Got a doe, got a question for y'all!!

[Jeffery8mm]

I harvested a nice doe Thankgiving evening.  Not a Handi kill since I only have a .223 and am not yet comfortable taking a deer with it just yet.[almost had a .308 barrel the other day, almost!] My question is this, how do you guys age your deer meat? For the northen guys y'all can just hang it in the barn for a week and be done, but here is Mississippi the weather just wont allow that.  Some guys here just quarter it up and put it in an ice chest for a couple of days with plenty of ice and then drain it off every night and repeat the iceing process. does it hurt that meat to soak in water for a day or so?  I have heard of putting a cup or so of apple cider vinegar in the ice and water to remove a gamey taste. Anything to that??  Any advise on the best way to do this would be appreciated.  For now the deer is own ice at the house.  Oh, we do process our meat at home so hanging it in the local processors cooler is out also.  
Thanks guys!!
Jeff

[MSP Ret]

Soaking that meat in water will ruin it!!! Just think aboiut getting a fine steak and letting it sit in ice water you change every day or so for about 3 days, RUINED!!! If the weather is to warm to hang it at my camp in Maine it's just butchered and frozen. I have butchered them on the camp table before but lately they just get taken to a small buthers shop or preferably a guys house that does it on the side. Someone you can truest to get your own meat (and most of it!) back....Just cut it up!!!, Ageing is nice if you can do it but NOT necessary!!! especially on a nice small young deer. DO NOT PUT IN IN ICE AND/OR WATER, the moisture will ruin it, it must be dry cool/cold air to properly age it....<><.... :grin:

Regarding the apple cider vinegar to remove the "gamey" taste. Good deer meat properly prepared does not have any "gamey" taste, it tastes just like deer meat and thats why it comes from deer and they call it deer meat. You might get a strong flavor ot tough meat from a tough old rutting buck or a deer thet was shot poorly and pursued so it ran hard for miles befor it finally died but other that that don't over cook it, medium rare is about as well as you should cook it, and enjoy. By the way, try you steaks, chops, and roasts on the barbeque grille, for the steaks and chops, high heat, sliced no more than 1/2" thick, a bit thinner if you want, and cooked quickly, just once on each side, delicious!!!

[sureshot2040]

like my good friend msp said
just cut it up and wrap it and stick it in the freezer asap
here in ga we very seldom have the luxury of hanging meat to age
the proccessors do it here i think but only for a day or so at the most in a big freezer locker
but i get mine from the field to the freezer at my house asap
doesnt hurt it at all i love deer meat  better taste than beef and better for you
congrats on your kill
sureshot

[Broken-arrow]

Amen to what MSP had to say, In my experience most people who don't
like the taste of venison have never eaten properly handled and prepared venison.  Let them try some back-strap from a yearling doe,
marinated, wrapped in bacon and cooked over charcoal medium rare.

[Broken-arrow]

PS to Jeff,
     Sorry I got your hopes up on that .308 bbl.   PM me your mailing address if you will.  Santa might be good to you.

[Jeffery8mm]

Thanks for the info!  I had my worries over the cooler method.  What about buying a secong hand refrigerator and setting the temp low and aging it in there?  Deer meat to me has a good robusst taste.  I dont even know if the ageing process is neccesary but everything you read about deer meat says to age it.  ARGH. Alot of ours is ground into ground meat for chilli, spaghetti, etc and I KNOW that does not need to be aged. Thanks again.
Jeff

[Duce]

Jeff: I agree with MSP, but not fully, remember clean is the thing.  What we do in warm weather is butcher the deer, removing all the bones and as much of the fat and sinew as possible. We cut the meat up into steaks and stew meat (chunks to either grind into hamburger or can), place it into gallon zip lock bags, this keeps things seperate from the any water. When we get to a refrigerator we cut a small corner out of the bag, this allows the blood to drain. We put the bags in dish/cake pans to catch the blood before we place it in the refrigerator, we allow it to age 4 to 5 days, never more than 10. Then we grind or can the stew meat and cube and package the steaks. This last Wed. our Bible study had a pitch in for Thanksgiving. I took about half a gallon bag of steaks cube/ pounded them out floured them in season salt, garlic powder, pepper and flour, lightly browned them in oil, placed them in a crock pot covered them with brown gravy and simmered for an hour or so making sure not to let things get dry.  Out of the 18 people there only 3 or 4 knew that it was deer not beef, all agreed that it was the best steak and gravy they'd ever eaten.  Remember clean's the thing, clean of any bodily fluids, blood, fat, sinew, and bone avoid water but not at the cost of clean, shoot we always splash/flush out the body cavity with at least 2 to 3 5 gallon buckets of clean, cold water. Enjoy The Fine Eatting: :grin: <>< Duce:

