Hanging deer

[203ntyp]

Dry age for 12 to 14 days will make venison tender and fit for a king without a strong gammy taste. I quarter mine and put them in a spare fridge with a drip pan underneath. My wife wasn't a fan of deer meat but now she likes it better. Biggest thing with venison is not to over-cook.

 

[lunker99]

When it's too warm to hang, I'll quarter out, wrap the quarters in plastic sheeting, and then age in the garage fridge for a week or so. Have never aged part of a deer and butchered the rest right away for a true test to see how well aging works. Do know I like the result when I can let them age a week, whether it's hanging in the garage when the weather's cool enough to do so or the refrigerator aging. Edit: was still on page one when I typed my reply and missed 203ntyp's reply. Looks like I pretty much copied it other than by wrapping in plastic I'm probably a little closer to wet aging instead of dry when I'm using the fridge. Definitely agree on not over-cooking.

 

[Butch973]

Add a couple electric winches as well! Another vote for the cool bot!

 

[Butch973]

Definitely notice a difference letting them hang. A week is usually what I like to do. If it’s just gonna be ground up I don’t think it really matters much. It’ll keep mine at 36 degrees no problem. Anything above 40 degrees bacteria can grow is what I heard. Spray foam it real good and get a small heater with a thermostat and it’ll keep them from freezing solid in the winter. Again find that sweet spot above freezing and below 40. Nothing worse than trying to skin a frozen deer! lol

 

[Wapsi Tree Rat]

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Add a couple electric winches as well! Another vote for the cool bot!

I got my winch at Harbor Freight a few years ago for $100. Looks exactly the same as yours. LOVE it! Use it to lift the zero turn for blade removal and switch it to butchering in the fall. Maybe the best $100 I ever spent.

 

[Wapsi Tree Rat]

... meat on ice in a cooler for a couple days while I wait for my back pain to subside enough to do the rest of the butchering and packaging.

I'm no doctor and I don't even play one on TV but I don't believe your back pain has anything to do with hunting.

 

[NextBuk]

Aging venison absolutely helps! There are a lot of "sources" you can learn more about this. Chef Milos Cihelka released some VHS tapes on cooking wild game a long long time ago and since I started doing what he recommends, the quality of venison we have has improved tremendously. Meat care and aging makes a HUGE difference!! You can dry age, and you can also wet age (I learned this from an African guide). Let temps and humidity guide you to how long. Good luck!!

 

[203ntyp]

missed 203ntyp's reply. Looks like I pretty much copied it other than by wrapping in plastic I'm probably a little closer to wet aging instead of dry when I'm using the fridge. Definitely agree on not over-cooking.

I don't think wrapping it plastic is a good idea. The meat needs some air circulation. Something I forgot to mention that I remove all the sinew by filleting it off the aged meat and most of the fat and any glands or you will get a wild taste.