Aging venison questions

[MaryB]

Soaking a deer steak in a brine or butter milk ick cool it down and butcher it A.S,A.P

We always hung them from the tractor bucket and sprayed the cavity with cold water from the hose until the meat cooled down. Then skinned it there, transferred the carcass to our clean cutting room(friends garage with plastic down on the floor and on the tables) where we would break it down and debone it.

[M-Tecs]

Opinions are strong on this subject. Lots of good and bad info out there. I was always a believer in aging if I could hold the temperature properly but I never actually tested my belief. About 15 years ago I split a medium sized buck in half and I marked specific cuts on both halves. One side was aged to 14 days and the other cut and packaged within 12 hours. Every couples of days I cooked the same cuts to compare the differences. I no longer age venison.

From my days of hunting deer and antelope that feed mostly on sage if I have a tough or "gamey" tasting animal I soak the cut in buttermilk for up to two days before I cook it. Buttermilk does a superb job from tenderizing and removing unwanted flavors and I have tested same cuts from the same animal.

[Tripplebeards]

Well this was not aged as posted. I soaked it in apple cider vinegar and salt solution for two days and milk for three. It’s the best tasing, tender venison I’ve ever eaten! Chicken fried steak make from front shoulder meat. To me the toughest meat on the deer. The vinegar brakes down the enzymes. It was soo soft and tender if felt like I was eating a hamburger and tasted almost like a soft pork chop minus the salt. Fried up in virgin olive oil for about 5 minutes a side. To the posters who tell me they make the best tasing venison without some sort of marinade or soak are full of it or have the worst taste buds along with eating it after they consumed a 12 pack.lol I will guarantee you this venison I just ate taste better than anything you THINK have made to perfection in your own mind. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve have sone awesome fresh venison taken right off my deer and fried up on a camp stove and ate while still processing the deer. But this way makes it taste 110% better! I’m seeing by the posts aging venison is like ford VS Chevy. Your not going to change someone’s opinion and if it’s black they’re still going to tell you it’s white....because their always right...even when their wrong. Guess there’s no right or wrong answer when aging deer. All I can tell you I will NEVER eat another piece of venison I haven’t soaked this way again. With almost five decades of doing it the wrong way I have definitely figured out the correct way to make venison taste phenomenal! Do yourself a favor a try salt and vinegar brine and then milk for two days each. You won’t believe the difference it makes. Guess there is no reason to age if your going to soak in salt/vinegar solution for a couple days being it makes up for the aging process and kills any jerms or bacteria that might have been there in the process.

[redneck1]

Everyone always thinks their way is right . Me I've ate properly hung venison And venison that was shot and butchered as quickly as possible .

My opinion , a carcass need to hang long enough for the rigor mortis to let loose and that's about all the longer it needs to hang .
12- 24 hours .
I base this solely on every time I've had venison thst was shot and butchered within a few hours it was as tough as shoe leather .

Taste wise I've never noticed a difference between 24 hours and up to 7 days . Never noticed much a difference in tenderness either .

As to the salami and such , well you for sure can't compare cured meat to fresh meat .

[Lloyd Smale]

maybe you should throw a chicken out on the counter for 5 days and eat that. Not laugable. I know one old timer that used to hang grouse with the guts in them for 3 days before he cut them up. Sure wouldnt eat at his house! Its only bacteria! don't eat yogurt don't drink butter milk and air cured sausage has curing salts in it to kill bacteria. Want to get sick? Pack some uncured meat in a bag and let it cure for a month that have at it. Bottom line is it will stink so bad that you probably wouldn't eat it anyway. Do what you want but I kill and process over 50 deer a year and have ate it every way possible. Its the only red we eat except when we go out and that might be once a year. Believe me theres been days after a late evening of crop damage shooting when I have 3 or 4 in the garage hanging that id like to make an excuse not to cut up that day. But aging does nothing but make it old. It IS NOT beef.

Bacteria build up? Have you ever eaten yogurt, drank buttermilk, real air cured meat ex salami, sourcrout, or kimchi? Bacteria is what MAKES these foods possible, you ought to see buttermilk under a microscope! Do what you will with your deer, but my days of putting one up the day it's killed is long gone, because ageing it does make a the deer meat better!

[Thundarstick]

A lost cause I guess. Just like my mother in law thought a steak needed to be burnt up, gray and hard all the way through, she would have it no other way. I will point out that there is a huge difference in letting meat lay on the counter at room temp and rot vs cold aging, and you know that as well! What do I know, as I consume all the cured, brewed, and fermented items listed, not to mention I brew and consume my own kombucha tea.
I even know people that eat raw eggs and live to tell about it!

[toallmy]

I don't age venison , but I do get the hide off while it's still warm - than give it a good hosing down - and hang it for at least 24 hours before processing , at times 2-4 days .
I have access to a walk in , or at least I did until next year hunting season .

[cwlongshot]

Everyone always thinks their way is right . Me I've ate properly hung venison And venison that was shot and butchered as quickly as possible .

My opinion , a carcass need to hang long enough for the rigor mortis to let loose and that's about all the longer it needs to hang .
12- 24 hours .
I base this solely on every time I've had venison thst was shot and butchered within a few hours it was as tough as shoe leather .

Taste wise I've never noticed a difference between 24 hours and up to 7 days . Never noticed much a difference in tenderness either .

BEST REPLY YET!!

The Liberal Progressives aint taken over yet, we can still each do it as we prefer.

