Dry-Aged Venison

[Prose]

For the past five years I have been experimenting. 3-6 deer per year dry aged for 1-5 weeks. Each year I added a week, this year was 5 weeks from gunshot to freezer. I also label each vacuum bag with the deer the meat came from to compare things such as male/female/stage of rut/shot placement.

I ate a backstrap last night that had been dry aged 5 weeks. If you've never experienced dry aging it is like fitting an LS motor into a prius. Even my 3 yr old knew it was special. When you can make venison taste like the very finest table fare, it's a good day.

I sure lost a lot of meat going for five weeks though, probably 1/2 inch or more pellicle. At four weeks 1/4", and three weeks 1/8". Rather than hang my entire carcass the full five weeks, I think I will do three in the future and special cuts will continue to age in the cellar. That way I can get all the gaminess out of the burgers and brats, but have the very finest cuts of steak.

 

[Al Lu]

Dry-Aged does that mean that you hand carcass in walk in cooler? At what temp set?

 

[Prose]

33F at 65% humidity. 32-40 is safe, although at 40 or higher humidity, not for as long.

 

[dolek]

I have hung deer for different periods of time,never as long as you have . Do you hang with hide on or hide off ? Thanks

 

[Prose]

I did hide on and off this year. I got less pellicle with the hide on. In fact, the hide-on was not nearly as "aged." The one dear hung five weeks with the hide on tastes more like a deer that was only hung for a week or so. This is due to the moisture being unable to escape. Hide-off is the way to go.

 

[Nightraider]

For the past five years I have been experimenting. 3-6 deer per year dry aged for 1-5 weeks. Each year I added a week, this year was 5 weeks from gunshot to freezer. I also label each vacuum bag with the deer the meat came from to compare things such as male/female/stage of rut/shot placement.

I ate a backstrap last night that had been dry aged 5 weeks. If you've never experienced dry aging it is like fitting an LS motor into a prius. Even my 3 yr old knew it was special. When you can make venison taste like the very finest table fare, it's a good day.

I sure lost a lot of meat going for five weeks though, probably 1/2 inch or more pellicle. At four weeks 1/4", and three weeks 1/8". Rather than hang my entire carcass the full five weeks, I think I will do three in the future and special cuts will continue to age in the cellar. That way I can get all the gaminess out of the burgers and brats, but have the very finest cuts of steak.

I hang for 30-50 days, skin on. Best meat you'll eat.

 

[TheOtherZilla]

Personally I believe there are many things involved in the taste of deer. Aging is just one of them. Wife shot a nice buck, laying in his bed. He stood and then fell over. We immediately field dressed him, and put him in the truck. I carry 2 frozen gallon milk jugs and put them in the chest cavity. As soon as we got home, we hung and skinned him. Put him in a walk in cooler and 4 days later cut him up and processed. I cannot tell the taste from beef. Very tender. It is great.

 

[dolek]

I did hide on and off this year. I got less pellicle with the hide on. In fact, the hide-on was not nearly as "aged." The one dear hung five weeks with the hide on tastes more like a deer that was only hung for a week or so. This is due to the moisture being unable to escape. Hide-off is the way to go.

Thanks for the info,next season it will be hide-off.

 

[mikeinct]

If you are careful & have a spare refrigerator. A properly quartered deer can be set in the bottom of a beer fridge for about 5 to 7 days. loosely wrapped in plastic bags . This is a good second best option to a walk in fridge & cheesecloth wrap. mike in ct

 

[JSH]

A lot to be said of how it is taken care of in the first few hours.
Also one that has been running and stressed is not all that great.
I hang mine with hide on weather permitting. But I do chill ASAP and get that heat out.
Then there is diet. What I cull out around home taste like lean beef.

 

[markT]

The three deer I harvested this year did not taste good at all. Even small does. Im thinking diet is to blame. We processed them the same as in the past.
They are quartered out within 1 hour And put in plastic totes for 4-5 days then processed.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

We don't have a walk in cooler but until this year, always had a big refrigerator, like a convenience store drink cooler. We process lots of deer every year and have played with hanging vs putting the quartered deer in the cooler. No question, IMHO, hanging is best but temps around here at that time of year can be all over the place.

Best results have been to hang skinned for as long as temps stay below about 40° and not fall below upper 20's. It's never worked out that we could hang them for more than about 10 days but it's worth it. We're looking for a used wal in cooler.

