Aging Venison....a different way.

[fido dog]

I work in a Steak House and we "Wet Age" our meat for a month and a half before we cut it. I'm wondering if the same could be done for fresh venison? I'm about to go on my first hunt and IF by chance I get one I won't have the luxury of hanging it for a week or so whole. I was thinking of getting the loins off at camp then quartering it and vacuum sealing the large pieces and refrigerating them for a week or so before butchering.

Does this sound feasible??

[saltwatertom]

Cut them up and get them in the freezer ASAP is the way I do it, or "wet age" it between my teeth for as long as it takes to become tender enuf to swallow!    and in camp if possible.      

[Dave Bulla]

Fido, do you have the fridge space for the meat?  If so, whether you age wet or dry, I don't think you'd see much difference except in my experience, the dry aging is less mess to cut it up when you are ready.  Definitely age it one way or the other if you have the capacity in your fridge.  Makes a LOT of difference.

However, before you get to the aging, you have to be sure you know what you are doing in the field.  Everything you do like gutting, dragging, skinning etc has little things that make a difference in your final outcome.  When gutting the deer, avoid unsanitary situations like puncturing the stomach, intestines or bladder.  Use common sense when dragging your deer out.  Avoid dragging it through places where things like water, mud or cow pies can come in contact with exposed meat or the inside of the body cavity.  If you can, go back and get your truck as close as possible to shorten the drag.  Primarily, you want to cool the meat as soon as possible.  Bags of ice in the chest cavity are good, submerging a carcass in a stock pond or creek, BAD idea yet people do it.  If you can get it to a locker with a walk in cooler great.  If not, a large cooler with regular ice works good enough.  You can also use a dry ice block wrapped in several layers of newspaper to insulate it enough that it doesn't freeze the meat.  Of course, you need to skin and quarter the deer first to get it in the cooler.  Once you get it on ice and get it home, then start worrying about if or how you can age it.

By the way, sure is fun doing it all yourself.  Good luck on your hunt.

[fido dog]

Tom, my buddy brought one home last week and I wet aged it just like you said....hehe. Sliced some right off. Yummy.

Dave this isn't a "canned" hunt, but it is inclusive and I will be supervised. It's during the week on a 4400 acre ranch. There will be 4-5 of us total. The owner pays special attention to by buddy who is disabled. The whole field cleaning IF it happens will be taught to me by the owner. So that's a bonus. It will be a pretty sanitary process, that's why I ask about the aging. Can you really dry age venison? Is there enough fat for protection?

Thank you for the wish of luck.

[Mudd]

I would like to give Dave credit. He couldn't be more on the money. The handling in the field has as much if not more on how your steaks or any cut is going to taste on your plate as about anything you can do. If I've done my planning the way I want to I use 2 knives to field dress. The 1st blade is used only to remove the tarsal glands, its job is done. Second knife can now do its job.
I've seen some guys who process their own hang the deer then grab the garden hose to wash it down. That's not all bad until they start in on the inside. Not such a good idea as pressurized water can drive bacteria into the tissue. It's much safer to pour water over the meat instead of hosing it out. (my 2 cents)
I get a lot of satisfaction out of "doing it myself" plus I know exactly what's been done to my meat before I go to putting it in my mouth.
God bless,Mudd

[wingnut]

Well most venison doesn't require that much aging.  The most important thing is to get the meat down to air temp and below.  Most "gamey" tasting deer can be traced back to not getting the body temp down.  One problem to think about is that when you shoot a deer and it's heart stops pumping, the temp goes up because the cooling system has just quit.  Kinda like when your airconditioner breaks in August.

I believe and it's worked for me in the past.  Recover the animal as soon as is safe and possible.  Letting it sit overnight because the light isn't right for the video like on TV will make for some pretty ripe steaks.

Then after you get your pics.  Field dress it and get the skin off.

A trick we learned in Texas because of the heat during the season is to part the deer out and put in a slurry of ice water in the cooler for two days.  We drain the water and add ice a couple of times a day.  And rinse the meat when we bring it out to process.  

Good luck!  Nice too think about these things before you go instead of OMG now what do I do.

LOL

Mike

[fido dog]

Thanks Mike. Makes perfect sense.

[JC]

Originally posted by wingnut:
A trick we learned in Texas because of the heat during the season is to part the deer out and put in a slurry of ice water in the cooler for two days.  We drain the water and add ice a couple of times a day.  And rinse the meat when we bring it out to process.  

