28 day wet aged venison

[Short Track]

I have had that happen with a moose. Processing was perfect. timely.. game care was good. Something was just not right, and my family will not eat any more moose.

 

[NLenz22]

I have cooked and eaten a ton of whitetail backstraps and experimented a little with different ageing techniques. I always cook whole muscle to rare/medium rare, rest, and then slice.

I've done the vacuum sealed wet age in the refrigerator for several weeks, draining and resealing every couple days. You end up with a more tender piece of meat but for the amount of work and vacuum bags you go through I don't know if the juice is worth the squeeze.

I've also eaten a bunch of them "fresh". Just processed and set in the fridge for a day or two before I got around to cooking it. Still good but probably the chewiest in the end.

It surprises me every time but usually pulling a backstrap out of a vacuum sealed bag that's been in the freezer for a few months, I end up with a pretty dang tender piece of meat. Possibly as good or better than trying to "age" them in the fridge. And a lot less work...

 

[ozyclint]

Botulism on raw garlic can flourish in an anaerobic solution like oil. It's not inherently a problem mixing water, or ice, and meat.

Of course people should be cognizant of the quality of water and maybe not use untreated dirty wallow or creek water to soak or brine their meat.

Bacteria from water will not penetrate whole muscle, it's a surface concern unless it's going to the grinder. Adding some salt to clean, well or municipal water, or even ice from a commercial vendor and then aging or brining meat is very low risk food safety wise. It shouldn't even be a concern if one cooks the meat after the aging process.

Rinsing meat can cross-contaminate other surfaces. Commercially processed poultry presents a big risk for salmonella cross contamination. This is probably a more common mishandling, taking surface bacteria already on the meat and spreading around the kitchen.

Food safety seems like a big blind spot for hunters, in general. Everyone processing their own meat would be well served by having a better than casual understanding of safe food handling, processing, and cooking.

Ground meat is less sanitary because surface bacteria is distributed throughout the end product. There are additional safety precautions involved with making and cooking fresh and cured sausages, or just burger.

Exactly what I was thinking. A meat cut soaking in olive oil sounds like a non acidic, anaerobic environment which botulinum clostridium bacteria need to produce their toxin.

 

[Short Track]

Exactly what I was thinking. A meat cut soaking in olive oil sounds like a non acidic, anaerobic environment which botulinum clostridium bacteria need to produce their toxin.

Please explain that in english...

 

[86indy]

I’m surprised with the reports.

Buddies and I shot doves day of birds and 3 day marinated, grilled on the breast plate and the day of were far more tender.

I may have to revisit this sort of idea.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ozyclint]

Please explain that in english...

That particular bacteria is everywhere but only produces toxin in a certain environment. That being, non-acidic AND low oxygen.
Meat PH is not acidic enough and an olive oil bath would exclude oxygen creating an environment were it can possibly produce the toxin.

Low temperature (freezing), low PH (acidic) and low moisture (dehydration) are key methods to preserve food from harmful bacteria.

Heating to create a sterile environment and maintaining that sterile environment after the heating is another method. Eg, canning.
However even with boiling you must also consider PH because although boiling destroys Botulinum clostridium bacteria it does not destroy its spores.
For that you need 125°C which is only possible with pressure or with the confit method of cooking.
Confit is an old French method of preservation. Meat would be immersed in lard, tallow etc, cooked low and slow but above 125°C then allowed to cool and stored in the same vessel. A sterile environment is created during cooking and when the fat solidifies it encapsulates the meat which prevents moisture and bacteria spoilage.

Acidic foods can be hot water bathed and non acidic foods must be pressure canned.

 

[SconnieRaised]

https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2023.7745

Here's an interesting read on dry and wet aging safety for people with time and willingness to sort thru scientific literature.

For those who don't, the report concludes dry aging beef for 35 days at temps up to about 37 F should be safe and wet aging beef for 35 days at temperatures up to about 36 F should be safe. It's silent on whether longer aging timeframes are unsafe, but the background section mentions industry aging practices with longer durations so it seems to me like there's a good chance they're okay.

It's important to recognize that wet aging was done with vacuum packed meat, not Ziplocs with air squeezed out or with meat submerged in oil. Not saying that wet aging in oil is unsafe, but I also haven't seen solid information that gives me enough comfort to try it, especially when I already have a vacuum sealer.

From personal experience with processing my deer this past fall, dry aging was a hassle and time suck compared to wet aging. I haven't cooked up the roasts yet to compare palatability but I'm thinking I'll be wet aging going forward based on the simplicity of the method and on how little free time I have with kids.

 

[Smkn_brl00]

28 day wet aged, 14 in meat container at fridge temps (36-38 degrees) followed by final process and vacuum seal and back into fridge for another 2 weeks.
Bags opened, final trim, season, vacuum seal and off to the freezer.

Ate some backstrap seasoned with smoky paprika tonight. Meat was tender, despite my desired cook to medium/medium well, and flavor was really good. Little to no gamey flavor. Really impressed with this method.

I’ll probably start a firestorm here but I argue that “wet aging” meat in ice water is not really wet aging. The process of vacuum sealing meat in its own juices and keeping it cold is not the same as letting meat sit in ice cold water. I would propose that letting it sit in ice water is a form of controlled slow rot or spoilage.

 

[Jason Snyder]

I would propose that letting it sit in ice water is a form of controlled slow rot or spoilage.

Any sort of aging, wet or dry is essentially a controlled decomposition process.