From the do you like venison thread......

[mowin]

Do you age your deer?  If so how long?

Age with the skin on, or off? 

 

We have always processed out own deer, and  we used to age ours in a walk-in for at least a week...  then one yr our cooler crapped out and we were forced to process a couple deer that had hung for only a day. Just long enough to get them good and cold.  One was a younger doe, the other a nice 8 pt. 

When cooked side by side with aged venison, we couldn't tell the difference. We no longer age our venison. It gets cooled, and processed within a couple days. 

Now, I 100% agree, a properly handled deer from finding it quickly, to getting it cooled, makes a huge difference.

IMHO, ageing doesn't make or change the flavor of the meat at all.  

[WNYBuckHunter]

Not if I can help it. I quarter them up that day or the day after, then cut up the quarters as quickly as I can. Sometimes they will be in the fridge for a day or two.

[rob-c]

The temprature is s big factor for me, and it seems like the last several years during archery and gun for that matter it has been warm. The hide comes off right away ( so much easier before the deer has cooled ) and if it’s cooler it will hang for a day or two, if it’s warm it gets cut up right away . guess another factor for me is what day I shot the deer,  and if I have time to cut it up. If it looks like I am not going to be able to get to my deer in a few days it goes to the processor, But purposely aging it. i never do .. 

Edited April 27, 2018 by rob-c

[turkeyfeathers]

Shoot , field dress , transport to processor is my aging process. No place to do my own , no tools and no shrink wrapper etc. best $70 spent. 

[REDNECK4LIFE32]

I like to let my deer hang for at least a week with the skin still on it otherwise it'll dry out which makes more work during processing. I remember one time my buddy shot a deer in late November and we hung it well it froze and we had good cold temps. So he hung it in a cool dark shed and let it hang we never processed that deer till march. Best tasting venison tender as tender gets. When using my buddy's nuisance tags in the summer deer goes to processor.

[Just Lucky]

I skin the deerwhen I get home and get it cut up the next day. 

 

[fasteddie]

I don't "age the deer" . I skin it , bone it out , put in the fridge until I can clean it , package it , grind and freeze it . 

[G-Man]

I never aged a deer usually they were cut up so fast my grandparents who lived next door never knew I had gotten a deer. Not they go to a butcher who has a great set up and cooler so if they hang there they are hide off but he's pretty fast so I would still say they aren't aged.

[landtracdeerhunter]

Butchered cows, pigs, sheep on the farm years ago aging the meat,. so naturally I age venison meat.  Dry aging meat breaks down the muscle texture, It also dehydrates the meat  that concentrates the flavor, or so I'd like to think so, LOL. . We use to let them hang, but with the warmer Falls, I had to do something.  I obtained a chest freezer a few years ago, keep the temp at 35 F and let the carcass simmer for about a week or so. Man, I don't know how I lived without it, LOL.   Skin a cow, guess a deer is no biggie.

 

[mowin]

7 minutes ago, landtracdeerhunter said:

Butchered cows, pigs, sheep on the farm years ago aging the meat,. so naturally I age venison meat.  Dry aging meat breaks down the muscle texture, It also dehydrates the meat  that concentrates the flavor, or so I'd like to think so, LOL. . We use to let them hang, but with the warmer Falls, I had to do something.  I obtained a chest freezer a few years ago, keep the temp at 35 F and let the carcass simmer for about a week or so. Man, I don't know how I lived without it, LOL.   Skin a cow, guess a deer is no biggie.

 

Butchered many cows and pigs over the yrs.  Cow is definitely a chore to skin compared to a deer.  

Our beef would hang for 10 days to two weeks.  Never aged our hogs. 

[landtracdeerhunter]

4 minutes ago, mowin said:

Butchered many cows and pigs over the yrs.  Cow is definitely a chore to skin compared to a deer.  

Our beef would hang for 10 days to two weeks.  Never aged our hogs. 

We let cow hang two weeks. Pigs and sheep hung until we were ready to do up. The smoke house was always running from late winter till about now also.  I can still taste the bacon, LOL.

[landtracdeerhunter]

11 minutes ago, mowin said:

Butchered many cows and pigs over the yrs.  Cow is definitely a chore to skin compared to a deer.  

Our beef would hang for 10 days to two weeks.  Never aged our hogs. 

Cows are so dam heavy.

