Aging Venison

[wtfooptimax200]

Do you guys age your venison? I live in New England and our deer usually hang 4-6 days this time of the year prior to butchering. Have any of you tried aging for a longer time period in a cooler or fridge? Can you successfully age the meat after it has been processed and packaged? Any insight is appreciated.

Branden

[Wolfer]

I always age mine. If the outside temps are getting around 30 at night and not much above 60 thru the day I like to let them hang with the hide on until the rigamortis goes away.
If its too warm I quarter them and leave on the bone and place in a cooler with just enough ice to keep them cool for 7 days
Once when the temps were running 30 to 50 I let one hang in the shed for 3 weeks. Possibly the best deer I ever ate.
If meat is processed while the rigor is still in the meat I don't believe it ever goes away. I also believe this is where some of the gamy taste people talk about comes from. My meat doesn't have it.
I killed one on opening evening and skinned it the following Friday. Killed one on Sat and skinned it a few minutes ago because it was 70 deg here yesterday and today.

[newton]

Yep. I let mine hang as long as possible. Or do the cooler, quartered up, thing. People have said that you can't leave them hang in weather above 45, but I have never had a problem as long as temps go low in the night and don't rise too much over 60 in the day.

I think 5 days is sufficient, but let it go as long as possible or the first convient processing date. I got one in the cooler from last Saturday and plan to take care of it this Friday. I know a guy who has a fridge just for this purpose. I hope to build a walk in cooler some day.

I have heard that as long as you don't freeze meat until rigor has gone away your fine. If your grinding it doesn't make much difference, except for the taste maybe.

[kbstenberg]

Well I'm at the opposite extreme. In the last 10 years all of my deer are quartered and in the freezer before the body heat is gone. An like Wolfer I do it because of the quality of the meat. The only reason I delay in skinning and quartering is because of shooting an animal in the morning when I am hunting all day, or I shoot the animal to far from home and it cools off before I get a chance to process it.
It sure is a lot easier skinning and quartering when the animal isn't froze stiff.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

BEcause of the makeup of game meat, there is little or nothing to be gained with prolonged aging.

Just make sure the meat is cooled out and firmed up.

Plus, all the rib meat is usable in sausage or jerky if you don't let it dry out.

Check with people like usda meat inspectors for the scoup.

On the other hand, freezing wild game too soon can also be a negative as per meat quality. I've heard the reasons, just don't remember the info.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[rush1886]

I agree pretty much with everything said by Newton, with the caveat that the meat is covered in some manner, and hanging in the shade at least, if temps exceed 50`.

Now as to what is mentioned by Crusty Dreary Ol Coot: I live in SE Idaho and next door neighbor is from Anaconda MT. 2 yrs ago she traveled to Anaconda for Thanksgiving and shot a young cow elk, near Anaconda, on Thanksgiving Day. She arrived back here to Idaho that Sunday afternoon, with the elk in the uncovered bed of her pickup. Froze solid is putting it mildly. Hanging in her garage, it took 5 days to thaw just to where we could cut and wrap. Absolutely the toughest and worst tasting elk I've ever had in my oven.

rush1886

[TXGunNut]

I've only aged one deer, lost a bit of meat to drying. Wasn't thrilled with the flavor. Generally here in TX we usually have to get the meat quartered and in ice chests or in a meat locker in a few hours after the kill. I've found that I like keeping the meat in a big cooler covered in ice for at least 24 hrs, draining water and adding ice as needed. Bucks and bigger hogs especially benefit from the "time out" in the cooler.

[OnHoPr]

I've never heard of aging after processing. I have read a few of Larry Benoit's writings and he wrote about aging for a month in certain conditions. I have let them age for a month and they can be very good according to my palate. I have heard three days is long enough and a week and a this and a that. Weather permitting start testing age times for your own palate. It is just like going to a steakhouse with a few people, one orders a ribeye medium-rare, one orders a sirloin well done, and another orders a T-bone medium. It's just different taste for different people. There's probably a psychological effect to different people. I have heard that it takes close to a week for the amino acids and enzymes to start breaking down.IIRC

[Wolfer]

I can't remember the name of the book I read it in but I remember the enzymes would do their work in two days at 50 deg and seven days at 33 degrees. At 32 deg everything goes into suspension.

