Main Discussion Area > Around the Campfire

Aging your deer meat?

<< < (3/4) > >>

Woody roberts:
I prefer to not skin my deer until rigormortis has went back out. This just takes a day or so at 60 deg. Up to 5 days at 33 deg. At 32 deg it goes into suspension and nothing happens.
When I was younger I quartered my deer and kept them in a cooler for 7 days. Just enough ice to say there was ice.

For several years now I have been salt curing my venison. Quartered the same way. Coated heavy with kosher or non iodized salt. Enough ice to keep it cool. Add ice as needed. A few days the meat will be covered in water.
In a couple weeks the water will be getting pretty nasty from all the blood the salt has pulled out of the meat. I hose it off and clean the cooler. Resalt and start over. This time the water stays pretty clean. Leave it at least a week, usually two. Rinse it off good and fill the cooler with clean water and let it soak overnight. If I don’t the meat is too salty to eat.
Then I process as normal. Doesn’t need salt when cooking.
I believe the term for this is buckboard bacon.

HH~:
You can hang meat at 65 degrees in Shade with a screen or netting on to keep flys and yellow jackets off it. I have hung elk off branches in warmer weather until it was all packed out. Yearlings your can process right up. Anything older i let hang.

darinputman:
Finished cutting one up yesterday I shot last weekend. I also lay mine on racks in a fridge out in the shop for at least 5 days preferably 7. I also cut the outer dried up meat off the outer before processing (a treat for the dogs). I have done it this way for a few years and in my opinion aging makes a world of difference.

willie:
I have aged fresh frozen meat after it thaws. you need to take it out of the package so you can monitor it in the fridge, keep it covered so it doesn't dry too much.

if meat does not go thru rigor before it is frozen, it will after.
 
pre-rigor meat will get tough if when it goes into rigor during cooking, frozen or unfrozen.

 this is true of fish also

Mesophilic:

--- Quote from: willie on November 01, 2020, 09:13:18 pm ---
if meat does not go thru rigor before it is frozen, it will after.
 

--- End quote ---

I have to disagree with this statement.   When meat freezes the water in the cells expands.  We've all seen this first hand when we put a canned or bottle beverage in the freezer to get cold and then forget about it. 

In the case of meat (and even vegetables) shards of ice pierce the cell walls.  If the muscle cells weren't dead before freezing they certainly are after.  The only way to avoid this is flash freezing where the process happens so fast that the crystals can't form.

To go in to rigor the cells need to be alive and trying to burn up energy stores.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page