My buddy and I quartered the deer and then put the meat on ice in coolers for the next 6 days, each day emptying the cooler (ice, water, blood). he said that this is the way he was taught and that this reduces the "gamey" taste because that taste comes from the blood? I would much rather quarter and process the deer right away, but wasn't sure?
Very true, I also cut the gills on my stringer of trout and bleed them out for better fish.
Blood will taint meat, part of the reason for a good heart/lung shot or like my old man and Dad always did was a neck shot. They both were crack shot riflemen using pre 64 winchesters model 70 270 cal and back then ammo was soft point and you did not get expansion like a Nosler Ballistic tip that goes in my deer gun and blasts the crap out of the vitals. As soon as that gut is opened copius amounts of blood will spill and you roll the deer "downhill" to let is drain while you cut the gut free.... I will split the ribs and prop the cavity open with a stick to get all tissue and keep from getting scratched by the free ends of the ribs next to the sternum.
Sure beats using a shoulder length glove and helps cool the deer quicker.
Doing this is also part of the "Kosher" way to insure good meat. bleeding the animal goes back dozens of centuries.
Hard to find a Rabbi in the woods for the rest of the "Kosher"but you get the point.
I age my deer to get the blood out but I'll never skin one til I'm cutting it up!!! No jerky meat that way!! You pull the hide off 2 weeks later and it looks like ya shot it yesterday!!!
digitalbluecat wrote:Thats right Captain Jim! Cut around the anus and privates before yanking the gut pile, same for the diaphragm and windpipe. My buddies used to laugh at me for working a deer like a surgeon to clean it and then packing with snow or ice for the duration of the hunt. I learned from Clyde Ormond how to correctly gut a deer.
As for "dry aging"......... There are many Ranches in the west that run "boutique butcher shops" or closely work with processors that take animals to extreme in care and quality control. Not only are these range fed animals free from BGH and graded "organic" but thay are kept happy all the way to the processor. Angus/Hereford cross breeds and other genetic lines raised from birth with the dry aging will produce meat that is more commonly found in restaraunts and stores like Whole Foods. Those animals are hung cold too, not racked and stacked like Jewel meat. The very best of the commercial beef goes to the military,(sub sailors) then the restaraunteers, and finally the grocer gets the select and choice. If you want better than you should get on the list with the ranchers in the spring and go Coop with others too split a good beef or buy in season from local meat packers who can give you what you want. Easy to find on the internet.
Now once again, the cut of the meat, be it prime, choice or select is based on the content of marbling from fat and the quality of the herd animals sent to the stock yards. Inspectors grade the carcass onsite.
That interior fat is the food of bacteria that will produce enzymes that break down surrounding muscle fiber.....tenderizing! I personally do not care for the more robust flavor of the fatted aged beef having grown up on range fed animals led straight to the butcher without being grained up all winter.
DEER AGING? Simple......... Tallow is on the outside, venison is higher in lean muscle without marbling and higher in HDL than lean beef. THAT BACTERIA WILL NOT PENETRATE THE ROASTS or the majority of hind quarter (rump and tip roasts) and legs known as the rounds and chops. You get green and brown meat from that process and Field and Stream can go scratch. My experience is from 40 years of doing it not reading about it.
Most wild game is like that too, having been genetically adapted to storing fat for survival. Imagine a Deer fattened up in the stockyard like a good fat Angus, hell boys that deer would fall over not hardly being able to walk if the fat produced denisty within the muscles like herd beef. Same for a duck or squirrel.
Try Balsamic vinegar, Chianti wine, brining cuts for 8 hours in apple cider and cracked pepper. There are too many ways to tenderize wild game that does not risk the illness from rotten meat and the questionable look from first time diners of your "aged" wild game and more so when they puke after being told that "I let my deer hang from the tree or garage fer 7 days before I butchered it!"
I have always butchered my own deer and nothing is easier than a good clean new sheet of plywood, a helper to wrap, and frozen quarters to run off on the sawzall and good bow saw, yes thats right I saw my chops and use several Rapala knives to bone the front and spine. Rinse the cuts once to remove bits of tallow and hair and wrap tightly in lined freezer paper. My meat never gets warm before butchering and the kids used to eat it like breakfast cereal. I never told them if it was a fawn or little doe as they are the best eating. Can't go telling people thay are eating Bambi or his mother.
99% in TOTAL AGREEMENT on this one. The only thing different I do is I try never to let ANY water hit my meat before I vacum pack it, but I will use a damp washcloth to wisk off any hair, & keep my hands clean so as not to transfer any hair to it.
Bleeding to me is the most important aspect of field dressing any game.
Not to hi-jack the topic but in bleeding game, I started to bleed all Lake Michigan fish by snipping the underside between the gills (poultry shears) & with a 8/10' length of electrical wire fastened to my rod holder I let the fish bleed out for a minute or 2 while hanging in the water. IMO: it makes a difference in taste & keeps my cooler cleaner. At home I'll pan freeze my fillets, then vacum pack them. By pan freezing them first, keeps the fillets frozen & WONT dry them out with the power of the vacum, sucking out the natural juice from the edges of the fillet'.
"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."
Nikster.... "" At home I'll pan freeze my fillets, then vacum pack them. By pan freezing them first, keeps the fillets frozen & WONT dry them out with the power of the vacum, sucking out the natural juice from the edges of the fillet'.""
What is "pan freezing can I ask? I do vaccuming packing too and would like to know about that part.
Growing up on a farm I always find aged beef arguments really silly. Buy your meat at the store it'll be light years older than locker processed or home butchered. You can't make angus out of holstein....Deer quicker the better after bleeding.
I don't know Blu. I certainly can tell the difference (night and day) between Dominicks or Jewel's Angus Beef and a nice, juicy aged steak at the Capitol Grille downtown. But, maybe it's just all the alcohol??? lol!
End of debate for me. Bottom line is I usually only shoot young deer anyway and aging is not necessary on them. But when I get another big boy, I'm going to process it myself and age it for a good week and see if there's a difference. I know the few big bucks I've harvested in the past and did everything I'm doing now (with young deer - quick, proper field care and NO aging) were VERY gamey tasting and the steaks were not tender. I'm not a chemist, butcher nor do I play one on t.v. I just go by my tastebuds...
bluegillman wrote:Nikster.... "" At home I'll pan freeze my fillets, then vacum pack them. By pan freezing them first, keeps the fillets frozen & WONT dry them out with the power of the vacum, sucking out the natural juice from the edges of the fillet'.""
What is "pan freezing can I ask? I do vaccuming packing too and would like to know about that part.
I lay out my fillets on a cookie sheet, & freeze'em, then vacum pack. I've noticed prior, that the power of the vacum will & does suck the moisture froim the ends of the fillet. It's a ANAL thingie but wifie does insist that I do it that way & point proven when she found a filet in the back of the freezer & found it to be 1 1/2yrs. old. Even vacum packed if the filet was not done in this method it's ends would have been dried out.
"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."
The only thing different I do is I try never to let ANY water hit my meat before I vacum pack it, but I will use a damp washcloth to wisk off any hair, & keep my hands clean so as not to transfer any hair to it.
