Hanging deer overnight

[Kentuckywindage]

We've always hung the deer. Gives it time to loosen up and taste better. 3-4 days hanging in a shade tree in cool weather does fine. We use a propane torch to singe the hair off and then wash it down when we get home. Also helps to cut all the "skins" thats on the meat and cut as much fat off as possible to loose a lot of the "gamey" taste.

 

[BrownBear]

The toughness I've run into from not hanging is usually due to uneven cuts, simply because the meat is so loose and floppy. Hang them till they firm up a bit, and you'll sure have an easier time getting good cuts.

If you go about it right, you can also tender up a tough animal with hanging. We used to do it with the steers we slaughtered for home use. Hang them on the screen porch on the shady side of the house till they started getting a thin show of green mold, then use your knife as a scraper to knock of the green. You don't kill your best steers for home use, rather you take the ones with problems. Grass fed, lean beef can be really tough till you age it right. Then it's tender as can be. I heard the mold actually helps tenderize them. Ideal temp is around 45 degrees, quite a bit warmer than is standard for hanging today's beef.

All that worked for me last year with a big OLD buck. Stipped a backstrap off for company the day after I shot it, and it was tough as a boot. Hung it for two weeks till the green mold coated it uniformly. Scraped it and butchered, and it was the tenderest, sweetest meat we've ever eaten.

If air temps are over 60, we quarter our deer and put them in garbage bags in the refer overnight, then butcher. That requires an understanding wife and enough ice chests to hold your refrigerator's normal contents overnight, but it will sure pay off the next morning when it's time to butcher.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Good post Paul, but I have to disagree with your advice on fried liver, "I likes mine RAW!" Started as a traditional sign of respect to the animal to take a bite of raw liver, but man, it was good, I could hardly stop eating. Sweet and melts in the mouth. The flavor begins to change even as it cools. I like fried liver and onions too but it is nothing like warm, raw liver. :grin:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Hanging deer depends on the air temperature, and the elevation where you take the deer, or live. Down here on the flats, it rarely gets cold enough during October and early November to kill off much of the bacteria that is in the air. In the mountain states, where you start at over 6,000 feet in elevation, and go up from there to hunt, the air is thin, dryer, and gets much colder every night.

Bacteria need temperatures in the 40s and 50s to grow, so they don't get much of a start in those high elevations, even in September and October. You can hang deer in the mountains with little concern about spoilage. On the flat, its a much different condition, and bacterial growth is a real problem. You have to get that meat down to 38 degrees or cooler to keep the bacteria at bay. During September and October, when the Illinois Archery Deer season takes place, temperatures can be as high as the 80s, and low as the mid 30s for a few hours at night. The ground stays warmer, so its actually hard to get air temperatures close to the ground down to the freezing point.

If you live and hunt on the flats, I would be finding ice to cool the carcase, and get that insulated coat of fur and leather off the meat. The meat can spoil under the hide even when you think the inside of the carcass is doing well. If you have ever flown from the mountains to the midwest, you will see a cloud of dust and haze that extends about 5,000 feet up in the atmosphere. This is dust from farming, city pollution, and of course, exhaust fumes from cars and trucks. All this provides a rich source of food and airborn particles to carry bacteria. I remember flying down into the soup on a return flight to Chicago, and thinking, " I am breathing this crud all day long ". Remember that is what the air contains when you decide whether to hang the deer.

Bacteria needs food, warmth, and moisture to flourish. The meat provides the moisture. The hide and air temperature provides the heat; and the air and meat provide the food. The air provides the bacteria, even when you have kept every scrap of debris out of the carcass when you field dress it. Because mountain air only heats up enough to grow bacteria a few hours a day, spoilage is small, or non-existent, especially in the shade.

Hope this helps you decide if and where you can hang your deer.

 

[wolfers]

I have had deer hanging with the hide on in 50 degree weather here in PA. The nights of course were down in the thirties and only the afternoons were that warm. It was for maybe 2 to 3 days and there was no problem with the meat. It was a good as always. Of course back then I took my deer to a butcher to process. I know that some butcher shops process many deer at once and I have heard that they "Pool" the meat. That is to say they will grind up what has been boned and put it into a tub and distributed it like so much per carcass that they are butchering at the time. So perhaps the meat I got back was not all from the carcass that I delivered to the butcher shop. That is one reason why I now butcher my own.

 

[PreglerD]

Hello from Germany,

here in Germany from the view of meat hygiene killed game has to hang up one day in a room, cooling chamber or cellar by about 7 degrees centigrade. This is because of meat ripeness. after this time it is very easy to skin the deer and meat will taste very good.

