Meat-hanging shed questions

[mountainlaurel3]

Last winter I built a meat-hanging shed. Well, it's really a sauna, but why not also a meat-hanging shed? It's detached and insulated, with two operable vents and a gap at the bottom of the door. I made the benches removable and doubled two of the 2x6 ceiling joists.



A few questions for you meat-hanging gurus:
1. Will my sauna permanently (or for weeks) smell like venison? My wife might not dig that so much...
2. Saunas typically don't have any sort of closure latch (mine is just on a simple spring) so there's no way for someone to get stuck inside. Plenty of bears around, at least until they're hibernating - how would you create a closure system that could keep out a bear but also be removed for sauna use?
3. Any reason to do something other than eye bolts into the doubled ceiling joists and meat hooks? It seems a rail system is best for being flexible, but I also am trying to minimize metal inside to avoid hot surfaces at 175 degrees. I'll keep put the hooks over the center of the room so they're not right overhead on the upper bench.

Bonus photo of the neighborhood bachelor group yesterday, sauna in foreground. Apologies for the poor cell phone photo.

 

[rwc101]

No idea about your questions, but I love that you finessed your wife into building a meat hanging shed under the cover of it being a "sauna." Well played.

 

[Straight Arrow]

1. Will my sauna permanently (or for weeks) smell like venison?

Hanging elk carcass parts will likely impart an odor for quite some time.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Hanging elk carcass parts will likely impart an odor for quite some time.

Agreed. Especially when you add heat.

 

[Dsnow9]

It’s hard to get the smell out of coolers and they are nothing as porous as wood. I think the smell will probably stick around for a while

 

[Hunting Wife]

I have no idea, but something about the idea of a building designed to be warm and moist combined with food handling just doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.

I would want disinfectable surfaces and would be a little concerned about bacterial growth.

 

[MThuntr]

Hard pass...your wife will use that thing to hang your hide when she smells the place and sees blood stains on everything.

Build something similar line it with something you can hose down and sanitize. Then run a coolbot in it

 

[mountainlaurel3]

No idea about your questions, but I love that you finessed your wife into building a meat hanging shed under the cover of it being a "sauna." Well played.

Joke's on me, as now I have an extra cord or two of wood to collect each year, plus a second fire to tend. The sauna is glorious, though.

I have no idea, but something about the idea of a building designed to be warm and moist combined with food handling just doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.

I would want disinfectable surfaces and would be a little concerned about bacterial growth.

I got the idea from the Finns, who would historically use the sauna for bathing, birthing, cleaning the dead, drying or hanging meat, if I understand correctly. Of course, that doesn't mean I should take my hygiene cues from that far in the past... Here in SW CO everything is so dry that the little bit of steam we use in the sauna dissipates quickly, at least according to my junky hygrometer. The idea would be to not have used the sauna for a couple days, in which case it is just an insulated box - it stays cool in the middle of the day even when it's warm out.

Anyway, that was my thinking, but it doesn't matter if the consensus is that the smell will be strong. Alas, I guess it's back to the hang it from a tree if I have the temps for it plan.

Hard pass...your wife will use that thing to hang your hide when she smells the place and sees blood stains on everything.

Build something similar line it with something you can hose down and sanitize. Then run a coolbot in it

Someday I'll have a garage, and perhaps I'll do that... but it will be a long time, sadly.

 

[westbranch]

175? But yeah, I wouldn't want that be smell in my sauna.

 

[mountainlaurel3]

I wish! It's a small, non-sauna specific stove, so I have to really work to get it over 165. But for $100 with all the stovepipe, chimney pipe, and connectors, it was really the genesis of the whole project.

 

[Boarmaster]

If the interior walls are made with a porous material it will surely smell. Might even get more funky as you heat it up. Its its made with something non porous , floor and ceiling included them you might have a shot at cleaning it up. I would probably build another shed for hanging meat and other uses unlikely to effect my wife. Great looking shed.

 

[TheTone]

Crank the heat and it’s just a giant sous vide. Entire animal cooked at the same time