I test mine with my dogs. When a deer is fresh they don't act too interested, after a few days throw them a scrap and they will inhale it.
That's when I know it's ready!

[TreeKiller]

I used to work in a slaughter house some people that they did custom butchering would let there beef age for 21 to 30 days, others wanted it cut up in about 4 days. knew a old lady rancher that never ate frozen beef. she would let the meat hang in a cooler till it was all eaten.

[M-Tecs]

Early on I had been taught that aging venison was the way to go so that’s what I always did for the deer taken during gun season as the temperatures generally allowed for aging. For archery deer it was generally too warm to allow for aging. I remembered that the archery deer tasted better than the gun season deer, but at the time, I thought this was due to the firearms season deer where more mature Bucks and or the archery deer bleed out better.

As my archery and hunting skills improved I started taking more mature Bucks in early season so I purchase a fridge just for aging but due to travel issues some would get cut up without aging. I couldn’t tell the difference so one year I halved one. I aged one side and cut the other without aging. I aged the one half at 42 degrees for seven days but I took sample cuts starting at three days. At three and four days I could not tell any difference when compared to the un-aged cuts. Started at day five the aged cuts started tasting stronger. Worse on days six and seven. Also the cuts seemed to be drier and possibly even tougher.

I have had formal meat cutting classes so I am aware of and understand the bacterial process of how aging benefits something like beef but I no longer see a benefit for something as lean a venison. I believe the drying of the lean venison offsets any benefit of tenderization from the bacterial break down of the meat.

When I purchase a ¼ or ½ of beef I still have it dry-aged but my venison get cut as soon as possible.

Surprisingly good info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_aging

[M-Tecs]

More good info on home game processing http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?168970-Home-Game-Processing&highlight=aging

[Bob Krack]

My former hunting partner was a meat cutter for a large retail grocery chain in Northern Kalifornia.. Sacramento and north.

Marvin retired after 40 years of cutting meat a couple of years ago.

When we hunted the high desert, we field dressed and skinned the deer and put them into large cheesecloth bags and hung them in the shade. From 2 to 5 days, depending on our hunts. Nights low to high 30's and days low to high 50's.

The meat was always terrific eating.

Bob

[Lloyd Smale]

the correct answer
BEcause of the makeup of game meat, there is little or nothing to be gained with prolonged aging.

Just make sure the meat is cooled out and firmed up.

Plus, all the rib meat is usable in sausage or jerky if you don't let it dry out.

Check with people like usda meat inspectors for the scoup.

On the other hand, freezing wild game too soon can also be a negative as per meat quality. I've heard the reasons, just don't remember the info.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Mooseman]

I dont agree at all. We hang a moose in pieces for 3-4 weeks and let it age at 40-45 degrees with a fan blowing on it and let it get Moldy on the outside. What happens is the meat looses water and the enzymes in the blood break down the meat and tenderize it and add flavor. Other wise it is tough and less tasty.
I learned this from PK Smith who owned a famous ranch in Florida. He hung Beef and kept it in a cooler year round and he would cut big moldy steaks, cut the moldy rind off and throw them on the grill. It was the most tasty and tender steak you ever ate.People paid big money to hunt his ranch and eat his Steaks. They were prime aged beef steaks.The mold doesnt hurt the meat at all.
We also learned we can control the mold with red wine vinegar but the dry rind gets cut off when its butchered anyway.If you never had a true aged steak you wont know what flavor is all about. Deer could be aged faster due to being smaller , like our Caribou only get aged 2 weeks.
It does make a difference but it must be done right.
We also vacuum seal it and freeze it...good for 4 years or more.

[akmac]

Mooseman, that is the same way I was taught to age venison. We left the skin on in the cool garage until the chest cavity turned green. We would wipe out the chest cavity with vinegar just before we butchered it. It was always very tasty and tender. For moose we have always let it hang a week or more when shot late in the season. The best caribou I have had was aged 10 days and given a vinegar wipe before packaging.

[**oneshot**]

I usually process mine within a day or so. I let one hang in my near freezing garage for 3 days and it froze solid. Worst ever mistake. I ended up taking all that I had sliced up and ground the whole deer into hamburg.