Have also tried keeping the meat on ice with salt water. That works better than going straight to the freezer but not nearly as well as hanging for as long as we can. It tends to sour after several days in water, salt or not but the salt helps.

Bottom line, thanks for your post reaffirming what we have thought for so long. A walk in just moved up our priority list.

People all say they can fix deer and this and that. There is a lot of truth to what you're saying though. Well aged and properly handled and cooked venison is in a different league than the average hunter ever sees for himself.
Thanks for posting!

 

[drano38]

My deer always tastes great - its turned into homemade summer sausage.
Aging does sound interesting, but I don't have the facilities to do that. Glad to see that it works.

 

[6fatrat]

I live in northern Michigan, one of my neighbors will hang a deer hide on and let it freeze solid and take cuts from it all winter long .
He says it's great, I haven't tried it yet.
Steve Bair

 

[mikeinct]

A deer's diet can play a role in the flavor. A stressed animal can build up [something in the flavor profile] . That said, & now here in Ct. we no longer have to haul the whole gutted animal into a check station. We are very careful to get the animal skinned & cooled as quickly as possible. We carry plenty of ice with us on those warm fall days. In my [deer dis-assembly] kit I keep a hack saw. Never let anyone touch the carcass if they have touched the glands near any of the hooves. After gutting, I get that animal up & off the ground . I remove the forelegs quickly w the hack saw & then remove the hide. After that quartering, bag it up with ice & home we go..It can stay in the beer fridge in new clean bags till I have w/e time to fully process for the freezer. mike in ct

 

[Prose]

If you are careful & have a spare refrigerator. A properly quartered deer can be set in the bottom of a beer fridge for about 5 to 7 days. loosely wrapped in plastic bags . This is a good second best option to a walk in fridge & cheesecloth wrap. mike in ct

Recommend against the plastic bag. You want the air to flow around it. Open air is best. Maybe a salt tray or something to suck up some humidity.

 

[Prose]

We don't have a walk in cooler but until this year, always had a big refrigerator, like a convenience store drink cooler. We process lots of deer every year and have played with hanging vs putting the quartered deer in the cooler. No question, IMHO, hanging is best but temps around here at that time of year can be all over the place.

Best results have been to hang skinned for as long as temps stay below about 40° and not fall below upper 20's. It's never worked out that we could hang them for more than about 10 days but it's worth it. We're looking for a used wal in cooler.

Have also tried keeping the meat on ice with salt water. That works better than going straight to the freezer but not nearly as well as hanging for as long as we can. It tends to sour after several days in water, salt or not but the salt helps.

Bottom line, thanks for your post reaffirming what we have thought for so long. A walk in just moved up our priority list.

People all say they can fix deer and this and that. There is a lot of truth to what you're saying though. Well aged and properly handled and cooked venison is in a different league than the average hunter ever sees for himself.
Thanks for posting!

Thanks bud. I’m a bit of an amateur chef and butcher. When my friend was over doing sausages with me this year he commented that my work area should be usda certified.

 

[Prose]

A deer's diet can play a role in the flavor. A stressed animal can build up [something in the flavor profile] . That said, & now here in Ct. we no longer have to haul the whole gutted animal into a check station. We are very careful to get the animal skinned & cooled as quickly as possible. We carry plenty of ice with us on those warm fall days. In my [deer dis-assembly] kit I keep a hack saw. Never let anyone touch the carcass if they have touched the glands near any of the hooves. After gutting, I get that animal up & off the ground . I remove the forelegs quickly w the hack saw & then remove the hide. After that quartering, bag it up with ice & home we go..It can stay in the beer fridge in new clean bags till I have w/e time to fully process for the freezer. mike in ct

Very good points. The only place I differ is that ice or water never touch the deer. No washing of any sort. Ever.

About five years ago my FIL cut out the loins of my buck and put them in water “to draw the blood out before breakfast tomorrow.” I’ll never forgive him for that. In fact, I plainly told him if he ever cut into my deer again he’d be missing some parts himself.

 

[argrendel]

Any of you ever watch “the bearded butchers” on YouTube? I like the way they respect the meat and try to get the best results possible.

I grew up in a family of hunters, and whenever we harvested a deer and process that, there was always pan fry is going on the stove. Very fond memories.

 

[Preacher]

I dry age a lot of meat in a dedicated fridge, with a lot of sea salt in glass containers on the bottom...
It sucks a lot of moisture out of the meat...
5 weeks seems to be a perfect time....