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Aging your meat

For you home butchers what do you do when you get the deer home? I lower the heat in the house. Basement is about mid 50s and hang it for 24 hours. Then I bone out the meat and store it in 2.5 gallon ziplocks in the fridge for 2 or 3 days. After that I cut up steaks and grind up burger. Is there a better way to age the meat in the fridge? The ziplocks don’t allow moisture to escape but I don’t know how much difference that makes. I’d like to know how everyone else does it. I wish I had a better setup. I’d appreciate any advice or ideas. Thanks

Why not build a cooler out of 2"Styrofoam and an old ac unit..i cut mine up right away

i hang mine 5 days usually but there's been few times 6-7. i have access to walk in coolers

I butcher right away.

My meat is nearly 67 and I think it's past it's prime,... If you know what I mean.

There's one way to kill a post

My buddy has a walk in cooler. Sometimes we let em hang for 3+ weeks. Enzymes break down and it's so tender. Temps and humidity are key to letting it hang that long.

I have a 6’ chest freezer with a thermo regulater set to 36 degrees. Usually let it sit for 5-7 days before but butchering.

You cant "age" venison, it aint beef. Totally different. Yes, you can slightly improve tenderness by hanging a deer whole to break down connective fibers in the meat. If you cook it correctly its not at all necessary, its quite tender unless you are cooking the wrong cut the wrong way. Hanging it for an extended period of time does more to promote spoilage than anything else. It needs to be a perfectly stable environment at the right temperature and right humidity level to be worth it. And even then there is very little to be gained from it. Many people who let them hang will disagree because they don't want to believe or admit that their time spent "aging " it was actually just a waste of time. Oh it tastes great, sure.

Unlike beef, there is no fat in the muscle with enzymes to break down and improve taste, which is why beef is aged. I have tried processing deer all the commonly practiced ways of hanging, aging, etc. I have done a lot of research and experimentation on it and concluded that the best way is to process the deer no more than 24 hours after the kill and get it wrapped and in the freezer.

The most important part to getting quality venison on the table is how quick and clean the kill was, how well it is field dressed, and getting it cooled down right away.

67 years is a long time to let it hang....

I have had great luck south Texas style. I skin and quarter as soon as I get home then wash well with hose removing any hair or bloodshot then put quarters on grates in cooler to keep them off bottom and cover with as many as 14 bags of ice. Draining each day and adding ice as needed and re positioning quarters. About 7 to as much as 10 days and meat lightens in color as ice melts it washes blood and gammy flavor away.. if it is too cold outside(below freezing) i put the cooler in the basement raised up enough to drain into a bucket each day. Great taste and flavor. I've done this with most of my deer the last couple of years.

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