Your Opinions on Hanging Game?

[PatMarlin]

Since I've got a deer hangin in my shop trailer, I was trying to decide to age the meat or not.

I've some asked a couple of respected avid hunting members here what they think of aging deer, and some beleive it's a good idea, and some not.

What's the overall census amoung hunters here at Cast Boolits?

[krag35]

Personally I don't hang anything any longer than I have to. You wouldn't take a beefsteak and let it sit out for a week or so before you cook it would you? Whenever possible, I kill, dress, and skin one day, hang overnight, and cut it up the next morning.
krag35

[StarMetal]

The Jews do, isn't corn beef, beef that is hung until it gets a mold on it? I had a Jewish friend telling me something about it. Tell you what, corn beef is really good too.

I think at the slaugther houses they hang that meat awhile. I know they bleed it out.

Joe

[Bullshop]

With the hide off I like to hang meat to age a bit. I prefer to quarter it and remove glands found between quarters. Length of hanging time depends on the temp. I have had deer meat that was displayed by the proud hunter until the body cavity was covered with mold, and no longer wanted by said hunter(or what ever you would call such). On more than one ocasion I have accepted game so handled and even though there was much lost to trim the remaning good red meat was most excellent and very very tender. There is a happy medium, and propper handling of meat makes a tremendous difference in the flavor of the meat. Immediate hide removal and rapid cooling of the carcass are the first steps to premium quality.
BIc/BS

[PatMarlin]

I skined mine out night before last (within an hour of shooting her, but I dressed it out in the field as soon as I shot it), and tonite will be 48 hours it's hung up in my shop trailer which is metal with a heavy wood floor. It's been 40-45 degrees, in the day and 25 at night so that box is keeping real cool.

I would have already cut her up, but I've got firewood to finish before tomorrow cause it's supossed to rain and snow like crazy.

[versifier]

They usually age beef between one and two weeks at 35-40 degrees, sometimes longer. It won't hurt yours to hang for a week or so as it's cool enough so there won't be any spoilage. I don't think it's really necessary, but it won't hurt anything for it to hang awhile, as long as there are no critters to mess with it. It cuts a lot easier when chilled, and they say ageing tenderizes it. You can certainly get your firewood done before you need to deal with it. :lol:

[grumble]

Good comments! Elk in particular needs to cooled out as quickly as possible, which means skinning for sure and quartering if possible in the field. Hanging it for a week or two below 40* is a real taste improver so long as it doesn't freeze. It will form a "skin" or rinde that seals the meat. You can tell when it's hung long enough because it will start to get a faint rotten smell (not strong). When you can smell it, it's done.

As an item of interest, maybe, the chemical process of rotting is the same as cooking. The main difference is that cooking doesn't allow bacteria to grow because of speed and heat. You know how tender meat gets when slow cooked? Well, hanging meat is the same as "cooking" it at 35*. Same thing with air-cured jerkey -- when you eat it, it's cooked.

[woody1]

Pat, specific to deer.......this is what I did this year and is typical. Deer shot, gutted immediately, hauled to the house and skinned within an hour. Blood washed off and hung under a tree (raining) to cool until evening. Bagged and hung in the springhouse for three days until I hauled it home. Hung in the shop (cool but above 40 during the day) until I cut it up 1 week to the day after it was shot. If you do get a little mold speckling just washed it off with vinegar and water (half & half) and keep goin'. I've cut up deer within a couple of days and can tell no difference. I usually can't get away with hanging more than a week or so without a cooler because our season is early and not cool enough. Get your firewood in and keep the deer cool and you'll be fine. Regards, Woody

[454PB]

I'm one that likes to get it in the freezer as quickly as possible. Skinning is easily done while there is some residual body heat in the carcass. If it can't be cut up within a day or so, I cover it with a muslin cloth to keep it from drying too much. I once had a friend that cut meat professionally, both domestic and wild. He told me that aging meat only works if the temperature is held between 39 and 41 degrees. According to him, aging is an enzymatic process that requires these temperatures to work properly. It's easy to control temperatures when you own a meat cutting facility, not so in your garage or hanging from a tree in the back yard.

Nearly every year I find rotting skinned carcasses left in the country or along dirt roads by hunters (?) that let it hang until it was smelly and spoiled. I'd rather cut it up too quick.

[Gunload Master]

I am actually a butcher going on 6+ years at a small store here in pocatello and have cut up plenty of wild game.

It's true that beef get's aged for 2-3 weeks+. The difference is they are packaged in an air tight wrap before aging that long. There is a hard medium that you have to face. If you hang too long you lose quite a bit of meat but the meat you do get is a bit more tender. If you cut it up the next day you will get more meat, but it might not be as tender. If you go for ground burger you should get it in as fast as possible to a shop to be ground up.
I've had people bring in deer with mold and maggots before and if it's too exceeding we say go somewhere else. That point is just flat out terrible and you should never get your meat that way. You have to think about bacteria growth that goes beyond the outside layer.
Also, gut the sucker out right after the kill, skin the sucker as soon as possible as well, you may think it's cold enough out to leave the skin on. But the shoulders, and various parts will still contain heat and cause it to spoil very rapidly.
Anywho, just my 2 bits.

