I now have an extra fridge out back and was wondering if anone can give me some good advise about aging the deer meat. i am thinking i can fit a large rear ham and a set or two of straps by hanging them.
i know i need to keep the temp between 33-39 degrees. any precautions or tips.
I brine all my other vinison for about 2 hours then rince it, bag it and keep it in the fridge for 3-5 days before cooking it.

k - i've got quite a bit of information at my place on this subject. here are a couple of links and a bit of information below:

http://www.baitshopboyz.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=130&PN=1

http://www.baitshopboyz.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9091&PN=1

to make a long story short: with a constant temperature such as what you mention, 10 days to two weeks should be just right for great tenderness and flavor.

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from an article i wrote in 2005 -

When it comes to truly enjoying your deer or
antelope at the table, first and most important is to
do the butchering yourself. It is not that difficult and
no way mysterious. Once you get started removing
the meat from the bone it is all self-explanatory. For
what it is worth, I have butchered all my own game
except one deer, and the main thing I have learned
is to get everything off of the meat that isn't meat,
because careful trimming will ensure the best
tasting meal. This includes fat, membrane,
silverskin, bone, you name it. Trim it off carefully with
a very sharp fillet knife, you will be left with a nice
roast, which you can package or cut into steaks,
butterfly steaks or cubes.

Another thing, at least in this cool, dry climate, is to
leave the animal to hang a few days. This will age
the meat and make it very tasty, using the same
process that the big beef places use for prime rib
and such. Here in north-central Montana,
considering the weather during hunting season, I
can let a deer hang for a week easily; even two
weeks, if it gets cold during the night and the deer is
hung in a shady place such as in a garage or shed.
Then I can skin and butcher it over a weekend.
Antelope, on the other hand, should probably not be
hung longer than 3-4 days because of the warmer
temperatures during the day and the fact that
antelope meat is much more delicate than deer.

If you have to skin it immediately because of the
climate or cannot hang it for some reason, you can
skin it, then cut out the loins and tenderloins and
remove the front quarters, then saw the hindquarters
into two quarters. Place each quarter into a trash
bag (unscented) and the loins and backstraps into
another one and store them in the fridge for at least
3 days, but no more than a week.

There is not much steak on the shoulder. Trying to
make steak of any cut other than the tenderloin, loin
or hindquarter sets you up for disappointment.
Having said that, the shoulder is excellent meat and
after being boned should be cubed up for stew
meat, burger or sausage if you like.

The loin and tenderloin cuts speak for themselves.
Simply bone along the backbone ridge and off of the
ribs.

The best way of butchering the hindquarters is to
first remove them one at a time from the pelvic bone.
It will take some experience to remove the quarters
cleanly. But don't worry about your first efforts,
whatever you botch up makes excellent stew meat to
add to your shoulder.

Once you have the removed quarters, examine them.
There are lines to follow for undoing the muscle
groups. Use the tip of a fillet knife and slit along
these lines and pull with your other hand to separate
the muscles from one another along the vellum
(silverskin) folds. The entire quarter will come apart
this way. Some of the muscles will be flat and
diagonal, some will be round and straight, but all will
be separated from each other by the gray vellum that
allows the muscles to slide against each other as
the animal moves. Use this vellum as your road
map to disassemble the quarter.

Once you have separated the major groups, trim
every bit of fat, membrane and silverskin off and
slice the steaks perpendicular to (across) the grain.

As for the ribcage and neck, there are many options.
You can trim quite a bit of good meat off for jerky or
cut the ribs into equal sections, then saw the
sections in half and wrap them for barbecued ribs.
Cut the neck off and wrap it whole as a roast. If none
of these options works for you, you can take the
whole thing in to be made into burger or sausage.

When it comes to packaging venison, I have become
a very big believer in using home vacuum sealers.
They are inexpensive, convenient and work very well
to keep meat fresh. If you do not have one, there is
another easy option that works just as well. Portion
out your meat as you wish (I do a pound at a time),
then stuff the meat into a quart-sized freezer bag.
Gently squeeze out all the air you can, then fold the
bag in half, and seal, taking care to keep air from
entering. Freeze each bag separately (not stacked
together) on a flat surface in the freezer. The reason
for this is because the meat will freeze faster and be
less likely to develop ice crystals, which can affect
the texture and flavor. If you are packaging more than
a pound of meat, folding the bag over may not be
necessary, and you can freeze if flat.