[tbmaker]

Don't get hung up on aging. Us boys here in the north land only age if the weather is just right and that isn't often. I do suggest though that they need to hang for 24 hours. This is to let the meat firm up and makes butchering smoother. I to process my own and the day hang makes a difference. I can't see why the fridge idea wouldn't work but I can't see more than 2 deer, quartered, fitting in there. Typical 4 day season here puts 9 to 12 deer on the pole, that would be a big fridge.
Just give it alittle time and slice away, then enjoy as always.
Wayne

[Joel]

Lots of times up here in the north, if you hang it outside all you get is frozen deers; at least here in central PA.  I'm lucky in that I have an old fridge in the basement that I use as a cooler for my market veggies in the summer.  After I skin and quarter the deer here(rifle season starts Monday and today it's 21 degrees), I put it in plastic bags and  stick them in  the cooler for, usually, four days before I butcher.  When I lived in Southern VA, I just butchered it out as soon as I got it home, unless the weather was going to be chilly(40) that night; then I'd butcher it out in the morning.  Far as Vinegar goes, it's an old method of taking the "gamey" taste out.  Actually, the best mix is baking soda and vinegar( 2 tablespoons of baking soda and three tablespoons of vinegar per gallon of water).  It's what the NY chefs use to take the gamey taste out of their "wild game" recipies.  Wouldn't want those folks to actually taste anything!!  Only time I use it is when I've shot a big old buck, and then usually only on the shoulder/neck cuts.  Since I usually don't need a gallon of water to "marinate" a roast I just cover the meat with water and add about a tablespoon of Baking Soda and a slug of vinegar.  Good to let it sit at least overnight if you use it.  I cut all mine into steaks/roasts/stew.
The rut is just starting here in PA, so it's sometimes necessary to tone the flavor down some on some of those ornery ol' bucks.

[safetysheriff]

What Duce has posted agrees the most with what we like to do in the group I hunt with.    Aging the meat in a cooler, or a cool N/E Ohio garage, for 3 to 5 days, allowing the blood to drain out, makes for the best meat.    I can't see soaking it in water since I once did that myself - only once - and gave up on it.  

You  may not want dry (frost-free) frozen air in a refrigerator blowing directly on venison.   It will probably ruin it, would be my guess.    I'd cut it up and bag it like Duce has done and then let it drain.     Marinade it in a good Italian dressing overnight and then cook it on a propane or gas grille.....getting ready for some good eating.

Good luck to you,

SS'

[Jeffery8mm]

Thanks guys  Its nice to have different opinions on stuff.  The cooler method will not be used for my hard earned deer meat!!!
Later and thanks
Jeff

[quickdtoo]

Congrats on makin meat, Jeff! Got so wrapped up in the topic, forgot ta pat ya on the back!! :wink:  

To add to this topic, our regular rifle season starts the middle of October, and we hunt pretty much on the eastside of the state where it could be well into the 70s in day time temps, but night time will be much cooler, sometimes in the teens. We keep out animals in camp for sometimes 3-4 days when the nights are cool. We hang em in the shade skinned. After being left out over night with just a cotton deer bag and tarp on the animal, we wrap em in old sleeping bags in the morning with a tarp over that. It keeps em chilled through the day, then we unwrap em at night. Has worked well for many years, and the animal doesn't need to be hung at the butcher's, just cut right away. On another note, we've had an occasional gut shot animal, those are taken home right away and hosed out and dried right away, never have bad meat when that happens if the meat if taken care of right away. I've seen game, elk in particular where a hunter has discovered a bad hit and left the animal lay, vowed to never let that happen.

[Sourdough]

In my openion aging is not needed.  I never age anything.  We cut it, wrap it, and freeze it, as soon as possiable.  Getting that hide off, and cooling it fast is more important.

