When to eat deer meat.
 

So I heard the other day, for the first time, that if you kill a deer early in the season, or before it gets cold, that you should keep the meat in the fridge for at least a year before eating it due to the parasites that are attached to the deer and could transmit disease and junk to the deer blood stream. Is there any truth to that or what?

Never heard that. Indians ate deer all year long. I'd think cooking the meat thoroughly would kill off any bugs.

I've eaten bowkills, fresh, as early as the middle of September, and pig meat fresh-killed in July.

I'd say just cook it properly.

lmao... i have never heard such a thing and certainly have never waited a year to eat the meat of an early season deer.

i hope someone with some hard factual info chims in to this

The parasites you are talking about are there all year long. If you will talk to your butcher guy, he'll tell you that he will let that deer hang in the cooler for atleast 48-72 hours. That takes care of all that. He will let the hide stay on the animal during this time and the parasite will go to the hide. This is always done, if your butcher is worth his salt he'll let'em hang for a little. This has been told to me from numerous butchers and advised.

Neh! I don't listen to the hub-ub! True or not? I don't know. If it looks healthy and the meat looks/smells good, I don't hesitate!
By the way, welcome to H-NET. Where do ya' hail from?

And that's a very short stay in the cooler for beef!

cant be near as bad as that crap you buy at the grocery store.

Graham, North Carolina

You heard wrong...

What do these people think the settlers ate during the summer months when they had no refrigeration??? How about the Native Americans???

I've eaten deer meat for over 50 years, never had any problems...

The first piece that gets eaten is the tenderloin, often from the deer to the skillet...

I have never heard of that one.

Most processing places want deer with the hide left on the deer. The reason is most people end up getting a lot of hair on the meat when they skin it themselves. The processing places use a hide puller to pull the hide off the deer.

When they do beef, I bet they don't quarter or halve the beef with the hide on it. Beef is killed, gutted, skinned, halved or quartered and hung to cool and age.

Reasons for hanging meat is to let the meat cool, age and tenderize. In the first few hours, the meat will get tougher. However, as the meat hangs and ages, the muscle tissue changes due to bacteria; and the meat becomes more tender. Aged meat will also have a different flavor.

I would not eat anything that had been in the fridge for a year.