[mowin]

I was probably 8 yrs old, and dad and my uncle butchered a cow.  Dad told me to grab the hide and bring it over to the tractor bucket.  Him and my uncle got a good laugh at me trying to budge the thing.  Lol

[wolc123]

When I kill one, the first thing I do is look at the long range weather forecast.  If the conditions are favorable for skin-on aging in our insulated garage, that is what I do.  The predicted daily high temperatures over the next week (or more) have to be below 50 degrees for me to do that.  Leaving the hide on keeps the carcass from drying out and insulates it from temperature extremes.  I cover the windows of the garage to keep out the sunlight, and open them at night  (when the temperature usually dips into the lower thirties)  to let in the colder air.   When the predicted temperatures are warmer, they get skinned right away, carcasses cut in half, and placed in a big old fridge, that is only used for that purpose.  The racks and shelves are removed.   The rear half of the carcass hangs from hooks on the tendons, and the front half rests on the neck on the bottom.   The fridge keeps it at 35 degrees, and leaving the door closed keeps the carcass from drying out, even though the skin is off.

It is definitely tougher to skin a cold deer, so I usually skin the cold carcasses on one weekday evening and process them on the next, to split up the workload a little.  They don't dry out too much after one day. Any daylight time that I have free during hunting season is usually spent hunting.     

Aging time varies by the age of the deer.  6 month don't need any, 1-1/2 year olds about a week, 2-1/2 year old 10 days, and older about 2 weeks (not that I have to worry about too many of those).  Any red meat goes thru rigor mortis and if you do not let it break down prior to freezing you are not getting it as tender as it could be.  Even the grind is chewier without aging.  The flavor will probably not change much.  If you don't believe this by all means don't take my word for it.   There is tons of info on it out there on the internet.  The real test is if your wife or girlfriend likes your venison.   The odds of them liking it would be much better if it was properly aged.  It sure is nice when they like it and push you to spend more time hunting.        

Edited April 27, 2018 by wolc123

[dbHunterNY]

tenderloins come out before anything happens.  i hang it regardless of when i cut it up with hind quarters up. meat drains out of the best cuts that way and any heat in the body cavity draws out faster.  if i know for sure it'll be under 40 degrees and i'm busy i'll let it hang with the hide on so i don't have to trim dried up wasted outer meat. otherwise it gets boned out right away. i bone out the carcass and put the meat into totes and put that in the fridge.  it drains more. i either routinely empty a tote/container or preferably  use as many "cooling racks" as i can to hold the meat off the bottom of the totes/containers and out of the drained liquid.  can get them from restaurant supply stores but usually all i can find is some combo of smaller ones to fit within most meat totes i get. i'll let meat age that way for 2 weeks or so, whole time at temps always below 40 degrees.  when i finally package it up it gets vac sealed in heavy mil bags and put into the freezer.  any likely micro bad stuff that's common to game is killed then.  

[crappyice]

Interesting thread.
I have an old fridge just for the warm falls and doing what many have already described.

I wrap my venison in freezer paper and have been happy with the result (vacuum sealer on next years Christmas list!). This year it seems that when I defrost any steaks or cutlets I have a ton of blood which I do not recall from previous seasons. Guess I didn’t hang it long enough?!?


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[wolc123]

1 hour ago, crappyice said:

Interesting thread.
I have an old fridge just for the warm falls and doing what many have already described.

I wrap my venison in freezer paper and have been happy with the result (vacuum sealer on next years Christmas list!). This year it seems that when I defrost any steaks or cutlets I have a ton of blood which I do not recall from previous seasons. Guess I didn’t hang it long enough?!?


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I always freeze the grind from the first one each fall in zip-lock bags.  That is faster and cheaper than vacuum bags.  As long as it is eaten within 6 months, it don't make much difference in terms of fresh taste and freezer burn.   I vacuum seal all the rest and they have tasted fresh up to 3 years later.      

We just finished the last zip-locked bag from last fall, so our next tacos will be from an Adirondack buck that has been vacuum sealed for about a year and a half.  After that, it will be a southern zone doe from last gun season.  It is looking like we will have just about enough to make it until the fresh stuff starts coming in this fall.  The girls really love tacos and I love spaghetti with meat sauce, lasagna, stuffed cabbage and peppers,  so we usually always run out of grind first.   All of that stuff is way better for you, and tastes just as good with ground venison as it does with ground beef.   I usually grind about half of every deer, with the rest usually making 6 roasts, the backstraps, and tenderloins.  I started getting two extra "hidden tenderloins" from each one last year, thanks to that Grant Woods video that someone posted on here.    

Edited April 28, 2018 by wolc123

[crappyice]

I always freeze the grind from the first one each fall in zip-lock bags.  That is faster and cheaper than vacuum bags.  As long as it is eaten within 6 months, it don't make much difference in terms of fresh taste and freezer burn.   I vacuum seal all the rest and they have tasted fresh up to 3 years later.      