Enjoy it how ever you choose to process it!! Its GOOD EATS!

CW

[Tripplebeards]

All I know is I need to thaw out some more! It’s never tasted better... and I’ve never remember eating this much venison in a long time. Out of five deer this past past season I’ve harvested I’m getting down in inventory.lol...and it’s just me eating it.

50 deer a year? Do you raise them? If not your big buck count, population, and genetics have to be very poor from clean out. Genetics passed on from your great grandpa responsible for the great white buffalo extinction? Lol, just have to razz you. I don’t think anyone needs to kill 50 deer a year...or do for that matter in the real world. Tall tales of Texas!

I felt pretty guilty taking five off my property this past year along with the last three being buck fawns I shot with cast. I Killed three future booners.

[Thundarstick]

If I remember correctly, he's involved in depredation control.

[toallmy]

Crop damage control by permitted taking is a healthy way of controlling over population on farm land , much better than poison .

[M-Tecs]

50 deer a year is for crop damage control is not that many. A very good friend is LE is involved with metro deer management and damage control in non-hunting areas. He is one of the assigned shooters. They use suppressed rifles with night vision and are part of a team. They bait them for a couple of weeks before they start the control shooting. The meat goes to homeless shelters. Next time I see him I will ask what the most he killed in a year. I do know he killed 23 in one night.

[Tripplebeards]

Holy ****!

[Lloyd Smale]

worst year was the year before last. Between two of us we shot 12 deer. Best year between the two of us we shot a 139. Average year is about 75 between the two of us. Dnr closely monitors the deer number and pull the permit when the numbers are down. never shot 23 in a night. I have to wonder how they gut and haul them all. My best night was 8 and the buddy shot 6. Believe me 14 deer fills up a pickup box to the point that you aren't in cognito any more. We were so conserned about angering people that we made an agreement that never again more then 5 in one night. It was the only next day I rememeber when all the deer we shot the night before weren't in the freezer by the time we were suppose to go back out that afternoon. People think that's a lot of deer but its nothing for those fields to have well over a 100 deer in them at dusk. Another thing is although we are allowed to shoot bucks the farmer asks us not to. He doesn't want to upset the local hunters. We shoot an occasional spike the mistaken for a doe out at 400 yards but try not to. We give deer to friends and familys and to the salvation army and the catholic priest to give out. We used to give them to a processor who was suppose to donate to the local food bank. Found out he was running a home for the elderly and using the meat to feed them to save on his food bill. He ended up getting busted and they found he was skimming off of about every deer he butchered. It can actually be a loosing proposition for us. We drive 110 miles round trip every night. Plus the wear and tear on my truck. If we shoot one deer we are doing fine. Even if we get one deer every other night we can break even. But years like the one we got 8 we loose. I figured that year cost us about 10 bucks a lb for the venison we got. Making out is what I consider paying 2 bucks a lb or less for it. this was the worse winter since I was a kid I can recall. My guess is it will be the first year the dnr doesn't issue any permits.

[Lloyd Smale]

I felt pretty guilty taking five off my property this past year along with the last three being buck fawns I shot with cast. I Killed three future booners.

We try not to shoot fawns too. Not because someone cares if we do. Its just there hardly worth all the work for what you get. But I do take at least a couple every year. Dad like fawn hind quarter roast for deer camp and I don't think theres anything better then fawn back straps on the grill. I just have to keep my mouth shut to my wife because she pictches a fit if she knows shes eating fawn. The front shoulder make a great roast in the pressure cooker too. Just the right amount of meat for 3 or 4 people. Partner laughs at me. He wont bother with them but laughs at me because I insist on at least waiting till late enough in the year that there spots are faded. Now his brother who used to shoot with us and got us in would rather shoot a fawn then anything. If a big doe and a couple fawns came out he wouldn't even bother with the big doe.

[M-Tecs]

never shot 23 in a night. I have to wonder how they gut and haul them all.

That's the best part for him. This are metro herd reductions. They use SWAT team shooters and the PAID cleaning crew shows up at sunrise.

[Lloyd Smale]

where do I sign up to get one of those cleaning crews???? that would be a dream. Shoot all evening and have the meat delivered cut up and wrapped the next day!!! Maybe that's what heaven will be!

That's the best part for him. This are metro herd reductions. They use SWAT team shooters and the PAID cleaning crew shows up at sunrise.

[randyrat]

The Deer I shot this year was tough, maybe it was because I took the hide off in the woods, brought it home and was all cut up and in the freezer before Dark.
Most years I can't get to them for a Day or Two and they are very tender. I think hanging for 12-24 hours is maybe the way to go.

[Fishman]

Some people on this thread are confusing aging with rotting and they are not the same obviously. I too have shot a lot of deer, averaging 3 or 4 a year. Some I shot and had in the freezer within a couple hours. Others were at deer camps where the quarters had to sit in ice chests for up to 7 days. The procedure was always to drain the melted water off the meat every day and replace ice as needed. What I found over time, contrary to what I expected, was that the venison in the cooler was less gamey and more tender than the immediately processed deer. This approach makes even 6 or 7 year old post rut bucks taste like a yearling doe. This is a common approach used by many people I know and most wont do it any other way. I was a big skeptic at first but years of using this technique has changed my mind. That said, there are many ways to make great venison and this just happens to be the one I prefer after much testing.

[M-Tecs]

Comparing one animal to another means nothing. Comparing the same cut of meat from the same animal is easy. Age some, freeze some and prepare them at the same time. Question answered.