• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

"Aging" your harvest

DS Public

DS Public

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2017
Messages
49
Location
Tulsa, oklahoma
For all warm climate hunters - What is your go-to method for aging your deer prior to processing? I'm in Oklahoma - we typically dont have enough cold days to string together to hang (dry age) my deer, so I typically use a large cooler lined with frozen 2-liter bottles which I rotate for about a week. What is your method for best tasting venison?
 
I have used half gallon milk jugs like you do and had good success. I have used just ice and always have a little more water damage than I like. Even with the drain open the whole time. I lost a lot of meat a couple weeks ago when we had a warm day and a piece of fat found it’s way into the drain on my cooler. I trimmed all the water logged meat off. This makes me want to build a cool bot.
 
H
EricS said:
I have used half gallon milk jugs like you do and had good success. I have used just ice and always have a little more water damage than I like. Even with the drain open the whole time. I lost a lot of meat a couple weeks ago when we had a warm day and a piece of fat found it’s way into the drain on my cooler. I trimmed all the water logged meat off. This makes me want to build a cool bot.
Click to expand...
How long do you age yours?
 
I'm a warm-climate hunter I reckon, if the gulf coast counts.

My strategy is to shoot small deer that are tasty and tender without aging ;). Theyre also easier to pack out.

I will put the quarters on ice for up to a week if I don't have an opportunity to process them, but I prefer to just get it over with. Usually I cut back straps into medallions, and either grind the rest or cook it as roasts.

I've never been convinced that aging is worth the hassle some folks go through. To me it's tasty enough fresh off the hood. I've been known to take a sample bite here or there while quartering...
 
Bow season can be warm climate anywhere in the USA.

Spare fridge in the basement. 11 months a year it holds beer, these fizzy water things my wife drinks, occassionally minnows or some food overflow frpm upstairs.

When I kill something (I harvest tomatoes but can't recall ever harvesting a deer;)) I tear the glass shelves and drawers out and have a couple 1×3 boards cut to make a rack. Quarters get hung by the boards and backstraps, ribs, trim, etc etc go on a wire rack on top.

I only age past rigor mortis but it gives me the flexibilty to butcher over the next 10 days or so when I feel like it.
 
DS Public said:
H

How long do you age yours?
Click to expand...
7-10 days but it depends on the cuts as well. If I don’t build a cool bot next year I will vacuum age my backstraps and any roasts. I usually start my ground meat pretty early on anyway. So going the vacuum route I would get started a day or two after the hunt. If I am processing my deer I do it after work during the week. So just say Monday cut out my roast clean up and trim. Trim backstraps and tenderloins then vacuum seal those. Then Tuesday cut up the rest of the rear quarters for grinding. Wednesday grind and vacuum seal. Thursday debone front shoulders and make sausage with the meat off the front and trimmings I’ve been saving all week. The backstraps and roast will age two weeks. The ground meat will go straight to the freezer after sealing. The sausage will be vacuum sealed and aged another couple days to make sure the seasoning has been absorbed by the meat before freezing. Of course something will come up and it may be Monday before I get done instead of Thursday.
My old processor always aged three days. He did an excellent job and I always got him to cube the backstraps and they were about perfect fried cube steak. A deer I shot last year was aged at another processor for 14 days. Not because that’s what he does but because he was behind. He cubed my backstraps like I had asked him to. You couldn’t even remove it from the package without tearing it to pieces. It was too tender. It made great steak nuggets but would have probably been good on the grill without being cubed.
 
DS Public said:
For all warm climate hunters - What is your go-to method for aging your deer prior to processing? I'm in Oklahoma - we typically dont have enough cold days to string together to hang (dry age) my deer, so I typically use a large cooler lined with frozen 2-liter bottles which I rotate for about a week. What is your method for best tasting venison?
Click to expand...
I was fortunate enough to be able to hang my southern Oklahoma buck for 7 full days this year thanks to the cold weather. Just hung him in the barn with a big open north facing door. As you know, that isn’t normally an option in southern Oklahoma/north Texas.

I am looking to eventually build a small walk in cooler with a coolbot and a window unit. I’m hoping to split the cost with my father and put it in one of his barns. It would only cost $500-600 total if we shopped around a bit for parts. I would LOVE to age each deer for 8-10 days. Also, that would make butchering them myself a LOT easier, since I don’t have a way to keep primal cool at the house.

Edit: another option I have considered is paying a processor some money to let my deer hang in their cooler for a specific amount of time.
 
@Nutterbuster I am with you for the same climate reason. I wish I did have a set up to age them. My cousins in VA do it, and its the best tasting deer meat I have ever had.
 
I built a walk-in cooler this year using the coolbot. I was impressed that the cooler stayed around 34 degrees on 80 degree days.
 
At the farm we have a spare fridge in the garage that get's called into action during bow season. I generally quarter the deer, stick everything in game bags and hang in the fridge. I've left some stuff for up to 12 days because I got busy, and it was still good. I usually leave it 7-8 days.

If I'm traveling I put in quarters in game bags and use blocks of ice or bags of ice and leave it in the bags.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top