Hanging deer in freezing temps

[M-Tecs]

Not an opinion a fact , if you freeze meat too fast it will sour inside. The outside freezes and insulates the rest of the meat and it can not get the body core temp down, meat spoils deep inside.

I have heard this many times, however, it has not been my experience based on various large game animals taken at sub zero temps. Largest was a large bull moose taken at minus 26 actual temp. No idea what he wind chill was (15 to 20 MPH wind) but the skinned quarters froze solid very quickly. The hindquarters were band sawed two days after the moose was killed and center was fully frozen with no souring.

[DougGuy]

I have done it every way you can do it except PAY somebody else to do it for me, and I found there wasn't much gain in aging it. It turns the meat dark purple and makes it smell a little off until you cook it but doesn't make it magically tender or make it taste like a $100 steak in a posh restaurant.

The last one I did was a roadkill I got with my car, and was in freezer bags before it cooled very much at all and it eats as good as any that I hung in the garage or kept in the fridge for 14 days.

Simply freezing the meat will break down cell walls when ice crystals form inside, and that in itself tenderizes it somewhat so I DO like to at least freeze it and thaw it before I cook it. So far, that is about the only benefit that I could really tell made a difference from cooking it fresh and warm right off the hoof. It is a noticeable bit more tender when it thaws.

Just my 2¢ worth.

[GhostHawk]

Just my opinion but growing up in Northern Minnesota we never aged our deer.

Hang them overnight if it is late, but normally by the day after the deer is skinned, deboned, cleaned up major muscle groups once clean go into garbage bag. Gets cut up and frozen later that same day.

Many a year we would have 2 day deer season and by bedtime sunday night the meat is all cut, packaged, and frozen.

Just what I grew up with and I have found no reason to change my opinion.

Would you hang a pheasant or a grouse for a week?

[Lloyd Smale]

believe it or not some do age pheasant. Me I like my meat fresh not hung to rot for days.

Just my opinion but growing up in Northern Minnesota we never aged our deer.

Hang them overnight if it is late, but normally by the day after the deer is skinned, deboned, cleaned up major muscle groups once clean go into garbage bag. Gets cut up and frozen later that same day.

Many a year we would have 2 day deer season and by bedtime sunday night the meat is all cut, packaged, and frozen.

Just what I grew up with and I have found no reason to change my opinion.

Would you hang a pheasant or a grouse for a week?

[M-Tecs]

Would you hang a pheasant or a grouse for a week?

I would not but some do. A hundred years ago it was common to hang pheasants and ducks by the head until they fell off.

Some of the current aging processes http://honest-food.net/2012/10/20/on...g-pheasants-2/

[Hickok]

Just me, but I like to get them skinned, quartered, sliced and diced, pronto. Then I can go out and hunt another one.

I like to have the work all done on the first one, so I can enjoy hunting again for the next one! We are allowed several in WV.

I hate the thought of being out in the woods, coming home late, worn out, and thinking I still have a deer hanging waiting to get worked up.

For me they are much easier to do quickly and when they are relatively warm. Hide comes off nice. I have nearly frozen my fingers, hurt like a son of a biscuit, working up a deer that hung for awhile and had gotten cold and stiff.

[GhostHawk]

Thank you Lloyd, M-tecs, you made my point for me exactly.

Days gone by, different places, custom was to hang most everything.

Some people hang deer, ok, their choice.

Me I like mine frozen only in the freezer.
For one thing, aging tenderizes by bacterial action, so hang that frozen deer till christmas, till it thaws it is not tenderizing.

I prefer the flavor if the deer is processed as soon as the meat is cooled enough to skin it.
Best deer I ever ate in my life was a young 4 point, he was sleeping in the cattails. We came walking up on him, he jumps once, twice at jump 2 everyone else bangs away. I catch him at the top of jump 3 and blew his right horn off an inch from his skull. Down he went, he was just trying to come to as I walked up and put a finisher into his head.

4.5 minutes on each side, the loins could be cut with a fork, juicy and tasty.

Catch em young and sleeping. Clean em right, skin and cut up as soon as possible.

Your mileage may vary.

[Hickok]

Something I see and can't seem to explain to some hunters, why when they shoot a deer, do they cut it's throat from ear to ear?

Now when butchering an animal, I can understand it, but when you hit a deer with a broadhead or expanding boolit/bullet, all the blood pools right in that area. Cutting the throat to bleed out a deer really only ruins a cape for mounting a head.

