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skeeter 7MM

Ontario hunter I couldn't agree more[8D].

Country Boy

We do not allow our deer to age.

We get the guts out of them and them out of their skin as fast as we can. we cut up the deer into all their seperate chunks (sometimes while the meat is still warm!) and then place all the meat in tubs of salt water. We let this set overnight in a very cold garage or cooler. This "pulls" the blood out of the meat. We dumpt the water the next morning and sometimes lightly rinse the meat. We then double grind all the hamburger.

In my opinion this makes for the best tasting and most tender meat.

My uncle hangs his deer for several days up to a week. Their meat tastes like a very gamey critter that died doing the nasty!

Also, a deer that has been running for a few hours and pumped on adrenaline will always taste like ****!

sawbill

Make that 4 in a row. A butcher friend of mine has been saying that for years about the difference between beef and moose/venison. As a result, I peel it and cut and wrap immediately. Its a monster job, but all part of the hunt.

Greg / MO

I agree; I've never hung a deer.

I think it has much more to do in the care of processing (especially if you leave any of the white, sinewy stuff on the meat), and what the deer's actually been eating.

Most of my deer are killed in Southern Illinois, and they're all grain-fed. Talk about tender!

doughboysigep

hanging/aging is, in a sense, letting it "rot" but only for a limited way for short period of time. allowing it to hang (ideal temp is about 42 deg.) allows bacteria to start "working" on the meat and begin breaking down the tissue, thereby making it more tender, the same is done with beef. they hang in the meat cooler for several days before they are cut up (skin off). in fact some types of meat are hung for weeks and they say that you wouldn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole (it becomes almost black with "decay") if you saw what it looked like after hanging that long, but boy is it deliciously tender.
it is hard to do properly without a cooler - you could always ask your butch to hang if for a desired length of time.

Chef John

well from my experience as a Chef and what we were tought in the CIA (thats the Culinary Instatute of Amecica) for those not Familiar with cooking Schools, domestic meat is all that needs to be hung for aging, wild game just doesnt seem to work as well because of the lack of fat marbling in the meat as you would find in Beef and the Temperature is crucial in any case that hot stay hot and cold stay cold. as a rule of thumb bacteria will grow even in the fridge at 40 degrees and meat should only be stored at this temp. for no longer than a couple of days anything higer than 40 degrees bacteria will just grow faster and more types are present and once cooked it should be held at a temperature no less than 140 degrees for no more than 2 hours after that it's the same problem with bacteria growth so if it's tender meat you want like the Gentleman said take a younger animal but in any case get the meat into a cold zone as soon as you can when outside temps are above 38 to 40 degrees.

Hiawatha

we usually hang our beef till it falls off the hook..well maybe not that long but usually 10-12 days. my elk i like to hang for about 5 days if possible, and deer usually don't hang for long at all.......When i get an animal i gut/skin it and leave it chained onto the forks of our john deere tractor. then i put the tractor away in the shed for the evening. I split the meat and it is usually cool enuff up here meat will keep fine overnight. Then first thing in the morning i take the tractor out of the shed, load the animal on the truck and take it into the meat shop.

j3k2c1

We don't age our meat either. If at all possible we come back from hunting and that bad-boy is cut up ASAP!

PAhunter86

Thanks for all the replies, I'm suprised this is still up after so many months!