[x101airborne]

I have a large walk in cooler to hang game and will usually ice my kills for 3 days then hang for a week or so at 35 degrees. This has always worked well and the quality of meat is good to say the least. BUT,,,
When I came home from Iraq, my dad picked me up from the airport and said that I needed a steak post-haste. He took me to the Longhorn Steakhouse for beer and a steak. The owner himself came out and asked what I would like to eat and without being educated on meat back then I said I would like the best steak he had. He brought out an entire porterhouse with green mold all over it. It smelled WONDERFUL. I got to see him wash it in red wine vinegar, cut the outside off, rinse it again and season it for the grill. It came to me rare and was so juicy and tender I ate that entire cut. Then he was so nice, he comped my meal and 2 beers. He just charged my dad for his meal and I think he cut some off of that as well.
I will never forget that man. Or that steak. That place had coolers FULL of green meat and I would love to learn how to make my own.

[Mooseman]

Thats It !!
The Flavor is unbeatable.Store bought meat tastes like cardboard and the so called "Aged" beef that is done under refridgeration in a plastic bag full of blood is NOT aged beef.
Tough and tasteless.

[reloader28]

For our taste buds we let it hang for 2-3 days, but thats partly because we can only hang 6 at a time. After 2-3 days, we need more room. But it always tastes better (I think) with this amount of time.

[Fishman]

I can't age deer easily in TX, but they keep well quartered in ice in coolers. I cut them up as soon as possible. For my taste, fresh killed deer can't be beat. Still warm tenderloin salt and peppered on the grill? You bet.

[gunseller]

Aging meat is allowing the fat in the meat to break down,rot. Sense deer have none to almost no fat in their meat there is little to no benefit to "aging" deer meat. Letting the deer hang until the body heat is gone has benefit but there is none after that. Many times when a cut of meat is tough it is because it was cut wrong not for lack of aging. Aging beef has benefits but deer is not beef.
Steve

[Boyscout]

The minimum a deer needs to hang is 24 hrs. Rigormortis needs to fully set in and then relax. I would hang mine up to five days if I could but temperature is usually an issue. Because I don't have a cold place to hang, I will ice down the outside of a deer (hide on) and put frozen milk jugs of water inside (prevent excess moisture and bacteria) and cover in old sleeping bags. As the jugs thaw, I wash them off and refreeze them. I have even put a piece of foam insulation on the ground to insulate from the heat in warm weather. Quartering a frozen deer is miserable. I will hose out the inside of a deer and then wipe it down with a solution whatever vinegar we have around as it helps prohibit bacterial growth. There seems to be a definate difference between rot and aging. It seems that older deer benefit the most from aging and young ones tend spoil instead of aging. Being in the Midwest, warm deer hunting weather is often accompanied with rain and high humidty both which are detrimental to hanging a deer. Like a couple of other replies, I may also quarter the deer and place in coolers until I am ready to process. In an arid climate with cold nights and warm days, I can imagine that hanging would be a more viable option.

[Adam10mm]

I usually hang deer overnight for the meat to cool. Easier to cut and it makes cleaner cuts. I don't age venison.

[trevj]

Dunno why folks keep telling us about their beef, and moose. Neither is venison.

FWIW, the deciding factor for the food that goes in my freezer, is generally the time I have available to get to the cutting.

I've put venison in the freezer ranging from still warm when cut, all the way to two weeks after the fact, and the only difference I have seen, has been the amount of dry semi-jerky that has to be trimmed off the longer hung carcass.

Can't tell you nothin' 'bout "gamy" as I have been lucky enough not to shoot one that was that. I have no faith in hanging a deer changing the flavor, at least not to change a gamy critter into gourmet food.

Both the papered butchers I used in the past, one Swiss, the other a German gent, used their coolers to store venison just long enough for it's turn on the cutting table, no longer. They both hung beef for several weeks, so maybe they were on to something.

Cheers
Trev

[Catsmith]

louisiana weather=ice in bottom of cooler as you quarter,ice packed on top,every day drain bloody water and add ice on top. when water flows clear cut and pack.only exception is a backstrap cut up warm and fried with smashed taters and gravy. yummmmm

[nanuk]

as a meatcutter who was taught a bit about this, I'll try to clarify a few points if I can

1) aging is the process of the sugars in the meat turning into lactic acid, which in turn digests (for lack of a better term) the collogen in the meat. Collogen is the tougher protien connective tissue. (that is why it works to soak meat/liver in skim milk in the fridge for a day) Fat does NOT age.

