Ageing Moose in warm weather

[Gordon martiniuk]

How long do you Age a moose when the weather is warm  say 50 to 60 degrees

[AkDan]

u dont...get it cold and butcher it!

[Carbon Caster]

Gord call me and I will come get it, butcher it, and put it in (MY) freezer to age until (I) eat it.  LOL!!!

Did you get one already??  I am going out chasing them on Tuesday.  Rather I am going out hoping to get a bull to chase me.

[Daz]

Dan has it. Butchers say "life begins at 40". That's the temperature that bacteria will start to grow, and slime and spoilage isn't far behind.

Those of us that are celsius kids use 7 as the magic number. You can gain a degree celsius by using ascorbic acid (vitamin C)sprayed on the meat to slow the bacterial growth, but that's just a stopgap measure.

Either way, get the internal temps down, or lose the meat.

[saltwatertom]

Age it in the freezer. The sooner the better!!!    

I am in the process of putting mine in right now.

[frassettor]

Is there a story to be told  :confused:        

[AkDan]

aging in the freezer?   hmm, reason I ask is when we shoot them in the serious cold we do everything to try and KEEP them from freezing, not for butchering purposes but to keep them from freezing before rigor sets in.  

I do put them in the freezer for a little bit to firm the meat up for CUTTING purposes though, works extremely well!

[Gordon martiniuk]

Dan you are right , I cut my moose after being hung 2 days in 10C weather ,, meat seems good , tasty , not too  tuff , But it was not a old animal a mid sized cow and I got her cooled fast after kill , cannot tell the story as I did not take my moose with my trad gear ,,lol!! used my coumpound,

[AkDan]

Gordy dont bother me one bit   :D  ....so if you do write something up email it to me.   I'm a bowhunter, dont own wheels but have nothing against those who do!  And send pics!!!

as for meat...I've found with everything so far, that as soon as it was cool to cold through out...you can cut'm up and things will come out fine.   Good enough you wont be able to tell one aged a half a day or so, to one aged 7-10 days...just my experience, your mileage may vary!  

I'm thinking of finding a older refrig and turn it into a cooling room for game.  Well I guess that means I need to SHOOT something then too haha.  Season's almost over...snow's coming down (almost an inch now)...it's finally hunting season!

[saltwatertom]

Dan, what I meant was to get it cut up and wrapped and in the freezer ASAP.  :D  

Also, I have heard about meat freezing before rigor and being tough but that hasn't been my experience, but,..... my one experience doing that doesn't make a good guide line. I am open to hearing more about it.

Gordon; if you do a story with pics count me in  with Dan. Always interested in bow hunting stories!!  

[AkDan]

Gordy, thanks for the pics and story!!!  and congrats again!!!

[xtrema312]

Originally posted by AkDan:

as for meat...I've found with everything so far, that as soon as it was cool to cold through out...you can cut'm up and things will come out fine.   Good enough you wont be able to tell one aged a half a day or so, to one aged 7-10 days...just my experience, your mileage may vary!  

I'm thinking of finding a older refrig and turn it into a cooling room for game.  Well I guess that means I need to SHOOT something then too haha.  Season's almost over...snow's coming down (almost an inch now)...it's finally hunting season!

Send me pic's also!

I see no big difference in meat aged or not if it is not a really old critter.  I get all my meat boned out and trimmed ASAP.  I just did a warm weather deer.  I don’t know that it ever really got stiff at all in the process.  I have an old refrigerator in my garage that cools fast, and can just about freeze meat at the high setting.  It will not meet energy star, you can bank on it.  I pack it full with air around the chunks and cool the meat as fast as I can.  I cut and freeze as I go.  If I can, I try and let it set in there a day or two. If I have a lot of meat that is what happens anyway with a lot of it because I can’t cut it up that fast.  Once cut I put it in the fridge again and pack all I can into the house fridge for another day.  I think that ages it fine.  Then it all goes into the freezer, but with that much new meat in paper bags it doesn’t freeze solid that fast.  All in all I figure it ages a 2-3 days most times.  I have never had a problem with meat quality doing it that way.  I have also cut them up in hours and put them in a freezer because I had no fridge space where I was hunting.  I couldn't tell one way or the other.

I am thinking about a small cold room also.  I want to find an old upright freezer.  Then just take off the door and build some walls with rigid insulation board and duct tape to increase the capacity.  I have thought about building it about 8’ high and about 4’x4’ onto the freezer with a hoist slot in the top so I can wheel it right over and around a hanging carcass.  I should be able to cool one down fine with that.