Once frozen, the bags can be wrapped in paper for
extra protection and stacked in the freezer. Be sure
to label the bag with the species, the date, the
weight or number of portions, and any other
information you feel to be pertinent.

If you have a dog, it will love you for keeping the
scraps, portioning them into dog-sized meals,
freezing them in plastic bags and wrapping the bags
in paper. I label these packages "DOG;" The kids
think it is hilarious and the neighbors wonder....

----------------------

you can find more by following the bomb girl.....

You'll probably have a lot of moisture build up in a small fridge with a sealed door. Aging is done with a certain amount of air circulation. My buddy borrowed a walk in fridge last fall to hang an elk. He came back less than 10 days later and there was mold and slime all over the meat. You could feel the moisture in the fridge-yuck.

Sometimes I age my meat sometimes I don't, honestly there isn't much difference.

the chef

quote:

You'll probably have a lot of moisture build up in a small fridge with a sealed door. Aging is done with a certain amount of air circulation.

good, point, chef - i hadn't thought of that. if there is anyway to promote air circulation, he will be a lot better off; otherwise, 3-5 days might be as far as he wants to push it.

quote:

Sometimes I age my meat sometimes I don't, honestly there isn't much difference.

i'll respectfully disagree. i've cut up deer in various stages, from freshly-killed to hanging far longer than they should and everywhere in-between. i have observed a definite difference in tenderness, flavor and texture. for my climate, the time range mentioned above works very well. it should be mentioned that my deer are hanged head-down and hide/skin-on in a cool place out of the sun in a cool, dry climate.

your mileage, of course, may vary.

10 days to 2 weeks on venison you shouldn't see any slime. i aged some elk straps last year for a month in a frig. I did notice some slight slime but it didn't make a difference when it was cooked. The slime washed right off

Aging makes all the difference in the world. I wont eat fresh killed venison, too tough.

Perry

it is venison. I age my venison in a cooler on constant fresh ice for 10-12 days and then vacuum seal it for the freezer. It has always tasted great that way and it doesn't take up all the space in your fridge.

Here is a good resource from The University of Wyoming regarding the aging of game meat.

Aging of Game Meat

Age your venison and you will not regret it.

Before I acquired an extra refrigerator I used the fresh ice/cooler method. It worked.

I clean up any meat (very Type A about this) to be aged and place in heavy cotton game bags. Into the refrigerator at 36-38 degrees for a minimum of 5 days and no longer than 10 depending on my schedule.

I will change the game bags after 5 days if it is going to be longer to processing.

If I am aging the backstraps (normally they are in the freezer immediately). I will wrap them in paper towels in addition to the cotton game bags. I will change out the papertowels if I change the bags.

I also like to rotate/flip the meat every couple of days.

I would love to have a walk in cooler so I could hang the carcass whole. The circulating air would be a benefit.

I have a walk in with double fan circulation.

I find that the best venison has been that which I seriously wonder if I'm poisoning myself when I process it. 3.5weeks is the record I think.

The absolute key IMHO is to hand in the skin - this prevents too much drying.

1894
"...hand in the skin..."

What is that?

Perry

Whoops - hanG in the skin!

I don't agree with aging meat, but respect the opinions of those that say it makes it better.

The best luck we've had with venison has been iced salt water baths for about 3 days. This will suck the blood from the meat and give you the lightest colored venison you can get. You must change the water every day and add new ice salt and water to the meat. Absolutely no gamey taste at all when done in this fashion.

We have soaking vats made from old cast iron bath tubs wrapped in insulation with a styro foam box built around the bottom covered in tin and styrofoam lids.

Have a good one,

Reloader

quote:

Originally posted by Reloader:
I don't agree with aging meat, but respect the opinions of those that say it makes it better.

The best luck we've had with venison has been iced salt water baths for about 3 days. This will suck the blood from the meat and give you the lightest colored venison you can get. You must change the water every day and add new ice salt and water to the meat. Absolutely no gamey taste at all when done in this fashion.

We have soaking vats made from old cast iron bath tubs wrapped in insulation with a styro foam box built around the bottom covered in tin and styrofoam lids.

Have a good one,

Reloader

thats basixcly a slow brine.
i use warm water and do it for a few hours, switching the water about 3 times.

A buddy introduced me to aging venison in the refrigerator. Get it out of the field quickly and cleanly. Quarter it and put the dry quarters into white plastic garbage bags and into the refrigerator. Be VERY clean. Change the bags daily or every other day. Dry the meat every time you change the bags.