2) lean meat ages faster than fatty meat. We would hang lean meat for 7 days minimum, fatty meat for 10 days minimum for best compromise between freshness, tenderness, and weight loss. Meat loses water as it hangs and the less water the less weight to sell to customers, as well, more wasted trimming.

3) meat at 72F will age fully in 48hours

4) meat freezes at 29F, so most meat coolers are kept at 30F to allow the longest handling time. At 30F, all meat will be completely aged around 21 days. Leaving it hang longer than that dries it more, starts the rot process, and alters flavour. The British were commonly asking for us to hang a whole Prime Rib for an additional 14-21 days, for flavour enhancement.

5) beyond that initial 21 days, meat starts to rot, and THAT is what makes the meat taste different than fresh/less aged meat

6) bone dust will shorten the time meat will spoil due to increased bacteria content. try to avoid any bone dust, and if you must cut bone, cleave it, or clean it well. ( I like the suggestions of vinegar wipes... a GREAT idea )

7) the part about mold is interesting. Mold needs moisture. Most coolers run fans to keep air moving and dry. If meat is molding, it is moist, which decreases the time it will rot in. Just a SWAG, but I'd say the moldy steak, has two flavours going, mold adds some, as does the rot factor. Most molds are not harmful, but some are..... I won't tell you what color to avoid as it escapes me, but research it yourself. same with sausage..... if it gets a specific mold color on it, DO NOT EAT IT! Be very sure that it is OK... for some reason, I'm remembering an issue of TOXINS produced during the killing of the mold.

8) most meat if kept clean can hang in VERY warm temps for many hours IF DRY. In India, meat is hung in open air markets in 120F days for many many hours.

9) meat allowed to get water on it or lay in the water that exudes from the carcass, WILL spoil faster.

10) if keeping meat to age for longer times, the best location to check for spoilage is around the BIG knuckles/joints. The synovial fluids spoil quickly (increased moisture?)

11) meat is sterile. the contamination comes in the form of cross contamination during handling/cutting. That is the reason it is suggested to fully cook ground meat. Imagine the surface area of a 10lb roast... What, 2 square feet? Now, cut that up into little tiny pieces and you increase the surface area by 100 times or more, all the while contaminating the surfaces with the grinder/cutter/knives..... Then you let it sit for a bit and the bacteria grows exponentially also.

12) remember: 40/140. bacteria goes dormant in an environment cooler than 40F and warmer than 140F

13) to thaw frozen meat, do not remove it from the package. Thaw in the fridge/on ice/what ever you have to do to keep the SURFACE cold.
options: microwave, and cook immediately after: Thaw in large bowl in sink with a small stream of cold water running on top (helps to keep meat submerged) Place package on a large plate, that can collect water/juices and fit that inside a cardboard box. close up well and insert THAT into a larger box, and close up well. (a third box is best, but in lieu of that, cover with towels or something that allows a hint of airflow, but insulates well.)

I have thawed a 14lb turkey over night using that method completely through, and the bird still had hints of crystals in the cavity, skin temps were measured at 37F at the warmest.


Fine Print: I have been out of the industry for 27 years, but still cut a fair bit for myself. My books on the subject are no longer available, but the info is available online from reputable sources. Be VERY careful of some of the US extension office sources... many are just plain wrong. ALWAYS cross reference/check against other sources.... Just like handloading.

if anyone has arguments to what I posted, please post them as well so we can cross reference and all learn.

[Mooseman]

My only disagreement is it does not ROT unless it is mishandled. The Mold does not grow on the inside of the meat, only on the outside and we cut all that off during butchering. Moose by the way are Giant deer, same family.We never let water get on our quarters , and we have taken the blood and wiped them down to form a crust that seals them on the outside and air dry. We want to cool the fresh meat as fast as possible in the open air.
Here is an article that spells it out pretty well...http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/other/recipes/2006/01/deer-hang-time

[nanuk]

cutting off mold only removes it from the surface

mold has rhysomes (sp) that penetrate up to 2 inches

the Term ROT was not used as a derogatory term by our instructor. it was used to describe what is happening to the meat, as once the collogen is broken down, the meat itself starts to deteriorate.

Same as when the Brits would hang a grouse by the neck in a tree until the body weight pulled the head off....


