Aging Venison. -- How Long and What Temp
Whitetail Deer
I recently purchased a small 12 cu ft Levella Commercial Refrigerator to age meat before processing and freezing.
I plan to debone the meat and keep it in open topped meat lugs (with a drain rack) to age it out.
So having said that, I'm curious about how cold to set the thermostat and how long to let it rest.
Thanks for your inputs and thoughts.
I like to age mine for at least 2 weeks at around 35 degrees before processing.
Matt
We wet age all of our whole muscle cuts by first placing on a rack to drain and chill for the first 24 hours. I then vacuum pack each piece individually and age for 3-4 weeks at 34-36 degrees before freezing. I used to age venison for only two weeks, but the difference between two and three weeks is amazing! You'll never want venison that hasn't been aged again!
-Cheryl
If your going to use the meat for burger, stew, sausage or slow cook it, it doesn't much matter. But for steaks, chops or roasts then it's two weeks before any real difference is made toward tenderizing. I prefer three weeks for a balance between aging and meat loss to crusting. The longest I've hung (at a professional locker) was a rank bull moose at thirty five days. And we killed the bull he was fighting with five days later and both got butchered the same day, so thirty and thirty five days on the hook. A lot of fantastic meat!
But if you are doing it at home, it's much more problematic. Temperature, air flow and especially humidity are often the deciding factors for when the knives come out.
I tried to age a deer a couple years ago with the hide on to save the crust meat loss, but that was a failure. The carcass was nearly frozen when hung and it was tedious trying to keep the temp just above freezing, so that may have contributed to the problem.
I've wondered about maybe letting the carcass cool and dry out for a few days then shrink wrapping?
We hang ours(hide on) for two weeks
Growing up (NJ) we hung them outside for 7 -10 days.
In TX we'd skin and quarter then pack in ice until we could get it to a processor. Here in Middle TN, I've been cooling on ice (early season and hanging overnight once it gets near freezing.
I'm figuring to use the Levella to give me the best of both worlds - cool and age the meat before final processing.
Thanks again guys - I'll be working on a 10-14 day period at first and work from there.
Can you age meat In a cooler of ice safely for two weeks?
The beverage cooler is a refrigerator (like what the store cools beer in), so I'm hoping so..
LBshooter - I’ve done it many times. Open the drain and place something under the other end of the cooler to pitch it to that end. Check the ice and replenish as needed.
LB, I nearly always quarter my deer and always had to quarter my antelope and kept them on ice for a week or more sometimes, especially when I was still working. Getting home from hunting on Sunday afternoon dog tired from driving from the lease or out of state and my processor not being really close, I had to wait until I could get to him. Keep the ice chest draining and re-iceing at least once a day, sometimes twice. This is Texas, so 80 degree temps are not exactly uncommon during hunting season. Been doing that for forty years, and never had any meat loss, nor even close.
"I like to age mine for at least 2 weeks at around 35 degrees before processing. Matt"
THIS! ^^^
drycreek, do you age the whole quarters, or do you debone before putting in ice?
I have been hanging mine in a homemade cooler with the hide on. It is difficult to skin one with rigor mortise that is cold without getting hair everywhere so I have started skinning and hanging for 2-3 weeks. Seems to do just as good.
I think I read somewhere in a controlled environment 7 days at 45 degrees...
My cooler stays around 36-38
The few times I've hung a deer in the garage for any length of time wasn't so much for aging but because I couldn't get to it. It was usually cold.....20's and 30's sustained. I did one with the hide on and it was a pain to pull the hide on a near frozen carcass. Since, I've hung them hide off and it was a lot better to work on. I noticed the surface was/would dry out some but the meat under the surface was in great shape. I think the longest I've hung one was maybe 6 - 7 days. Most of the deer is turned into burger. Maybe I'll try one longer if the cold weather cooperates and see how it steaks out.
I’m not convinced it makes a difference on wild game. It might on beef.
On ice and in ice are 2 different things. On ice may help. I ice will remove all flavor
Instead of ice I use water filled frozen milk jugs. The only moisture in with the meat is the sweat on the jugs, which I replace and refreeze daily.
For those of us who like to age our deer with the hide on, this is THE best tool for skinning them that I've ever used. It's a Gransfors Bruks Hunters Axe (hatchet). It has what they call a "flaying poll" instead of a regular hammer head, and it makes skinning a cold hided deer MUCH easier. It also comes from a Swedish company where the craftsmen that make them actually initial them. EXCELLENT quality and worth every penny.