Makes a significant difference. Never had one gamey piece of meat using this method. Most folks cannot tell it from beef except that it is very lean.

I age my venison in Ziplocs for 2 weeks and never change the bags out and the meat is great. We have hung it in the walk in also but I cant tell the difference.

Perry

Mike,

I tried the garbage bag method overnight once when the outside temps got to high to hang an archery kill overnight. I quartered the buck, placed each piece in a black garbage bag and placed in my game refrigerator until I got done with milking in the morning. The deer was in there for about 12 hours total. When we opened the bags the next morning we could hardly stand the stench. To this day we have never tried doing that again. I have heard that garbage bags have a coating that can do that to meat, but your method works and I'm sure you know the difference between rotten meat and table fair. Do you cool the deer down first or does it go from skinning rack to the bags? I have always wondered if we should have let the quarters cool before we placed them in the bags. We eat primarily deer and buffalo here and I butcher all of it myself. I routinely hang meat for 10 days so long as the temp is right. If it isn't we fill the fridge's with meat for two weeks before vacuum packing it.

Joe

i have always associated "gamey" taste with the metalic smell and taste of adrenilin.
have you found that spine shot, head shot or other DOI (dead on impact) shots taste milder than aniamls who run, even a short distance?

Oh hell yes. There is a big difference in taste when comparing an animal killed very quickly that was in a relaxed state as compared to an animal that had been running on adrenalin for hours before death. The deer I have killed with a bow die very fast and we not in an excited state when they were shot. That is the very best meat. A deer that has been running from hunters all day tastes all together different. So rarely do we have the chance to take a deer with a rifle, that has not been pushed and worked up all day.

Joe

the bags in the refrigerator are a good choice if you have no alternative.

i will say that hanging has one advantage in that the weight of the animal allows for some stretching which, in my opinion, helps with tenderness and texture.

A little late on this one...

Aging vension is tantamout to making it edible. I can't stand freshly killed venison, especially when compared to beef. However, after aging for 10-12 days in a cooler with fresh ice, the meat is clearly more palatable and tender.

It is a lot of work to process venison correctly, but is certainly worth the wait.

Oh, the extra fridge will work very well, all you have to do is rig up a small fan inside to circulate the air. The problem is that you will get significant drying of the outer 1/4" of meat which will need to be trimmed off after aging.

quote:

The problem is that you will get significant drying of the outer 1/4" of meat which will need to be trimmed off after aging.

true - this is one reason why we leave the skin on. of course, this won't work if it is quartered in a fridge, but perhaps wraping in an old sheet or one of those game bags will help.

friday evening i had the tenderloins froma 200#+ buck i killed the sat. before.
he was shot, ran and shot again on the run so he didnt go down instantly.
the loins were brined for about 4 hours in warm water with sea salt and the water changed out about 3 times.
they were then put in a gallon zip lock bag and put on the TOP shelf of the fridge, sun, mon and tues the bloodly liguid was dumped from the bag.
tues the lois were rince in clean cool water and soaked for 12 hours in a mild cold salt bath, then rinsed clean and put back into the bag.
wed thur and friday they loins were dumped again of the bloody liquid.
friday about 5:00 the loins were rinsed off and plated at room temp for about an hour then lightly seasoned with garlic powder (NOT GARLIC SALT) and lemon pepper then seared at MED-HIGH in 2 tblsspoons of butter and 1 teaspoon of canola oil (keeps the butter from burning).
they were removed and allowed to rest for 5 min wrapped loosly in foil.

without a doubt, it was the absolute most tender meat i have ever eaten in my life.
not venison but any meat.
better than any filet mignon, better than the steak I ate when on layover in Kobe Japan.
fantasticly tender, mild with no gamey taste or hints of wildness.

I age mine in large cooler with frozen gallon jugs.I have kept them in there up to a week changing out the jugs.I also do my moose this way.It does draw out the blood.I have taken out alot of bloodshot by adding salt also.The meat will turn white alot of times.Its makes for tasty deer meat.

Be aware that most garbage bags are treated with an insecticide.
A vet thet spent his later years inspecting packing houses told me that meat aged at 40F fow a week was equal to 30 days in the freezer. his claim was that by cutting and freezing it for 30 days the taste was equal to aging. i still hang mine as Montana temps allow us to do that. Gianni