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Dry Aging

I was watching MeatEater and he just does it in his fridge, he will pull a big chuck out of the freezer and leave it in the fridge for a week or so. I didn't think you needed anything else to do that, also there's no way I'm fitting that thing in my fridge, lol.
De-bone it and put it in the fridge it will take up way less space. I put 75 pounds of boneless venison in two roasting pans for a few days in the fridge and then cut it up a few days later.
 
De-bone it and put it in the fridge it will take up way less space. I put 75 pounds of boneless venison in two roasting pans for a few days in the fridge and then cut it up a few days later.

For me, it's as much about time as anything else. I need to quickly process the deer, field dress, and skin, then quarter it and put it into a cooler to be butchered another day. It's funny but I had a doe in the cooler and passed on a really good shot because I didn't want to bother with all of the efforts, and I didn't have a place to put it.
 
Technically speaking dry aging and wet aging do the same thing to the meat but the end product is not the same just like a properly cold smoked and dry aged pork belly is not the same as Patrick cudahay bacon from the grocery store. This is not to say you can’t get very good results with wet aging but the inherent distribution of enzymes throughout the product changes once water or brine is introduced. When embarking on an aging of any animal wether you are going to go with the convenience of wet aging or the risk of waste that can come with dry aging there are some factors to take into account first.

The most important is the age of the deer when killed. Older deer require a longer ageing process so that the enzymes have time to break down the tougher meat of an older animal. Younger animals just the opposite. This of course doesn’t take into account the taste factor. As you age the animal the enzymes impart a distinct taste profile in the meat and the longer you let the process goo the more that taste amplifies. Everything being equal I usually age a young deer for 5-7 days. Young deer being 1.5-2.5yr old. The oldest deer I’ve shot which was an old dry doe and we guessed her at somewhere between 7-10 I aged for 4 weeks. All aging at 40 degrees with rock salt for humidity control in a regular fridge that I have for this purpose (clean out my beer fridge during the season).

The second thing to consider is how the deer was killed. How long did it take for it to die. Was a leg shattered. Was it a spine shot. All of this matters because when any animal experiences a traumatic death they release massive amounts of adrenaline into their system. The longer the animal lives the more is pumped into the meat and the tougher the meat becomes. Therefore the longer the death takes the longer the aging should be. However, we’re talking about a day or two for young deer maybe 3-5 more for a very old animal.

Then third. You don’t need to age the entire animal. Age the cuts that hold the steaks, chops and roasts. These are the cuts you need to be tender and tasty. The meat for sausage will get ground (so it can’t be tough) and seasoned, maybe cold smoked and if your like me it will go through it’s own dry aging (or fermenting) process to finish which completely negates the need for the first aging. Likewise if you enjoy ground venison for burgers or in stew you don’t need to age this either because the grinding process will tenderize the meat plenty. However, there might not be a better tasting burger in the world then properly aged hind quarter trimmings so that is a consideration.

So on a normal deer I will dress, skin and half the deer (front and back) not quarter. The inside loins are eaten immediately. I leave the backfat covering the tenders to protect them from mold while aging. The hind quarters with Theron cage still attached goes in the fridge to age for 5-20 days depending on age and kill. In the mean time I debone the fronts and neck for my sausage and fresh ground meat. My sausages are all cold smoked and then dry aged for 1-6 months depending on type. Summer sausage is one month but a hard salami is 4-6 depending on humidity. Once the hinds are finished aging trim any fat and mold that has grown. Also during the aging process if you see any mold you can wipe it with distilled white vinegar to stop or slow it’s growth. Once it’s trimmed of fat and mold debone as usual and cut steaks, chops and roasts while saving clean trimmings for burgers.

That got long, but there is a lot involved in aging meat and sausage. There’s also a lot of misinformation out there about it. If your serious about getting into proper aging check out a good book on the subject. I’d recommend “the art of charcuterie” By the culinary institute of America. Written by Jon kowalski. This book is backed up by the science of controlled rot, which is what aging is. It’s also full of some really amazing sausage recipes. We keep this on hand when making our sausages and reference it often even though we’ve done our recipes hundreds of times just to make sure we have our ratios correct.
 
having been a meatcutter off and on over the last 30 years or so I can tell you that aging your deer more than a day or two is a waste of a lot of meat. First of all aging needs to be done under a specific set of conditions! not hanging from a tree in your back yard, the temperature needs to be between 36 to 40 F, the humidity needs to be controlled and you need to have adequate air circulation, if your temperature is too cold the bacteria is dormant and is unable to break down the enzymes in the meat, Too hot and the bacteria grow too fast and yor meat isn't aging it's rotting. If your cooler is too damp or doesn't have adequate air flow your meat is rotting, the only meat that ages well is beef because it has an adequate cover of fat to protect the meat, deer meat usually doesn,'t have much fat so the outer layer turns brown and must be trimmed off. I cringe every year when the whole aging thing comes up! Warren Anderson has a book on aging meats but I think the only two things he recommends aging is beef and duck. The best thing you can do for your meat is to get it out of the woods and get the hide off so that it can cool down, after it cools for about an hour i break them down into big pieces, then I take a cooler, put a bag of ice on the bottom and leave the drain open, lay a plastic garbage bag on top of the ice and lay the chunks of meat on top, on top of that i lay a layer of the frozen Ice packs that they use for coolers. Now within an hour or two your meat will be chilled! Go have a fews beers and call your friends and you can cut your deer up over the next day or two.
 
I've done both and significantly prefer dry aging. I use to do it in coolers with maintenance, then an extra fridge, now a walk in cooler I built at the house. Everything I kill gets age. Even fish for a couple days. Just need drain pans and a little bit of time.

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