Originally Posted by
super_hunt54
Kidoggy, hanging meat serves 2 purposes. 1 is bleeding it out. The other is the cells in the muscle fibers "break up" when hung. That makes it much more tender and richer. Bleeding out of the meat is of course for taste. Bloody meat tastes awful most times. In a cattle butchery, they run the sides of beef through an electrified panel to tenderize and quicken the cell break up. They still hang the beef for a couple days but by shocking it they can knock off 3 to 5 days of hang time.
while I understand that and agree it makes sense .I have eaten it both ways and believe it makes very little diference. in my opinion what makes the most difference to how it tasted is what it was feeding on. around here mountain buck that feed on plush green grass generally taste better then the desert bucks do. best tasting and fattest deer I ever ate lived the summer in a corn field. I did not let him hang and he was delicious. on the same note the toughest ,nastiest elk I ever ate , I hung for two weeks. and I also know some will say, does and cows taste better then big bucks and bulls. this may be true to some extent but not always.
I am not saying don't hang them. I AM saying it is not necessary. as I stated I DO IT BOTH WAYS, depending on what temps are. I do not have a walk in cooler so , I must do what weather dictates. to each his own.