ORIGINAL: Hotburn76
Have been deer hunting for fifteen years now and this year I finally decided to process it my self. But I maid the mistake of asking guys at work and not coming here first. They said that beef is always aged at least a week and you could do the same with deer, thought this made sense cause the butcherI used to go to said he only did deer one day a week and if you brought your deer in on thurdays the deer would hang till the next wendsday. But not sure if he left hide on or not. Killed my deer on monday and skinned it on tuesday. Hung it in a insulated garage with no heat,34-38 degrees. when cutting up my meat I lost about 25% of it at least due to it being dried out on the edges/outside. I know someone in here has to know how and what i did wrong, please help. oh ya almost forgot shot it with my knight big horn, first deer to get with ml, most of the time I am done with my bow by the time ml gets here.
GET THE SKIN OFF RIGHT NOW!!, and let the meat cool ASAP!! If you leave the skin on and the meat remains warm for any time, bacteria will grow in the carcass and make the meat taste "gamey, or worse, become totally unfit for eating!
How long you let it hang AFTER it cools depends on the weather. If it is warm and humid (over 40 degrees F), hang time should be no more than a day, if that. If temperatures are below 35 or so F, it can hang for up to a week and still be OK, provided of course, that you got the meat cool quickly. By far the best-tasting venison I've ever produced myself was skinned, cut up, boned and frozen before darkon the same day it was killed. I abandoned all hanging after that!!
IF I kill a deer way the hell out back in the Turkey Mountains I always rub the carcass down with a 50-50 mixture of black pepper and salt as soon as it is gutted,skinned, and hnaging in a pinon tree. The salt inhibits bacteria grown, and the pepper keeps any and all flies off the meat, regardless of the temperature! If you have game bags, so much the better. Use the salt/pepper mixture before putting the meat in the bags!