I quartered up my two rifle season deer the day after I shot them. I then wrapped the the rear quarters and front shoulders tightly in packing wrap and froze them. The deer I shot muzzle loader season I left hang for a good five plus days and it was frozen solid when I wanted to cut it up so I brought it in the house to thaw it out enough to cut it into steaks and then after it was completely thawed out I re froze it so I would not get ice crystals that would cause freezer burn.
I removed one (2 rear quarter and 2 front shoulders) of the two gun deer from my freezer last Wednesday to thaw out. After 24 hours the front shoulders were thawed and the rears still had some crystallizing on them so I put them in my cooler. I first put a couple of frozen 2 liters on the bottom of the cooler, then some of my smoker shelves to suspend the meat. Then I layered my meat on top. I also have been dumping ice cube on top of my meat when the previous ones are almost gone. I drained my cooler for the first time this morning to remove the sea of blood. My meat still has a great fresh meat smell to it when I gave it the sniff test. I forgot I did this for about three days after I thawed out my muzzleloader deer to. So how long should I age my meat??? Is there a magic number of days? You know I’m single because this is in the bathroom of my house close to the tub so I can drain it. I originally bought the cooler to use for a live well in my boat boy it sure works good for aging meat in the house! It’s been below freezing so if I left it out in the garage frozen it stops aging process from what I’ve read. I guess I could put a big giant type of container in my refrigerator as well and do this.
This coming Wednesday will be a week...How much longer should I age it before cutting it up into steaks and refreezing?