hanging meat question
- Thread starter ttinman23
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elkantlers
Well-known member
I would hang it just so the air can get around it all.
D
Deleted member 20812
Guest
Agreed. Air circulation is a good thing. Moisture is one of the precursors to spoilage. y elk hindquarters have been hanging since last Tuesday with no issues.
jzeck2
Member
Steven Rinella
Steven Rinella talked about this on his pod cast and I believe in his new book "Hunting Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game" volume I Big Game. As far as aging you don't necessarily have to hang the meet to age. He is an advocate of aging it in the freezer. My experience tends to back him up. Found a package of elk steak while cleaning the freezer from 2 years ago. I unthawed it and it looked fine so I cooked it, it was by far more tender than when it was fresh and the taste was as good as before. You must make sure that it is packaged really well however and he goes into that in the book. Air is the enemy once it goes into the freezer.
As far as cooling down after the kill, what you do with the critter before you put it in the freezer has more to do with quality than anything else. As they say garbage in garbage out. Keep it clean, dry and cool it down as quickly as possible, also keep insects away. Big critters like elk take along time to cool down, they tend to start to "sour" first next to the bone. Also the hide around the neck is especially thick (skin and hair) take extra precautions there to make sure it cools quickly.
I really like to bone my elk out in the field and put it in game bags and hang to cool.
Steven Rinella talked about this on his pod cast and I believe in his new book "Hunting Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game" volume I Big Game. As far as aging you don't necessarily have to hang the meet to age. He is an advocate of aging it in the freezer. My experience tends to back him up. Found a package of elk steak while cleaning the freezer from 2 years ago. I unthawed it and it looked fine so I cooked it, it was by far more tender than when it was fresh and the taste was as good as before. You must make sure that it is packaged really well however and he goes into that in the book. Air is the enemy once it goes into the freezer.
As far as cooling down after the kill, what you do with the critter before you put it in the freezer has more to do with quality than anything else. As they say garbage in garbage out. Keep it clean, dry and cool it down as quickly as possible, also keep insects away. Big critters like elk take along time to cool down, they tend to start to "sour" first next to the bone. Also the hide around the neck is especially thick (skin and hair) take extra precautions there to make sure it cools quickly.
I really like to bone my elk out in the field and put it in game bags and hang to cool.
teamhoyt
Well-known member
I prefer to hang the animals long enough to skin it, then quarter it and straight to the freezer.
LuketheDog
Well-known member
My understanding is that deer and elk don't really benefit from aging, due to the way their fat breaks down. I read a study about it a while back, but most of it was over my head so I won't pretend to be an expert. As long as you take care of the meat, i.e. clean, bug-free, cool, and remove the fat before you freeze it should come out ok. Deer fat will get rancid eventually even in the freezer, unlike beef or pork fat...
D
Deleted member 20812
Guest
You are correct about the aging per se, in that deer and elk don't have the marbling that oxidizes like beef fat does. However, they do benefit from the proteolytic breakdown that occurs while the meat hangs.
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