Color of deer meat?

[catman529]

I know fawns have lighter colored meat and generally the older deer are darker, but dang. The doe I got yesterday had some of the darkest backstrap I have ever seen. Only a 3 or 4 year old doe. The meat smelled kind of different too...not bad, just different. I haven't cooked any yet to see if the taste is different, but I guessed maybe she has a different diet than other deer I've killed. But her stomach was full of the usual acorns and greens. Only thing different I can think is a higher percentage of honeysuckle bushes and maybe greenbrier in the area. nothing really noticeable however. The deer was healthy and clean and like I said, the meat is not bad at all, just different. She had more fat than most early season deer around here too. Anyone notice something like this or have an idea as to the cause?


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[tree_ghost]

I don't recall seeing a huge difference in meat color but my first thought was like you said, diet...the only other idea I had was perhaps it's a health anomaly in her...

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[tree_ghost]

Might be helpful to call a processor and ask if they've seen this before...

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[catman529]

Might be helpful to call a processor and ask if they've seen this before...

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maybe I could ask next time I drop one off for hfth. I'm not worried about it just curious.


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[Deer Assassin]

never paid that much attention

 

[csi-tech]

If I didn't label it on the freezer bags I could not tell it apart. I could not say which was a Maury, Giles or Humphreys deer as I have killed in all three counties.

 

[Hardwoodmaterials]

Probably just the amount of blood that settled in the muscles. Did it die quick without much blood lose? If you pay attention a deer that bleeds out will have lighter colored meat. A deer that doesn't bleed out much will have darker colored meat and it will have a stronger smell to it. It will also taste stronger if you don't let some of the blood soak out of it. A cooler of ice water will get about all of it out in a day or so.

 

[catman529]

Probably just the amount of blood that settled in the muscles. Did it die quick without much blood lose? If you pay attention a deer that bleeds out will have lighter colored meat. A deer that doesn't bleed out much will have darker colored meat and it will have a stronger smell to it. It will also taste stronger if you don't let some of the blood soak out of it. A cooler of ice water will get about all of it out in a day or so.

it's not blood it's myoglobin that colors red meat, the deer was first spine shot and then lung shot and a gallon of blood came out of the chest cavity when I gutted it. So yea she bled out good, there's almost no blood in the meat... it's just really dark.


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[catman529]

Here's the meat from a doe fawn vs the meat from Sunday's doe. Nothing wrong, just got me wondering what causes one deer to be darker than the next. Only pattern I've seen is the fawns are almost always lighter color and more tender as well.

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[csi-tech]

Hmm. Who knows? More lactic acid from nursing maybe?

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Interesting topic. I was going to post a comment in my trip report I did about the color of the meat of my coues deer I killed back in August. But, since catman has started this, I'll just make it here.

The processed meat is the same color as a typical TN whitetail, but when cooked, it is more the color of pork. Even the center, when cooked to medium rare is lighter in color like pork. I even took the temperature of the center of the meat to make sure I wasn't cooking it past medium rare. I just thought it was strange, but still delicious.

 

[AT Hiker]

Purely a educated guess here but;

Using beef science logic I presume the deer had a higher level of lactic acid (pH lower than 6). This is caused mostly be stress before the animal dies. Of course in wild deer (assuming this applies to them) you do not know what stresses they had. However, if you spines her that could have caused the stress as well. In addition, drops in ambient temp can cause dark cutters in beef. This could also be part of your issue because a cold front can cause the animal to draw more glycogen.

A positive note is that high levels of lactic acid DO NOT change the palatability of beef. It simply makes the meat s darker color, which is docked from the market value. Why? Because any industry is always looking for cost savings and in this case the consumer "may be weary" of the darker than normal meat even though its normal color post cooking.

I used to grade beef carcasses (3 years at a Illinois Tyson plant) and dark cutters were always a hot topic


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[catman529]

Thanks AT that's some great info. I was wondering if the spine shot had anything to do with it but who knows. Can't think of any other stress to the deer, the population is thriving and they are gorging on acorns right now. She did appear to have a fawn, unless it was the fawn from the first deer I shot, who knows. Milk sac seemed empty as well.

I just got home a little while ago with a gallon of soy sauce and a couple other things....jerky will be marinating within the next day or so


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[AT Hiker]

Probably just the amount of blood that settled in the muscles. Did it die quick without much blood lose? If you pay attention a deer that bleeds out will have lighter colored meat. A deer that doesn't bleed out much will have darker colored meat and it will have a stronger smell to it. It will also taste stronger if you don't let some of the blood soak out of it. A cooler of ice water will get about all of it out in a day or so.

it's not blood it's myoglobin that colors red meat, the deer was first spine shot and then lung shot and a gallon of blood came out of the chest cavity when I gutted it. So yea she bled out good, there's almost no blood in the meat... it's just really dark.


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Its not as simple as just myoglobin. There are various levels of it depending upon many factors (age and bacteria are some). Lactic acid levels can cause darker colored meat as well.


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[tree_ghost]

Really good thread here!

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[AT Hiker]

Interesting topic. I was going to post a comment in my trip report I did about the color of the meat of my coues deer I killed back in August. But, since catman has started this, I'll just make it here.

The processed meat is the same color as a typical TN whitetail, but when cooked, it is more the color of pork. Even the center, when cooked to medium rare is lighter in color like pork. I even took the temperature of the center of the meat to make sure I wasn't cooking it past medium rare. I just thought it was strange, but still delicious.

Interesting. In beef this is yet another sign of high pH.

You oughta call Dr Loveday at UT and see if his class can measure the pH in that Coues and compare it to a whitetail here.

Or coues may just be less active than our whitetail and have less myoglobin.

In all honesty its probably caused by aliens.

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[Buzzard Breath]

In all honesty its probably caused by aliens.

Illegals, or from outer space? I was only a couple miles north of Mexico when I killed it.

 

[AT Hiker]

In all honesty its probably caused by aliens.

Illegals, or from outer space? I was only a couple miles north of Mexico when I killed it.

[emoji3]


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