site, hang the meat in the shade to film over. Pack it out asap--put in in a cooler-take it and cut and wrap within 2 days.
have you every pressure cook in canning jar most tender meat i have every ate.
Well I think slowbowke has it pretty good. But as dave said it can be still good with the hide off. Here in the west hunting in august it is hard cool game off when it is 90 degrees. Elk are real tuff to cool off with thier thick hides,and can spoil leaving the over night to track. If I can age mine whole I do prefer to leave the hide on,bigger yeilds that way. I do use an old refridge in the basement. I am in the process of turning my shed into a walkin. Aging the meat letting the enzimes break down the meat can make a big differance but sometimes I do have to cut meat quicker, if I have a deer and a elk down at the same time. The little fridge only holds so much. The next step is cut the grain of the meat in the right way,that can also make it tuff.
I've done it both ways and can't say I've seen a huge difference between six days at 38 degrees or cleaned immediately and packaged.
Maybe I'm cooking it wrong, but tenderloin is tenderloin. I'd take it right off the carcass and onto the grill.
On a late season I let it hang with the hide off at least 2 weeks and cut backstrap as we need it...PR
I age steaks after cutting and freezing. I do this in my refrigerator for 10 days prior to cooking. The steaks are still wrapped in plastic coated butcher paper and in a ziploc bag. It is amazing how much fluid comes out of freshly frozen meat.
The meat turns out more tender with a richer flavor and cooks up better. This is aresult of concentrating the flavor as well as structure breakdown via enzymatic action. However, I believe a the bigger part of this is the removal of moisture.
My favorite way to cook steaks is to flash fry them in an iron skillet to medium rare or less. A dryer meat will allow a nice crust to form quickly without overcooking the interior. When non-aged steaks are cooked, that moisture inevitably cools the meat as it cooks and escapes. This makes for a less desirable, almost mushy "crust". My steaks are brown on the outside when they are properly cooked. Non-aged steaks cooked the same way will be grayish instead. To get to the brown, desired outside, it requires too much time and the inside gets overcooked.
This is only for steaks from the hindquarters and maybe shoulders on a bigger deer. Tenderloins and backstraps do not require aging. Stew or slowcook roasts do not require aging. Burger meat does benefit from aging for the same reasons, I believe, ie. moisture removal, flavor concentration adn structure breakdown.
Keep in mind a big part of this debate results from different tastes. I do it this way because it results in the tastes I like. Perhaps you don't like the same things I do and prefer your meat in a different condition. Different strokes....
For stew meat...
Cut venison in cubes, fill a mason jar about 3/4 with venison cubes, add a teaspoon of salt, put on lid and then put the jar in a boiling water bath for 3 hrs.
Better and more tender than beef. Honestly.
-Charlie
Tightly sealed Buckeye?
i get the meat off the bone fast then get it to a cooler fast.hangs two days...cut...wrapped..flashfroze ....never had a tough animal yet.thats elk not deer...dont hunt deer much..too fast,can't run'em down and them little chits can corner like a chipmunk.
Hey buckeye, try putting about a 1/2" thick slice of onion in the bottom and some black pepper too!!!!
A pressure cooker speeds up the process a LOT.
Razorsharp, I'm brain farting about the lids. I'm thinking you tighten them but not a lot so the pressure can escape then when they cool, they seal tight and you can take the rings off. Try googling home canning and you should find the correct answer. It's all pretty much the same whether it's beans or venison.
Here in the South it's rare to have cool enough temperatures for long enough to age properly in the hide. The one time it worked out for me, I was able to hang a young buck for about 17 days in January. On a couple of the warmer days, I lowered him to the ground and wrapped him in a tarp and covered him with leaves until the evening. It turned a lean late-season rut-weary buck into good eating.
Usually I have to resort to quartering and putting the meat in a cooler for a week or 10 days. I put a thick layer of ice on the bottom and tilt the cooler so it can drain as the ice melts, and I just add ice as needed until it's done and I'm ready for the cutting and wrapping. I put fresh ice on the top of the meat as it ages, and I've always been happy with the result. I think it doesn't matter whether the ice is in contact with the meat, as long as the meat is not sitting in standing water in the bottom of the cooler. The ice melt has to be able to drain away.
I take great pains to cool the carcass as soon as possible. If it's cool enough to hang the deer for a while in the hide, I use bags of ice in the body cavity to get it cooled down, or I wash out the body cavity with fresh water to cool the meat and clean the cavity. If there's a stream near where I field dress the deer, I like to immerse the carcass for a while to cool it immediately after field dressing. In this region, getting the meat cooled quickly is very important to good-tasting venison.
Don, have you ever tried using dry ice? I did the cooler method a couple times and wasn't very happy with it. It works but it's messy, the wet meat is halfway disgusting and did I mention it's messy? Cutting up meat that has been wet is a lot harder than cutting up meat that has been aged "dry". I've got one of the big white Igloo coolers that I think is 110 quart but a deer takes up a lot of space so it's hard to keep it out of the ice water.
Anyway, tried some dry ice and put the meat in the bottom of the cooler and the DI in the tray in the top above the meat. It tried to freeze the meat but I found that if I wrapped the dry ice in several layers of newspaper, I could regulate it's cooling/freezing enough to get good results. It's more expensive but lasts days and no mess other than some frost in the newspaper. You can get the dry ice in either pellets or blocks. It seems like the blocks works better for this type use. Seems to last longer.
Anybody else ever try this?
I have read a lot of opinion giving here. Which is OK, But Slowbowke is the only one who has given the actual scientific reasons behind meet aging without going into the technical explanations. As many others I too have difficulty aging my meat due to uneven temps! I am thinking of building a small well insulated smoke house with a air conditioner built in. It will be dual purpose that way. Another thought is possibly a root cellar with an air conditioner! Oh well so many ideas and so little time.