So, after years of taking deer to the processors, we decided it was time to do the work ourselves. Can so done tell me, what do you do with the back straps & tenderloins after your remove them? I hear some people say put them on ice for a week, some say put in water, some say put in the refrigerator. Help!
Processing your own meat & aging
- Thread starter noahtn
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mossyoak3d
Well-Known Member
I soak in a cooler with ice and water...drain and refill with fresh water for 2-3 days then wrap and freeze.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
Not sure about ice, fridge, etc.....but we have a walk-in cooler and will cut the tenderloin out and leave the coat on. We let them hang anywhere from 38-41 degrees for 2 weeks and then process them. A little mold on the outside that you cut off, at the rest is the best meat you can eat. We will then slice, vacuum seal, label, and freeze. When its cooked, you can cut it with a fork
catman529
Well-Known Member
I rinse and pat dry all the cuts of meat and put them in separate bags in the fridge for roughly a week. Right now I have meat sitting in there from a recent doe kill- deboned hams, shoulders, backstraps, ribs, neck meat, and scraps. I didn't save the t-loins because when I shot her quartering away the arrow went through the guts and spilled its contents on the t-loins. And there was a length of time between that and actually butchering.
My deer meat turns out good when I let it sit in the fridge for a week. I just like to keep the cuts as clean as possible and the fridge is very cold, in the 30s.
My deer meat turns out good when I let it sit in the fridge for a week. I just like to keep the cuts as clean as possible and the fridge is very cold, in the 30s.
Killing time
Well-Known Member
We butcher our deer and place all the meat in an ice cooler (same kind you see outside the convience store), for 7-10 days , before we wrap it and freeze it. No mold. Thermostat is set in the mid-upper 30's, i forget the exact temp.
Vermin93
Well-Known Member
So many ridiculous myths and wives tales about cooking venison.
Celebrate by eating the tenderloins for dinner the same day you shot the deer or the next day. Cut them out carefully from inside the body cavity. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and kosher salt or sea salt and smear them with olive oil. Pan fry a few minutes on each side until rare, medium rare or medium and enjoy.
Back straps can be done the same way.
Forget all the soaking in ice or water mumbo jumbo unless you want nasty, grey colored meat. Water and raw red meat do not go good together under any circumstances. When is the last time you bought a nice piece of beef and put it in water? No decent butcher or respectable steak restaurant would ever do that. Ditto with fish.
This tenderloin is from a doe shot Sunday morning. It was eaten Sunday night and was absolutely delicious cooked medium rare in a cast iron skillet.
Whttp://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz1 ... ea8e3a.jpg
Celebrate by eating the tenderloins for dinner the same day you shot the deer or the next day. Cut them out carefully from inside the body cavity. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and kosher salt or sea salt and smear them with olive oil. Pan fry a few minutes on each side until rare, medium rare or medium and enjoy.
Back straps can be done the same way.
Forget all the soaking in ice or water mumbo jumbo unless you want nasty, grey colored meat. Water and raw red meat do not go good together under any circumstances. When is the last time you bought a nice piece of beef and put it in water? No decent butcher or respectable steak restaurant would ever do that. Ditto with fish.
This tenderloin is from a doe shot Sunday morning. It was eaten Sunday night and was absolutely delicious cooked medium rare in a cast iron skillet.
htnseymour
Well-Known Member
Break down quarters. Put in double trash bags and tie up. Put in cooler at 38-40 degrees for 4 weeks. Tenderloin and backstrap get trimmed and put in ziplock(if i don't eat them, for a week) then frozen. The mold issue can develop into the meat if you aren't careful, so hence the ziplock. After four weeks break down quarters vaccum seal and freeze.
browtines
Well-Known Member
We field dress, then hang in a walk in cooler with the hide still on. Leave them there for 7-20 days then we skin and process. We don't have to deal with mold or dried out meat because we leave skin on them. Absolutely the best taste and fork tender.
Bone Collector
Well-Known Member
Vermin,
You are spot on. Several times we have eaten the tenderloins or back straps the same day. Most times I NEVER age any longer than a few hours and before my son was born, I usually would just cut it up and freeze it as soon as I got home.
If you clean the meat and take off all the Sinu (however you spell it) and don;t over cook it it will taste fine. the only exception to overcooking it is when you do a pot roast.
You are spot on. Several times we have eaten the tenderloins or back straps the same day. Most times I NEVER age any longer than a few hours and before my son was born, I usually would just cut it up and freeze it as soon as I got home.
If you clean the meat and take off all the Sinu (however you spell it) and don;t over cook it it will taste fine. the only exception to overcooking it is when you do a pot roast.
Urban_Hunter
Well-Known Member
Vermin93 said:
This is me. I don't wash the meat at all. My brother soaks his in salt water and there is a HUGE difference in our meat... the family thought they hated deer meat til they tryed mine
I will soak that sucker in a creek when it's hot though! I know some were ready to call me out on it. The only meat to contact water is the loins which I cut out and bag when I'm gutting (prior to the arctic plunge).
I do freeze the meat prior to eating it though. Probably not necessary but makes me feel better.
Cy
Well-Known Member
Re: Processing your own meat & aging
The last paragraph in the MSU link below addresses aging.
I think water contact is a bad idea because it's a good way to spread bacteria from a small, isolated area to the surface area of everything in the water.
I would age for several days if I had access to a walk-in cooler, but I don't. For that reason, if the carcass is going to be exposed to +45 temps for more than an hour or two, it comes down and gets cut up for the cooler. We grind everything but the straps, usually saving saving only a half dozen small roasts for corning.
http://msucares.com/pubs/infosheets/is0327.pdf
The last paragraph in the MSU link below addresses aging.