 

[paulvallandigham]

As long as the meat is cooled down into the thirties, or lower during the night, it will take a long time for it to warm up while hanging, particularly if you keep it out of the sun. It it is only 50 degrees during part of the day, that is not much time for bacteria to become very active. Pa. is also mountainous, with thinner air, dryer air, and cooler air, so that its not as hospital to bacteria as land at lower elevation. If I could not skin my deer out within hours of the kill, I would hang it with a couple of bags of ice hung both inside the chest cavity, and against the back of the animal,with a tarp or blanket draped over all so that the cold air from the ice stays around the hide and meat. Let the melt water drip below the deer. Change the ice daily, or whenever it melts. If it got much above 50 degrees, I would put a plastic sheet over the blanket to really insulate that " freezer " inside. Cold air falls, so keep the ice as high in the carcass, or around it as possible.

When I worked in a store that aged beef, there was a corner in the meat cooler that was closed off by heavy sheets of plastic, where the meat was kept to age, with a Ultra Violet Ray light, or heat lamp kept on in there. It killed bacteria, and sterilzed the air inside the little cooler room. Only a couple of the senior butchers went into that space, always wearing gloves, to remove meat. They were very careful to keep as much bacteria out of there as possible. I can only tell you that the one time I helped get something out of that place the air in there smelled better than the air in the rest of the cooler.

 

[rabjr]

I hang 24 hours for the body heat to disapate. After that if my cooler maintains a good temp, then theres no real hurry, however, I do like to butcher the animal and place the meat in a spare refrigerator I have in the cooler just for venison. Turn the meat over once a day for 11 to 14 days then package and freeze. Makes a big differance. :thumbsup:

 

[wolfers]

What do you thing the 17th and 18th century trappers and long hunters did for refridgeration. How did they cool their venison down out in the middle of Kentucky in 1750 during september? :youcrazy:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Wolf, from what I've read the 'Longhunters' would hang and smoke any meat they wished to keep around for awhile, use salt if available and make smoked jerky if time permitted. One thing I do know is that a party of men would take a deer for camp meat and roast it and gorge on the meat, this also is what the NDN's did. Smaller game was also taken, groundhogs, posuums, rabbit - etc.
I read that the Corp of Discovery (L&C) ate 5 pounds of meat a day to keep going, much more than we today consume.

 

[agill]

I like to cut them up into serving pieces and place them into freezer bags as soon as possible whether it is cool or not. If I'm home I'll place them in the in an ice chest and then in the freezer at soon as I have a couple bags full. If I'm in the woods camping, I'll just do everything but place them in the freezer, which I will do as soon as I'm back home. I think gamey venison is rotting venison. I don't put anything in the freezer bags that cannot be eaten. The plates are all cleaned when anyone has eaten my venison. I refer to myself as a meat cutter not a butcher.

 

[agill]

I took a deer to a butcher once. Nastiest work I ever paid for! Then I bought a video from Cabela's. Been cutting and packaging my game myself since.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Wolf: They didn't. When it was warm, they packed some of it in salt, if salt was available. Or they smoked it. Or they cut it in thin strips and dried it in the sun to make " Jerky ", using what ever spices they might find. And, they ate huge amounts of fresh meet when they did kill a deer. In hot weather, Cold water from streams were used to protect the meet while they ate, and until they could get about smoking the rest of the meat to preserve it. They also would cook as much meat as they could- boil it, roast it,whatever - because that would help the meat keep for a few days, too, particularly if it was kept away from flies, and kept cool. They had no refrigeration. It wasn't so long ago that many of our grandparents also lacked refrigeration, so some of us have a basis to understand from the not so distant past just how those longhunters dealt with the problems. When I was growing up, reading about big game hunts in the west, where you road in on pack horses for 3-5 days just to get to your hunting camps, the same issues were discussed, and references to what my " grandfather's father did before electricity came to the farm " were commonly discussed to teach us how to make do. If you hunt or trap in a party of 4 or more, eathing a deer in a couple of days is not an impossible feat, assuming you can stand eathing venison morning noon and night!

Oops! I owe an apology to Blizzard, who made the same point ahead of this. Didn't mean to repeat the same information. But, I am glad that someone else has the same kind of information I have gleaned from the books and from family discussions. Paul

 

[Vaino]

Being a meat hunter {I'm way past the "horny stage"}, hanging deer in varying temps accomplishes absolutely nothing and in fact, could be detrimental to the meat. Aged beef is the result of a closely controlled temperature and humidity cooler and seeing the beef selected for aging has a lot of fat marbling, it is conducive to this aging process. Venison, lacking this marbling, is not suitable for age hanging and is best when processed as soon as possible after the kill. I am descended from a line of the best poachers { it stopped w/ me} in my state and they knew the best way to produce the best tasting venison......Fred

 

[rabjr]

Sorry flehto thats not true at all.
[url] http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/outdoorskills/cooking/article/0,,455187,00.html[/url]

Deer: Hang Time
Good venison comes to those who wait awhile.
by John Barsness


There are some persistent myths about aging venison that may cause you to stock your freezer with inferior meat this season. I’m sure you’ve heard them: Deer meat can’t be aged like beef, because it dries out if left hanging. Or: Aging is simply “controlled rot,” and why let good venison rot? And: You only need to hang deer a day or two for tender meat, so any longer is a waste of time.
None of this is true. To understand why, and to find out the best methods to age venison, we have to turn to science.