Mooseman, up here (or down here as it were) the Indians will weight a quarter of moose and put it into the lake to cool quickly.

the loss from water, is less than the loss from poor cooling???

I dunno, but I wouldn't do it unless I could put it in a plastic bag first.

[white eagle]

Aging meat is allowing the fat in the meat to break down,rot. Sense deer have none to almost no fat in their meat there is little to no benefit to "aging" deer meat. Letting the deer hang until the body heat is gone has benefit but there is none after that. Many times when a cut of meat is tough it is because it was cut wrong not for lack of aging. Aging beef has benefits but deer is not beef.
Steve

Right on
thats the skinny of it in a nutshell

[horsesoldier]

For what it is worth, I have hung deer and elk for two weeks, until there is mold in the cavity. The meat was incredibly tender, no gameyness( I think thats the product of getting it cooled out quickly). 5 days to a week and a half is our average. To each his own. And we always wash them out with a garden hose with clean well water. Lol I guess its alot more foolproof than we think, this process is.This is in a met cooler with the temp at 34 degrees by the way

[Mooseman]

Sorry , but fat does NOT age one bit. It doesnt have the enzymes in it like muscle tissue with blood .
The next moose or caribou I get and hang and age I will take pics to show from start to finish and closeups to show the mold doesnt penetrate the dried "rind" on the outside. You will never taste mold because of this fact even if you eat it raw.If you wipe it off with vinegar, underneath is a tough, leather like rind that you would have trouble sticking a knife into , it resembles jerky, only way tougher.and about 1/8 inch thick. I peel the rind off with a sharp knife like skinning a fish and underneath is the most beautiful meat you ever saw.Deep Red in color, not pale like storebought meat , and in the pan it will almost make its own gravy from the juicyness.
We had Buffalo Round steaks 3 ft. in diameter that were aged 6 weeks that when grilled you could cut with butter knife and the flavor was Gourmet without even a hint of mold taste.
Meat is meat and we even age our grouse for a day or 2 before we cook them and it does make a difference.

Thamnidium elegans is the scientific name for the mold growing on meat...if you look at the picture, it only grows outward from the sporang on the surface.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mycolog.com/3_Thamnidium.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.mycolog.com/CHAP3b.htm&h=301&w=169&sz=7&tbnid=msuBQsLz9awt1M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=51&zoom=1&usg=__VDwB42OPmd_B41JSoWuelp24uIc=&docid=HoOdPa-HoA6NNM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oZqyUJbrBc_SigKq_YGYBw&ved=0CDAQ9QEwAA&dur=1701

[Adam10mm]

For what it is worth, I have hung deer and elk for two weeks, until there is mold in the cavity.
Sorry, the only mold I'm interested in is the kind that casts boolits.


Meat is meat and we even age our grouse for a day or 2 before we cook them and it does make a difference.
Really? I usually freeze them until I get enough for a meal. I only breast them though. Step on the wings and pull on the legs, then peel back the feathers and free the breasts from the ribs, ziplock them and toss them in the freezer. How should I treat the grouse breasts if I only get one or two birds and don't have enough for a meal for my family?

[MT Gianni]

I hang meat to age it around a week if temperatures permit. I also believe that aging breaks down collagens. the fat seems to have no change. A friend who is a former meatcutter tells me the best restaurant beef hangs for 6 weeks, prime hangs for almost 4 weeks. In neither of these cases does the fat appear to break down. If you like the way your game tastes stick with that. The toughest game we ever had was a moose that we put in the freezer in 3 days. You just chewed until you were tired and swallowed. After this I became converted to the "breaks down collagens" method. I cut up two deer this week that had hung for 8 days. We ate chops today, that were flavorful and able to be cut with a fork.

[gunseller]

rot-decay-brake down of tissues
aging of meat-brake down of conective tissues

Now that we under stand that aging of meat is allowing it to rot let us also under stand that fat brakes down first. Fat turns to liquid first this is the first stage of aging meat (rotting meat). Sense deer have very little fat in their meat hanging to age deer meat, unless you have a place tohang it for a very long time under controlled conditions, there is little if anything to gain by hanging a deer past the point of body heat leaving the body.
Steve

[Mooseman]

Buffalo chips...
Rotten meat is spoiled, Bacteria infested, and it stinks and is inedible...

AGED meat is not spoiled, No Bacteria, and smells sweet . BIG difference.