Aging venison

Never aged venison before but always interested in making our wild game even better. We are receiving a very generous gift of a new refridgerator this Christmas and it’s got me thinking we should keep the old one as a back up/overflow and also for temporary storage/possibly aging venison in it. Been looking at the wet aging process mostly so far, but for anyone who uses this method, do you wet age everything (like even trimmings for burger and sausage type stuff) or only the steak/roast type cuts? I’ve never aged really before as I have never had a way to control the environment well enough that I wanted to risk it. Never had aged wild game so never really known any any different as far as taste/texture but wouldn’t mind trying it.

I’m sure you’ll get a lot of different thoughts on this here. Me? I don’t want anything even remotely wet if I have temps that allow me to let the animal hang. I get the hide off. I cut the legs off just above the knees. I usually hang from the head but if a shot has messed that way up I hang from the hinds well spread. I take the fat cap off any areas where there is some. I open the chest and keep it open with a piece of wood. I’ll even put a fan on the carcass if air moisture is high.

The only meat I have even had spoil in the least was meat that held too much moisture.

Most deer don’t need hanging any longer than it takes to get it cut up if you’re doing it yourself.

What Tom said!! I wouldn’t dream of keeping any critter meat wet.

Here is the wet aging I’m speaking of.

https://www.themeateater.com/cook/butchering-and-processing/the-why-and-how-of-wet-aging-big-game

It has more appeal to me as I can render the meat down more than dry age, and less meat lost as no cap to be removed after aging, but I really have no idea what I’m doing as far as either form of aging.

I’ll let a skinned carcass hang a few days to a week if the temps are nice are just right in my shop but it’s not that often or I need to move the meat through so I can get to the next one that someone brings over. I’ve also never felt the need to tenderize a back strap and have enjoyed every one……UNTIL this last fall my dad shot an older buck. It was the first back strap I’ve ever had in my life that was too tough to want to eat. I wonder if this wet method would have taken care of it? Worth a try. Thanks for the link.

I guess I am concerned about handling the meat so much. Hung meat develops the cap that keeps air out while along the natural drainage and the meat itself has been handled minimally. The more the meat is handled, the greater the chances of dragging some bug into it. The wet method calls for getting the loins pulled so you handle the meat quite a bit doing that. Then the meat sits on a rack or table where more contact can be made. Getting the meat into a sealing bags calls for more handling. Then the meat sits for up to what….28 days in the fridge. If there’s any kind of bug in there it can multiply and simply because the bag is sealed means zip since many of these germs are anaerobic and lead happy little lives in the absence of air.

Yes, using plastic or latex gloves offers a barrier between you and the meat but there are millions of germs between the meat and the gloves unless everything is spotless. I just don’t think there’s any benefit to wet aging that I would care for but others may and to them I say, go ahead and try it.

Five years ago I shot a big nine point on the last day of the A season with about twenty minutes of legal light left. He dropped on the spot but as I waited a few minutes the breeze was blowing from him to me and I could smell that sucker at the 35 yards. All I could think of while waiting and then gutting him was this guy stinks to high heaven. I wondered if he’d be worth any thing on the table.

I pulled the tenders on him that evening after hanging him and getting the hide off. The tenders went to the fridge that night and the next day I did the process thing. Chops, steak, roast….the tenders….everything was perhaps the best eating we’ve ever had off a deer. Except the burger. Shot one day, in the freezer the next. I’ve also had does hang for three or four days in a cold garage with the hides pulled that tasted like goat. I think it all depends on each deer and that one can’t really tell much right off whether a deer will be gamey and tough of tender and tasty until its been cut and tried. I don’t mess with chops or roast or steak or burger any more and all of my venison goes straight into jerky, summer sausage and sticks. If I get big animals and have more meat I’ll do a batch of ring bologna and/or hot dogs.

If you’re going to try this Poo, let us know how it turns out.

Tom, as you described is how I’ve always done it too, probably would never have even considered aging it until we now suddenly have the opportunity to keep our old full size fridge to have for such things has my mind turning.

I had nice bucks the last three years and I aged them. I did a lot of research and read everything I could easily find on the subject.

Its usually cool out when I’ve attempted this so I just leave them hang with the hide on so no air gets on the meat. If its warmer than I’d like I just skin and quarter the deer and bag the quarters and put them in a refrigerator. This prevents any outside contamination. (If I had anything but a perfect vital kill I would not age a deer either) They say the sweet spot is 7-10 days, so I usually do 7.

If I did mostly sausage I would not bother with any of this. Just cut the meat up and eat it. I do almost all steaks and as little trimmings as possibly, so I find a significant benefit. After 7 days the only thing you can visibly see is tender meat. The meat smells and looks the same but noticeably cuts much easier. During the aging process the connective tissue in the meat breaks down considerably. The back straps almost fall out as you cut and the steaks in the hindquarters separate very easy. I cook steak for friends and family frequently and I get a lot of comments on the tenderness.

FYI before I did my research there’s no way I would have let a deer sit for more than a few days. I read a number of articles from top chefs around the country and they all seem to agree on the 7 to 10 days for venison. Good luck.

Regardless whether you wet age or not, I’d keep the fridge for a carry over/backup. When I’m processing what ever for freezer vac packages or brines it is really handy! Plus keeps wine cold, hooch cold, beer cold, can you see where I’ve gone with this?

Denny O wrote:

Regardless whether you wet age or not, I’d keep the fridge for a carry over/backup. When I’m processing what ever for freezer vac packages or brines it is really handy! Plus keeps wine cold, hooch cold, beer cold, can you see where I’ve gone with this?

I agree with this. I have a frig out in my garage for this. It also is great when the garden stuff starts coming in.

Everyone does things a little different and its a personal choice.

Now holding onto the old fridge for the garage, that makes a lot of sense and as Glenn mentions when the garden is producing an extra cold spot is usually more than welcome. The beverages maybe enjoy the chill too.

Aging game meat makes for much better tasting table fare. Once you get the process down, you’ll realize you don’t have to turn an older buck into 100% grind.

tornadochaser wrote:

Aging game meat makes for much better tasting table fare. Once you get the process down, you’ll realize you don’t have to turn an older buck into 100% grind.

I still do steaks/roast/kabobs out of older deer already, honestly I cant really taste any difference between a 1 year doe old or a 3-4 year old buck. (mite have a lot to do with hunting farmland deer that pretty much eat like cattle in lieu of big woods browse eating deer though too) I thought my wife would be more receptive of the idea of trying to make them better yet but alas I lost the battle for keeping the old fridge.

How can you age meat that has no fat content to speak of in the muscle fibers?

Aging involves the muscle, not the fat. The fat cap on venison is suggested to be removed for aging.

I think we decided, so long as we remember, that we are going to try like two meals worth of loin next year (assuming I shoot at least one deer) and try this wet aging to see if/how noticable it is and if it goes real well then maybe look at trying it more going forward. Worst case we toss out two meals of venison steaks.