A Chemistry Lesson
Despite its different taste and lower levels of fat, venison is very similar to beef. It contains the same basic enzymes, particularly lactic acid, and goes through similar changes after the animal dies.

First, the muscles go into rigor mortis, a stiffening lasting at most 24 hours. Butchering a deer during rigor mortis is one of the worst things you can do. It can cause a phenomenon called shortening, where the muscles contract and remain tougher than if butchering took place a day later.

Proper aging begins as soon as rigor mortis ends””and this process is definitely not controlled rot. Rot is zillions of bacteria eating the muscle cells, their waste products creating the familiar stench of decaying flesh. Bacteria attack only after meat is exposed to the air, and bacterial rot is accelerated by higher temperatures. It doesn’t happen at all if the meat is frozen. To properly age your deer, you must keep it at temperatures above freezing and below about 40 degrees. This holds bacteria (and rot) at bay, allowing natural enzymes to do their work.

Venison, Restaurants, and Supermodels
Meat is made up of long muscle cells connected by a fairly tough substance called collagen (the same stuff plastic surgeons inject into the lips of supermodels to make those lips full and “pouty”). Collagen causes most meat toughness. Young animals have little of it between their muscle cells, but as an animal gets older, more develops. Natural enzymes break down this intercellular collagen as meat is aged, so the longer it hangs, the more tender it becomes. (Commercial meat tenderizers, such as papaya juice, do the same job””but natural aging is more flavorful.) This is why beef served in fine restaurants is aged a couple of weeks or more. It’s also the reason a prime restaurant T-bone costs so much; it takes money to cool a large aging room.

Supermarket beef is aged perhaps two to three days. This isn’t bad, since beef””or a deer””hung that long does age slightly. But neither becomes as tender or flavorful as after a week or more.

Aging at Home
Maintaining a consistent temperature is the main problem with home-aging venison. I live in Montana, where outside temperatures during the firearms season normally range from around 20 at night to 40 during the day. My garage provides some protection against cold and sunlight, so deer that I hang there won’t usually warm to more than 40 degrees and won’t freeze at night. If your weather isn’t ideal, you can home-age venison in a spare refrigerator. Skin the quarters and bone-out other large sections of meat. The quarters from a typical deer (or even two) will fit in an average-size refrigerator.

Young deer don’t have much collagen, so aging for a couple of days is plenty. Older bucks benefit most from the extended period, and many hunters who do it properly actually prefer the taste of mature bucks. After aging, the steaks are as tender as a young doe’s””but with a rich flavor reminiscent of the best restaurant beef.

 

[Vaino]

Nice reading but totally unconvincing....have been eating a lot of venison for 65 yrs. and many years ago we went through all that hooey and finally after trying to eat various stages of "aged venison", started to eat the "good stuff" that was butchered as soon as possible and put in the freezer. A few years ago I took some venison to a sausage maker and when I walked in I saw a couple dozen deer carcasses lying on the floor ready for processing. The stench was overwhelming and needless to say, I walked out. Fluctuating temperatures have ruined a lot of good venison so why even bother to take a chance w/ "so called" hanging or aging?.....Fred

 

[rabjr]

I do agree with you about the meat processer. Would never let one touch my animal. Theres a big differance between what happens there and what happens in my cooler.

 

[rabbit03]

Hi Wolf, same thing happened to me one time. I had cut up and washed the meat free of hair and even taken all the blood shot stuff and glands out of the meat and brought it to have sausage made. It made me sick to see them dump it in a hopper with deer that no telling how long they had been around or taken care of by whom ever shot them and that was the last time I ever did that.

Like you say they were just interested in giving you back however many pounds you brought in and charging a hefty price for it too I might add.

At the time I was processing lots of deer for a taxidermy friend and after that incident I got a sausage cone and tubes and made my own in my own grinder!

Wish I had never sold the equipment either, had a Hobart meat saw and grinder and the grinder had a 3 horse motor and a 4" head on it. Dang I should have kept it all. :cursing:

rabbit03

 

[wolfers]

Wow, that sounds like some commercial grade equipment. Wish I had access to stuff like that instead of my hand saw and hand grinder. But my stuff works well it is just laborsome. This is a great thread with lots of different opinions. That is what makes this web site so interesting and a great place to learn. It seems like everyone has an opinion on aging venison. However everyone seems to like their system and the results and the flavor of their meat. That is what really matters in the end.

 

[rabbit03]

Hi Wolf, yes it was commercial equipment even if it was old equipment. I traded it for some plumbing work long ago for a friend who owned an old meat processing place. I also got about 100ft of the old track with rollers and hooks that were used to hang the carcasses on. Sure messed up and wished I had it now. Wonder how many of us has said that before?? LOLOL

rabbit03