How do you age your meat?
Contributors to this thread:Connecticut
From: travistroop
25-Aug-15
Its so warm when hunting season starts in CT that I wonder how do you guys age your meat? Back home we would let it hang for around 10 days in 40 deg. weather. But its so warm here, without a walk in cooler I cant see it happening. I would like to start to processing my own meat. So how do you guys age it?
Thanks
From: r-man
25-Aug-15
never did, I'd eat half of it in 10 days.
From: Wild Bill
25-Aug-15
I skin and quarter the deer, then put the chunks in a large ice chest. I have some frozen plastic milk jugs filled with water, and swap them out daily. This allows me time to debone the meat and vacuum seal it. I bag bits for the grinder and do all the grinding in one evening.
I bought two large ice chests at Wal-mart, end of season sale.
From: steve
26-Aug-15
I don't, but if I cant get to it I quarter it put in plastic bags and put it into a extra refrigerator .
From: soapdish
26-Aug-15
I bring it to the butcher (meat locker) in Ellington. 24 hr drop off.
From: GED
26-Aug-15
I don't age my venison. Process same day of possible and I get good reviews from non-hunters
From: Big D
26-Aug-15
Extra frig. I quarter up the deer then I drill holes in the bone and insert a bluefish size hook through the hole. Then hang to dry for a week.
From: treeman16
26-Aug-15
My opinion aging the meat is a must. Ive had meat same day as kill and it's like chewing leather! Hang as long as I can, or plastis bags in fridge for a few days then process and freeze.
From: tobywon
26-Aug-15
I skin, quarter and put them on lower shelf of fridge. I make sure I rotate them initially so everything cools evenly. I have plastic meat tubs that fit in the lower portion of the fridge. I can fit one whole quartered deer. I usually finish butchering in 2 to 3 days taking my time, I'm not sure if you can call this aging, but I call it butchering by convenience. Usually goes like this: Day 1, backstraps/bone & trim fronts, Day 2, bone rears/trim, Day 3, grind/make sausage, package (vacuum seal) and freeze. In between, we eat some of it.
From: CTCrow
26-Aug-15
I never age it. We eat back straps and tender loins the same day or day after. Everything else goes in the freezer. Young does taste way better than old bucks. You would wouldn't know if it was age or not if you shoot the young ones.
Thre has been times when I've been butchering the deer in the back and the wife is cooking the back straps that I butchered 10 minutes ago.
From: longbeard
26-Aug-15
On the hoof...I only shoot 3.5 yr old and up!! LOL But seriously I don't see the need to let it hang for an extended period of time. I usually let it hang a day to cool and then process, vacuum wrap and put in the freezer. I have never had a bad tasting piece of venison that I have done this way. If you are going to let it hang and it is warm out as you suggested, I would either build my own walk in temperature controlled box with a high BTU air conditioner or I would start looking now for a place that I could rent.
From: CTCrow
26-Aug-15
notme just looks down and says: 70?
From: CTCrow
26-Aug-15
BBB says: what meat?
From: fingers
26-Aug-15
I don't , cut it up and straight to the freezer .
From: spike78
26-Aug-15
Im not sure where people assume they need to age a deer? I cut them up same day and the backstraps that day are great. When the meat sits it gets hard and crusty in my opinion. Treeman that could be more due to age of deer, overcooking, slicing meat with the grain, or grissly fat attached.
From: treeman16
27-Aug-15
Been butchering and preparing venison for over 20 years. I know how to cook it! My experience has been the meat is much more tender when aged.
From: travistroop
27-Aug-15
I would love to build a walk in meat locker but the wife wouldn't. What do you hang the quarters from in the fridge? I will use wire but there is nothing to tie it to on the fridge.
From: Ace
28-Aug-15
In a fridge if it's too warm outside.
From: Ace
28-Aug-15
That's my girlfriends commercial fridge. Fit an entire moose in there.
From: notme
28-Aug-15
That fridge is the cats ass dude ..lol
I do everything the same day unless I get one late afternoon /evening then I double a contractor garbage bag with ice then put the deer in there..
Zimmerman did a show on dry vs wet age..dry takes out the moisture concentrating the flavor,wet adds moisture making it more tender..depends on what you like I suppose.