I think water contact is a bad idea because it's a good way to spread bacteria from a small, isolated area to the surface area of everything in the water.
I would age for several days if I had access to a walk-in cooler, but I don't. For that reason, if the carcass is going to be exposed to +45 temps for more than an hour or two, it comes down and gets cut up for the cooler. We grind everything but the straps, usually saving saving only a half dozen small roasts for corning.
http://msucares.com/pubs/infosheets/is0327.pdf
I will usually debone and place in bag and keep cool either in a cooler with ice (not in the bag) or in a refrigerator for about 10 days. It may or may not improve the taste of the meat but I like it. I guess the main reason for this is I will wait until I have 3 or more in the cooler then process all of it at one time.
Winchester
Well-Known Member
No aging required to have GREAT venison. I cut mine up and freeze everything I wont eat in the first week, and refrigerate everything I will.
DntBrnDPig
Well-Known Member
Thanks Poser!
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
It is mostly a convenience factor for us. Kill a deer and cut it up then or do it within the next 2 weeks (due to time restraints). Contrary to most of the responses on this post, there IS a difference in 2-3 week old aged meat and meat straight off the animal. Both are delicious to me, but there is a difference! Its far more broken down when in a walk in cooler. I can't speak on placing in the fridge or a ice chest.
T-Man84
Well-Known Member
Good information here!
treefarmer
Well-Known Member
I have been processing my own deer for about 20 years. I don't age any of it and don't like the gray color meat gets if it is kept in water so I use frozen water jugs in a cooler to keep quarters cool until I can process them. We process backstraps & loins almost right away. For backstraps we "butterfly" slice them before packaging in pint zip-lok bags in the freezer. Tenderloins are cleaned up, perhaps rinsed off and put in pint zip-lok bags whole. A butterfly slice is when you cut double thick steaks and then not-quite slice in half so when it is laid open it appears twice as large.
WMAn
Well-Known Member
What's the deal with waiting 24 hours for rigor mortis to run it's course? This is the first time I've heard this.
TheRealSpurhunter
Well-Known Member
Re: Processing your own meat & aging
Some really great info here, thanks for all that have posted!
Never, ever soak meat on purpose in water, salted or not. Your ruining the flavor of the meat, period.
Some really great info here, thanks for all that have posted!
Never, ever soak meat on purpose in water, salted or not. Your ruining the flavor of the meat, period.
woodsman87
Well-Known Member
Im hungry now.
I have killed deer, gutted them, got tenders out, went home to fry them up for breakfast along with biscuits, eggs, and other stuff, ate breakfast, then proceeded to finish getting my deer out of the woods and butchering.
I normally store my venison in the fridge until I have time to finish processing.
I have killed deer, gutted them, got tenders out, went home to fry them up for breakfast along with biscuits, eggs, and other stuff, ate breakfast, then proceeded to finish getting my deer out of the woods and butchering.
I normally store my venison in the fridge until I have time to finish processing.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I don't know how much simply keeping meat in the frig mimics the same process, but we age deer carcasses (gutted but with hide on) in a temperature and humidity controlled walk-in cooler for 2 weeks before processing the carcass and packaging the meat.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Re: Processing your own meat & aging
Haven't read what the specialist said. We've found only a small difference from one to two weeks of aging, but it is still a noticeable difference. The big difference occurs in the first week of aging.
Poser said:
Haven't read what the specialist said. We've found only a small difference from one to two weeks of aging, but it is still a noticeable difference. The big difference occurs in the first week of aging.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Poser,
What do they mean by "dry aging?" We use a restaurant-quality walk-in cooler with controlled humidity and temperature. If that is what they are referring to by "dry aging," and they say anything less than two weeks makes no difference, they don't know what they are talking about (and I don't care who they are or what their credentials are). We've run well over 100 deer through that cooler, letting them hang from less than 24 hours to three weeks. The biggest difference is the first week. From 1 week to 2 weeks, small improvement. From 2 to 3 weeks, no improvement at all.
What do they mean by "dry aging?" We use a restaurant-quality walk-in cooler with controlled humidity and temperature. If that is what they are referring to by "dry aging," and they say anything less than two weeks makes no difference, they don't know what they are talking about (and I don't care who they are or what their credentials are). We've run well over 100 deer through that cooler, letting them hang from less than 24 hours to three weeks. The biggest difference is the first week. From 1 week to 2 weeks, small improvement. From 2 to 3 weeks, no improvement at all.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Poser, I believe you are referring to aging BEEF as referenced in that article (I did not watch the video).
Venison is completely different. Because of the large layer of covering fat on finished beef, it should be aged for a minimum of 3-4 weeks. With venison and the lack of covering fat, 2 weeks is about optimum... Longer than that and you lose too much meat from it drying out and having to trim the outside 1/8-1/4" of rind off the remaining meat (you don't lose much if any meat from an aged beef).
Me personally, I can tell a huge difference from the same deer when I cut portions of the deer off and eat that day (tenderloin, backstrap), than after the other tenderloin or backstrap has aged 7-9 days (again from the exact SAME deer).
Venison is completely different. Because of the large layer of covering fat on finished beef, it should be aged for a minimum of 3-4 weeks. With venison and the lack of covering fat, 2 weeks is about optimum... Longer than that and you lose too much meat from it drying out and having to trim the outside 1/8-1/4" of rind off the remaining meat (you don't lose much if any meat from an aged beef).
Me personally, I can tell a huge difference from the same deer when I cut portions of the deer off and eat that day (tenderloin, backstrap), than after the other tenderloin or backstrap has aged 7-9 days (again from the exact SAME deer).