[slughammer]

The same day we shoot it, we skin, quarter and refridgerate. With the weather here in PA it seems the only consistent way to do it. Avoids flys in archery season, unpredictable weather in rifle and freezing solid in muzzleloader.

Today we put 2 in the fridge in just a few hours, good thing too, because the low tonight is above 50F. I had been freezing my butt off the past few days and I walked out this morning to 46 degrees!

Never saw the benefit to the meat from hanging, and they SURELY can be disassembled easier while still warm. Once the quarters are wrapped in plastic grocery bags and in the fridge; it's easy to take a few days to trim, cut and wrap.

[ammohead]

What's the overall census amoung hunters here at Cast Boolits?

Pat,
I like to let it age a bit. If you have cool temps or access to a walkin, a week is good. Cutting it up right away is more difficult as the meat is wobbly for lack of a better word. After aging it is much easier to slice even steaks. Now if it is warm and you don't have access to a cooler....get er done right away.

ammohead

[44man]

Star, corned beef is packed in salt and cured. Like bacon and ham.

[fourarmed]

We skin them immediately, and butcher them the next morning just as soon as they cool out. We double wrap (Saran followed by butcher paper) and freeze immediately. We have found packages in the bottom of the freezer that were 3 years old and were still excellent except for surface tissue like the hinge on a butterflied loin chop. Freezing and thawing tenderizes without leaving a rind that has to be trimmed away. In this part of the country it is as likely to be above 50 degrees as it is below freezing during deer season, so hanging is usually out anyway. If we get the notion that we just have to age it, we thaw the packages in the fridge for a few days.

[9.3X62AL]

The nice thing about Tag Soup is the prep process--not nearly as much work as cutting one up.

I heard an interesting story from a chef that worked in a very toney Palm Springs restaurant.......to get their filet mignon to the perfection of tenderness demanded by their discriminating clientele, they actually let the cuts get rather stanky and green-covered under some sort of controlled conditions. It took a while after hearing that bit to try a good steak in a restaurant again.

It's so freakin' hot where and when I usually hunt, the only option is open 'em up and skin 'em off ASAP, quarter 'em, and get thee hence to the meat cutter. What he did afterward I didn't know, but the cuts were ready in 4-5 days' time. Of course, the last time I shot a deer in CA was during the Reagan Administration--but I digress.

[Bigscot]

I will usually dress and quarter the deer and put in a cooler. I keep ice on it and rinse it everyday. During the next week I work the meat up. Boning out the hams usually and getting a grind pile. That either goes back into the cooler or into a fridge in the shed. After about week I package. This way the meat is aged a little and bleeds out some. I have gone as long as 2 weeks until freezing this way. It is important to remove any blood which accumulates as that will go bad quick and smell. The meat is still good though.
I think don't think I have ever shot, cleaned and frozen a deer inside 24 to 48 hours.

Bigscot

[waksupi]

I've seen a couple messages, saying that people wash out carcasses. If you are going to hang them for any time at all, this is not a good idea. Water encourages bacterial growth. I've seen elk ruined doing this in early bow season, from washing them out, and not cutting them within a day. However, I have put elk quarters in a creek in warm weather, to cool them down enough to pack them out. But they were cut the next day, or as soon as I could get them out of the mountains.

[Bass Ackward]

This is a process based more on the weather than anything else. But I normally like to let the heat come out of the meat slowly before I cut it up. If it is ideal that is two days.

I have tried many attempts to understand how meat will age. Butchering half at one time and then half later. In this process over the years, I lost some meat. After all this science, my conclusion is that meat does in fact age. No correlation could be found between aged and not for tenderness and taste. Sorry, that is what I found. If I want to age meat, that can be done on my kitchen counter. If I want it more tender, that is also done there.

[KevMT]

We just cut up my little fork horn today. Unfortunatly, the day after I shot it I had to work out of town for 5 days and it partially froze in the garage. Could there be any problems associated with re-freezing after butchering? For what it's worth I've been hanging my deer for a few days with the hide on the last few years as it seems to keep them from drying out. I did read an article sometime back about a gent who aged his deer by putting the packaged meat in the refrigerator for a few days so to let the ageing occur under controlled conditions. Seems to make sense to me.

Kev

[Bigscot]

You should be alright as long as you process it properly from here on out, ie: not letting it be too warm and allowing bacteria growth. Once meat is frozen though, the enzymes involved in tenderizing are destroyed but the meat will be okay.

Bigscot

[fatnhappy]

Star, corned beef is packed in salt and cured. Like bacon and ham.