That's exactly the way we do it down here when we kill one in the heat Mike. It definitely makes the difference between "OK" and "Oh Lord that's good!".

[metsastaja]

Mike we do a similar process here in Florida.

  We bring the animal into camp whole and hang upside down on gambrel. Animal is skinned, butchered into main sections with guts falling into large bucket. All meat and sections are then placed into industrial food bags, duct taped closed. Bags are placed in bottom of ice slurry. Works great as long as you have plenty of ice.

[Brian Krebs]

If I shoot a deer in hot weather; I clean it with care as Dave noted; and then put the clean quarters into a cooler. I add a cup or more of white vinegar; and a cup of salt. That keeps the bacteria count down; and with ice over the meat; and continued adding of ice; the meat can be stored that way for days and the meat does seem to tenderize some. If you leave it there for more than a few days; the meat will leach out the blood; which makes it tender; but your hamburger will be really light in color- ok flavor - just lighter in color.

 I have cut up old bull elk that you literally could not chew. Some guys will age them; never above 39 degrees for a month. You have to scrub off the mold with vinegar; and then trim off the dried out meat on the outside- kind of like skinning it twice.
 But the meat was really tender.
Nothing less chewable than an old elk.

[LA Trapper]

Wingnut and JC-

That is exactly what I do in Louisiana. Meat comes out white and no blood. Been doing that for years and even mature rutting bucks come out good.

Drain the water off daily and rotate the meat.  Works for me.  

Love those five day ice chests.

Here in Louisiana, fall and winter do not always guarantee low temps. So we have to use a lot of ice during the aging process.  I freeze some and buy some.  A trick I taught my sons is to put a garbage bag over the ice and meat to create a thermal barrier in the ice chest. It makes the ice last longer.  If you get one in October it can still hit the high 80's daily.

One other thing, by 9:30 am the mosquitos are out, when you are hunting, I don't care how cold it is!

Call it wet or what ever, this is what I have available.  And whatever way you cook it using this method the meat is delicous.  

It doen't hurt to pop it with a little salt daily toward the end of the week. It does cut down on bacteria growth.

I cut it up and my wife cooks an awesome deer sauce piquante.  For you non-Louisiana folks, that is pronounced pee-caun. Even non-hunters will go back for seconds!

Billy

[fido dog]

So...back on topic.

Can it be vacuum sealed to age for a bit under refrigeration or no? Before butchering?

[jamie2778]

yes it can ,if everything was clean and it is vacuum sealed properly i would age it for 2wks

[wollelybugger]

I am lucky enough to take my deer to a farmer who butchers and he has a walk in cooler. We skin them immediately and hang them in the cooler till he cuts them up. In the winter I usually clean the  chest cavity with snow if there is any on the ground. The butcher told me that the deer get bad around the butt and in the throat first because most hunters don't get those areas cleaned out well.

[John Scifres]

You will get all kinds of opinions on aging deer.  Just do a search.  But here's what I do.  Although I wouldn't use a vacuum sealer.  The ones I have used take too long and well done butcher wrap is just as good.

I age steaks after cutting and freezing. I do this in my refrigerator for 10 days prior to cooking. The steaks are still wrapped in plastic coated butcher paper and placed in a ziploc bag to keep the fridge clean. It is amazing how much fluid comes out of freshly frozen meat.

The meat turns out more tender with a richer flavor and cooks up better. This is a result of concentrating the flavor as well as structure breakdown via enzymatic action. However, I believe a the bigger part of this is the removal of moisture.

My favorite way to cook steaks is to flash fry them in an iron skillet to medium rare or less. A dryer meat will allow a nice crust to form quickly without overcooking the interior. When non-aged steaks are cooked, that moisture inevitably cools the meat as it cooks and escapes. This makes for a less desirable, almost mushy "crust". My steaks are brown on the outside when they are properly cooked. Non-aged steaks cooked the same way will be grayish instead. To get to the brown, desired outside, it requires too much time and the inside gets overcooked.

This is only for steaks from the hindquarters and maybe shoulders on a bigger deer. Tenderloins and backstraps do not require aging. Stew or slowcook roasts do not require aging. Burger meat does benefit from aging for the same reasons, I believe, ie. moisture removal, flavor concentration adn structure breakdown.

Keep in mind a big part of this debate results from different tastes. I do it this way because it results in the tastes I like. Perhaps you don't like the same things I do and prefer your meat in a different condition. Different strokes...

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

Skin. Butcher. Vacuum pack. Let sit in fridge for a week. Then freeze. Done.