ORIGINAL: PA Bow/Flinter

Aging deer meat is useless unless you want to let your meat rot. Beef is aged because there are a certain type of enzyme inside the meat that allows the muscle strands to break down, causing the meat to become more tender. Deer meat does not have this enzyme and aging it will not make it more tender. There have been many studies proving this. Any local butcher worth beans (who handles both beef and venison) will be able to tell you this.

That being said, we quarter our deer within a few hours of them being shot. The loins are normally frozen within the next day or two, but the quarters may sit in our fridge for up to a week before we debone, chop, and grind them.