:hijack:


It's "pickled" in a salt and sodium nitrate (very important) cure and then smoked. That's the traditional method. These days, to expedite meat production at the industrial level it's often injected with liquid smoke while artery pumping the brine and steam cooked.
It's a thread for a different forum but I've really taken to sausage making the last few years. Homemade bacon straight from the smoker is so good it would make vegetarians reconsider. :razz:


I prefer to skin my deer immediately and hang them for a week, weather permitting. If weather doesn't permit, I age the meat in the fridge before freezing it. The meat doesn't need to be intact to age it.

(don't fridge age ground meat BTW. Bad idea, the act of grinding done improperly will heat the meat and even worse, any bacteria present will be uniformly distributed.)

[PatMarlin]

Wal-

Thanks for the info guys. I hung it in a deer bag, in my metal shop trailer with heavy wood floor, and it was always around 32-35 dgrs.

I had to becasue of time needed elsewhere. It hung for about 4 days.

Had some back straps pounded and grilled last night, and the meat was tender, and flavorfull.

So I think hanging or ageing is OK if it's done under the right temps, and conditions.

Next one I'm gonna try not ageing at all, and see what happens. :coffee:

[Rick4570]

Havn't had a whole critter come home with me in some time. We mostly hunt in the high country, and the first time we took one out whole was the last time. We can reduce a deer sized critter to boned meat, cooled some, and packed in good game bags in about 45 minutes. If we aren't pressed for time, we let it cool as long as possible before bagging it. Much easier to walk out of rough country with the meat in my pack, than to drag one. In fact, even if we kill one fairly close to the rig, this is the way we usually handle our meat. Leave the stuff that would end up in the dumpster to return to nature. When we get home, it goes into the extra refridgerator in the garage to be cut up when time permits...anywheres from the next day to no longer than a week. Tried the aging thing also, but couldn't tell any difference. Doing it this way also ensures rapid cooling. It's amazing how long an animal with the hide left on it will retain heat. Was in on an elk kill many moons ago, dropped the bull at about 4:00 p.m., field dressed him, sunk a knife in between the shoulder blades and opened him up the neck a ways , got him up off the ground on some downfall and came back for him in the morning with the horses. When we quartered him to pack, the steam rising from the freshly exposed meat was impressive, and this after a night time temp of about -20! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't personally witnessed it.
Regards, Rick

[BABore]

I used to be a crop damage shooter in Michigan's UP over a 15 year period. Lost count of the number of whitetail after 250-300. Ninety-five percent of those I processed myself. Sure wish I knew about cast bullets then.

All of the deer I processed were skinned immediately and usually cut up the following day, except for one. Two years ago I decided to try to properly age one. To do it right you need to control the temperature and more importantly the humidity. The best cuts of beef are dry aged for up to two months in a humidity controlled cooler. Some just wet age for a week in a plastic cryo-pak. The best I could do was to hang the deer in my insulated, unheated, garage. Since the temperature was right I decided to hang it head up with the skin on. I left the skin on to help prevent too much moisture and meat loss. It was a head shot doe that was washed out with vinegar/water solution. The meat was thoroughly cooled out due to the outside temperature at the time. While hanging in my garage I was able to control the temperature to 38-42 F with a partially opened window. I ended up aging this doe for 30 days.

Skinning out the deer was not a real pleasure. When cutting it up there was a noticeable density difference in the meat from moisture loss. I was not able to use much of the rib meat due to the leatherlike texture from the exposed inside. I figured that I lost 10-12 pounds of product due to meat and moisture loss. How did it taste? It was the most tender and flavorfull deer that I ever had. Even the hinds tasted like fine steak. Would I do it again? No friggin way. What a PITA. While the flavor was superior, the extra work did not justify it.

[grumble]

"...It's amazing how long an animal with the hide left on it will retain heat. Was in on an elk kill many moons ago, dropped the bull at about 4:00 p.m., field dressed him, sunk a knife in between the shoulder blades and opened him up the neck a ways , got him up off the ground on some downfall and came back for him in the morning with the horses. When we quartered him to pack, the steam rising from the freshly exposed meat was impressive, and this after a night time temp of about -20!.."

Good point, Rick. There have been a number of survival stories about people killing an elk, gutting it, and crawling into the body cavity to survive a blizzard. Those hides keep elk warm in some pretty nasty weather, so they must be pretty good insulators.

For me, I prefer to hang meat for at least a while to drain the blood before cutting it up. I don't like the idea of wrapping meat in plastic because, to me, it inhibits vapor from leaving the meat which I think is part of the curing process, especially for elk.

It's pretty clear, though, that there are a lot of ways to properly treat meat. I suppose the main things are to cool it quickly and to keep it cool.

[Rick4570]

Grumble, I've heard those stories as well. I hope I never have the opportunity to find if it works! LOL
Rick