3 YEARS?!? For someone who likes it so much and feeds so many how can it last three years? If I have any venison left by September I host a venison dinner for however many I can feed with what’s left.


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[Four Season Whitetail's]

1 hour ago, crappyice said:

 

3 YEARS?!? For someone who likes it so much and feeds so many how can it last three years? If I have any venison left by September I host a venison dinner for however many I can feed with what’s left.


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This should be interesting.

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, crappyice said:

 

3 YEARS?!? For someone who likes it so much and feeds so many how can it last three years? If I have any venison left by September I host a venison dinner for however many I can feed with what’s left.


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Some years we do better than others, so I always try to keep some in reserve.  That is the best thing about the vacuum sealer.   I don't ever remember running out of roasts, but we have ran out of grind a few times.  The last time was on October 7th, 2016.   Fortunately, I killed a doe a week later, up in the NZ with my ML, and the kids only had to go a couple weeks without tacos.   It was extremely warm on that hunt, so I dropped it off at the processors where they had a cooler.  I asked them to grind the whole thing, except the backstraps and tenderloins.   

That turned out to be a record year for us, ending with 5-1/2 deer in the freezer.   Last year was not as productive, with just two.   For some reason, I always seem to do better every other year.  Maybe this year will be real good.   I also like to go into hunting season with a near-empty freezer, so if I do have grind left, I give it to my brother in law.  He raises beef cattle and makes excellent jerky using a 50/50 mix of ground venison and beef.  That combination makes much better jerky than 100 % one or the other.  The straight beef is too oily and the straight venison is too dry.       

p.s., I also like to keep some button buck around for special occasions and they only seem to come around every other year.

Edited April 28, 2018 by wolc123

[mowin]

1 hour ago, crappyice said:

 

3 YEARS?!? For someone who likes it so much and feeds so many how can it last three years? If I have any venison left by September I host a venison dinner for however many I can feed with what’s left.


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I have a chamber vacuum sealer. I've found 3+ yr old venison hidden in the bottom of my chest freezer that when thawed, you couldn't tell if it was itkilled that yr or 3 yrs ago. The key is getting as much or all the air out of the package. 

I cold smoke cheese.  I've got ex sharp  cheese I've cold smoked and vac sealed 5 yrs ago in the fridge, so why shouldn't Venison properly packaged or vac sealed be good for 2-3 yrs? 

Edited April 28, 2018 by mowin

[crappyice]

I am not questioning the effectiveness of vacuum sealing food over extended period of time. I just cannot imagine saving a piece of food for over a year (holy $hit-did you say FIVE?). How big are these freezes and how much can you actually enjoy the thing that I being frozen for that long.


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[Steuben Jerry]

My old chest freezer crapped out on me last November, and I had to get a new upright to replace it. When I was swapping out the stuff, I came across a few vac-packs of steaks from one of my 2014 deer. Figured it wasn't any good, but put them on the grill for that night for the heck of it. Surprisingly there was absolutely nothing wrong with them. I don't know if there would have been any difference with a side by side comparison with fresh steaks, but they tasted fine.

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, Steuben Jerry said:

My old chest freezer crapped out on me last November, and I had to get a new upright to replace it. When I was swapping out the stuff, I came across a few vac-packs of steaks from one of my 2014 deer. Figured it wasn't any good, but put them on the grill for that night for the heck of it. Surprisingly there was absolutely nothing wrong with them. I don't know if there would have been any difference with a side by side comparison with fresh steaks, but they tasted fine.

Those vacuum sealers are nice.  My first one finally crapped out after about 12 years.  I thought it went bad (4) years ago, but before tossing it, I took the pump apart and found a little speck of grit on the inside.  I cleaned it off, reassembled and it started working again like new for a few more years.  I picked up another cheaper model for backup, just in case.   I also started using it year-round for fish at that time.   Last fall, it finally gave out, so I had to use the backup to finish up the last deer.  I tried taking the pump apart and cleaning it again with no success.  

While good for venison, it is even better for fish.   I always used to put fish in zip-loc bags and fill them with water prior to freezing.  It tasted ok that way but not as fresh as fresh caught and it was a pain thawing it out to cook, waiting for all the ice to melt.   Now I dry the fresh fillets with paper towels, then seal them in vacuum bags and freeze.  Up to a year and a half later, they still taste like they were just caught, and they are a snap to thaw out and cook.    

[landtracdeerhunter]

Maybe I  don't understand the state hunter guide, but I thought it was illegal to keep venison past the next season.