Once you make the initial cut in the hide and you start separating it from the body, you then hammer the area between the hide and the body with the rounded poll and it comes right off. No knife needed.
^....That's an interesting tool and way of pulling a cold hide off. I seen vids of guys using a vehicle to pull a hide off.
This works just as well and is a LOT easier to pack!!! ;-)
bentstick, I’m really not aging as much as just storing until I can get it to the processor, but I guess it has the same effect. I don’t debone, just throw all of it in an ice chest big enough that I can get lots of ice in it.
Steve, like I said, I’ve been doing this for forty years or more and the only thing I see different from taking it straight to the processor from the field, is when I keep it on ice for several days there’s much less blood in the meat. That’s a good thing and I’ve never seen it effect the flavor.
drycreek, thanks. I,ve got a week long deer hunt coming up the week before Thanksgiving. I’ve got two tags, a buck and a doe, and will be camping in a travel trailer about 2-1/2 hours from home. I have always butchered my own, and am planning on using the cooler/ice method if I shoot 1 early on, so I can continue hunting with minimal down time.
This is a whole doe after 3 weeks. Have hung mine as long as 90 days in this aging fridge. 45-60 days seems to be peak tenderness and flavor IMO. I think if possible then removing the skin quickly makes a big difference -obviously not everyone has access to protected aging coolers but if you do would get the skin off right away.
Where'd you get that aging fridge?
Steve Rinella did a podcast with a meat scientist that I learned allot from. Very interesting stuff.
I do all my butchering and I had never aged a deer before. Last year I did an aging test with a deer. I aged half the deer for three weeks in my downstairs fridge at 35 degrees. The other half I butchered as normal...the next day after killing...and froze. After the three weeks I thawed out the frozen and took to a friend's house for grilling...keeping the aged from the un-aged. He did the grilling and then we did the taste test...me, him, his wife and my wife. None of us could detect any difference. Thus in the future the heck with aging.
I think properly aging meat is more for tenderness than taste. There's scientific proof that dry aging meat draws the moisture out, and breaks down the collagen that holds the meat fiber together. Thereby, making it more tender.
I do notice a difference in taste, however. Aged meat has what I can only describe as a buttery taste. That's why an aged steak from a fine Steakhouse often tastes better than one you buy at the grocery store and cook yourself. Of course, some will claim their home-cooked steaks taste better than any restaurant cooked steak. To them, I'd say they've never had a well-aged piece of steak.
Matt
Below 32 degrees (F) the meat freezes and it isn't aging, above 40 and the Food Safety folks will tell you bacteria grows. I shoot for 35-38 degrees, and generally do it in a commercial fridge. With deer I have tried both hide on and off, Hair off and you do get some drying, which means some meat loss, but hair on and it's a PIA to skin later. I did a quartered moose for between 3 and 4 weeks and it was amazing, best game meat I ever ate, and better than almost any beef I have had. I think 3+ weeks is a good time to shoot for, and I haven't seen much improvement in taste or texture with a week or less. YMMV
Those of you whom can not tell a difference between aged/not aged venison are doing something wrong. There is an amazing difference in the tenderness of properly aged meat!
Yep. I’ve hung deer in December and butchered them in mid May when the weather was right. They freeze hard until about the end of March. They’ll thaw just a bit where you can indent the neat when grabbing it, then freeze back hard with colder nights. By the time mid April gets here, they start thawing. It takes a few weeks to fully thaw.
By this time there is very little blood left in it. So, it’ll hang in the shade for weeks and weeks as long as the night time lows get 40 or below. The crust when removed, reviews a beautiful cut of meat. It literally will melt in your mouth. And, the taste is light years better the. Meat butchered quickly.
I agree, anyone who can’t tell the difference in aged red meat versus unaged, hasn’t eaten truly aged red meat.
What are the drawbacks of leaving the hide on? Is it just more difficult to skin? I think it's worth it seeing you lose much less meat. I have a walk in cooler and usually age two weeks. This thread has me thinking of going longer but I'm going to better control the humidity. I'm pretty excited about it.
Taste really doesn’t change to me, our deer down here are tough as he$$, so it really just helps with the tenderness