[flyingmonkey35]

All this talk about getting multiple deer in one hunt boggles my mind. In Utah your lucky if you can draw 1 tag. Per hunt.
I
I don't hunt as I have had a deer that was decent to eat.

Could be all of these poor hunter stuff coming thru.

I really want to go hunting at leat once and take my 15 year old.

[M-Tecs]

Something I see and can't seem to explain to some hunters, why when they shoot a deer, do they cut it's throat from ear to ear?
.

+1 When the heart is not pumping cutting the throated does nothing.

[toallmy]

On the east coast of Virginia we have a very long white tail season , it runs from Oct.- Dec. you can get bonus tags as well . Thay are not all real, big but their are a lot of them.

[54bore]

Just my opinion but growing up in Northern Minnesota we never aged our deer.

Hang them overnight if it is late, but normally by the day after the deer is skinned, deboned, cleaned up major muscle groups once clean go into garbage bag. Gets cut up and frozen later that same day.

Many a year we would have 2 day deer season and by bedtime sunday night the meat is all cut, packaged, and frozen.

Just what I grew up with and I have found no reason to change my opinion.

Would you hang a pheasant or a grouse for a week?

This is exactly what I try and do as well, if I get my deer late in the evening when I get home I skin and clean it up good, and if it's really cold and likely to freeze I will let it hang that night and I cut it up the next day, when I first moved here to north Idaho from the wa coast I wasn't use to this kind of freezing cold, the first deer I shot I screwed up and let it hang for 3 or 4 days and it froze hard as a rock, my dad told me if I didn't get it in the house to thaw and get it cut up that it would start to turn really dark, almost black, so I went and bought a new small tarp and put it over my kitchen table, brought the deer in and let it thaw overnight, it was stil a booger the next day but I managed to get it all cut up and put away, I made a vow from that day forward to not let that happen again! It didn't hurt anything, just a pain to deal with!

[toallmy]

I would never let a deer freeze before I processed it.

[GhostHawk]

Frozen deer = takes twice as long, is 4 x times harder to work on and is physically painful throughout the process.

Where most of the benifits of hanging a deer are in your head.
To that I will add after some 50 years of experience hunting deer, skinning, processing, cutting, packaging and especially eating. I have come to the firm conclusion that in deer bones MUST be removed before freezing if you want the meat to taste good. Along with fat, glands, etc, but bones are the big one.

You let a deer freeze you have shot yourself in the foot before you ever get started.

But don't take my word for it. Next deer fillet out one side of the loin/backstraps. Cut, wrap and freeze with no bone or fat in it. On the other side run them through a saw (at least one package) and package them as bone in chops.

Freeze for a month, then prepare both in separate pans.

Not everyone notices a difference. For those of us that do it is night and day.
Find out for yourself which you and your family prefer. Then adjust processing accordingly.

[RP]

I must be doing it wrong but its warm here most of the season heck today it hit 70. I shoot the deer take it home and skin it out, While its hanging I remove all the meat and put it on ice. What I like is a bed of ice on the bottom of the cooler neck shoulders and back straps go in. Another layer of ice then the hams and tender loins topped off with some more ice. With the PLUG out of the cooler I let it sit and blood drains out with the melting ice. Several of us hunt and process the deer at my place so I will have several coolers with deer waiting to be finished up. Most of the time they sit a few days just say it was taken on tuesday we process on Sat or Sun. I have let them sit longer but I remove the meat redo my ice and I do not like the meat stack on meat.
That has been working for us for several years and when its process time there is plenty of help. We do sausage one time a year since it is more trouble and takes up more time. Since our deer here are small it took 6 deer to get 3 gal bags of stew meat and kept three back straps for the grill the rest was sausage with the fat added got 100 lbs enough to share with all the hunters that are in the group deer in the mix or not.
My main goal is to hold the meat until time to process and to drain the blood.

[archeryrob]

We built a cooler with an air conditioner and controller. It cools them down when its too warm and keeps them from freezing also. We dont bother with aging as they are processed within a couple days, so whats the point. Like said, you loose moisture and the outside of the meat dries out with the skin off.

[AK4570]

No comment on the aging question but can say that an Alaskan/Yukon moose hindquarter (130+lbs) with the bone in will freeze solid as a rock with no "sour" in the center. Winter hunts in these parts it is common practice to leave the hide on until you get your moose (usually a cow during the winter) home so that you can have a semi-thawed carcass to break down. The only way to break down 600-1000 lbs of frozen moose is with a chainsaw...

Best,
John