[Jeffery8mm]

I have always heard to cool it as fast as possible.  By the time I recover the deer and get it home to skin it it is about a 1 hr time lapse. I will try the hanging method. I have a place that stays cool all day, shaded. I see those cotton bags at wally world so I will pick up a few.  What is the Highest that the temp could be and it still be safe to hang??
Jeff

[quickdtoo]

I've killed deer on saturday, skinned em brought em home and hung em in the unheated garage when day temps were mid 50s, took em to the butcher on monday with no problems. Like said before, getting the hide off and the animal cooled as soon as possible is probably the most important step in game processing for best flavor. OTOH, I've killed a deer in the early evening,  gutted it, but left the hide on, left it overnight, got help to drag it out the next moring  and the meat was fine with temps above freezing, and mild....and that was one of the biggest, oldest deer I've killed.

[ScatterGunner]

i don't know very much about deer meat but i let pheasants hang outside for a day or two before cleaning them. i got this from a scottish friend who let's them hang outside in the summer for a week !

i tried doing the same thing with the quail last week, but the idea of letting dead birds hang out and essentially rot wasn't appealing enough for everyone else.

i did notice that with phesant if i let them hang versus cleaning right away the taste is noticable sweeter and more tender.

a friend of mine who is a butcher always says to let meat hang in a cool environment, 40 degree's or so, to let the natural bacteria digests, and thus, soften the meat. like a natural "Adolf's Meat Tenderizer".

hope you all had a happy thanksgiving !


sg

[Beekeeper]

Deer meat will only age between 36 degrees Fahrenheit and 38 degrees Fahrenheit, and if the meat itself gets above 40 degrees Fahrenheit it will begin to spoil. Deer meat that is below 36 degrees or kept frozen is no longer aging, but the deer can be safely stored at this temperature for a few days until the meat can be processed (obviously frozen meat will keep longer). I leave my deer with a local butcher, and he does age the meat for me. He then butchers my deer, and grinds up whatever portion of the meat I want into burger. It would not be cost effective to grind up each persons meat separately, and I don’t know any local butcher that will do that around here. They all wait until they have several hundred pounds of meat to be ground, and then do it at the same time at their shops. I haven’t noticed a difference between the taste of meat I have done myself with just my deer, and the meat my butcher does. The most important thing to do is to get the meat clean and cool then butchered. If you do end up with a gut shot deer make sure you clean out the abdominal cavity very well. The juices inside the stomach and intestine contain tons of bacteria that will begin to ruin your deer. One of the butchers here said to just cut the meat away that was exposed to the stomach juices to help prevent the risk of food poisoning. Some species of bacteria produce toxins when they begin the process of breaking down the meat, and it is the toxins that make you sick. You can kill bacteria through cooking, but you can’t get all the toxins out of the meat leading to the risk of food poisoning. The best thing to do is to get the meat clean, and then butchered as soon as possible to prevent spoiling. I hope this helps.
Take care and God Bless,
Zach
 :grin:

[safetysheriff]

We keep out animals in camp for sometimes 3-4 days when the nights are cool. We hang em in the shade skinned. After being left out over night with just a cotton deer bag and tarp on the animal, we wrap em in old sleeping bags in the morning with a tarp over that. It keeps em chilled through the day, then we unwrap em at night. Has worked well for many years

quick'd'

my mind is running riot with the idea of sleeping bags being wrapped around the deer by day and the guys sleeping in them at night.    :shock:  

man.....you left the door wide-open!   :eek:

i gotta get off this topic before i show a bad sad of myself!  

SS'

[quickdtoo]

Shame, shame :-D .....note I said

we wrap em in old sleeping bags...

   :wink:

[Beekeeper]

That had me thinking too safetysheriff. :-D  Quickdtoo, thats a shame finding good elk left like that. Always bothers me when I see stuff like that.
Zach

[quickdtoo]

The worst part was we talked to the guy away from the kill site, they had a cow and calf down, were packing the calf out when we seen em. 2 days later we were back in the area and found the kill site, partly gutted cow was still there. They apparently started to gut it and quit when they seen what their shootin had done.... :cry:

[Donaldo]

I haven't deer hunted in years but back when I did, in Colorado, we got the hide off and quartered the deer as soon as possible.  We peppered the surface thoroughly and then wrapped the quarter in gauze or a deer bag.  Kept it on the shady side of a cabin or in the shade of a tree during the day, which could get up to 50-60 degrees.  Never had a problem.  However, you eastern guys, never having harvested a deer that had been feeding on sage brush, etc, which is common in wester Colo. you just don't know what "game-ee" really is.  Some of them, you can't even stick a fork in the gravy.  I mean, STRONG.  Love to get one that has been feeding on alfalfa or such.  Just like beef with a slightly game-ee taste.  Lots of time it was 4-6 days before we could get the meat back to the processor.  Never lost a one.