Below zero meat management

[V2Pnutrition]

We shot a cow a couple of years ago with temps around -8-10F (-22C). We skinned, quartered, and packed it off the mountain like any other animal. It froze solid that night. I unthawed it when home to process myself and never had a better tasting elk the rest of that year.

What I would change is removing the game bags earlier if I had a way to keep the meat clean once back at the truck. It tore a couple of my bags because I tried to peel them back too soon. 100% on me…

 

[Caseknife]

Have had numerous animals freeze solid hanging, just have to adjust a bit prior to cutting.
Dad killed a big bull about 45 years ago, came face to face with him about 10 yards, his hunting partner showed up a bit later and they decided to keep the hide in one piece. Normally they just quartered in the hide and hung it. Hung the hide over a waist high down lodgepole. Got down to about zero that night and Dad went in the next day to pack the hide out. Couldn't do anything with it except strap it to his pack frame. Said it was like packing out a 4x8 sheet of plywood. When we packed out the bull the quarters were frozen solid and could not even begin to remove the lower leg bone and to top it off there was about a 1/2" of ice on everything, pretty memorable pack out for a teenager.

 

[WRO]

You actually don't want it to freeze while still in rigor mortis, as that can cause cold shortening and result in very tough cuts.

The best option is to leave it bone on, if you don’t it’ll be tough.


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[WRO]

I was always told to never let meat freeze before packaging for the freezer, that thawing it to cut and then re-freezing it would significantly change the texture of the meat for the worse. But have always been able to keep it from freezing even in really cold weather. Is this texture thing from re-freezing a myth? Or is it just part of the deal on super late season hunts?

Myth, killed several that froze solid over the years and they all tasted great.. they were all bone in whole.


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[sndmn11]

The biggest mistake we have made is laying meat on snow in the bed of a truck overnight. That meat ended up grayish like of it were touching water in a cooler. The same goes for getting your game bags wet by laying quarters out before you start walking. Change your game bags when you get back to the truck.

It both situations, it is solved by a waterproof tarp in between the snow and the meat. It always takes longer for me at to go from dead to frozen than I expect. A few times meat hasn't frozen when I was certain it would, so still be mindful of moisture.

 

[EdP]

It is a fact that if the meat freezes before rigor mortis the meat will be tougher. There is a bunch of research done with tons of data, obviously it mostly relates to commercial processing but there is plenty of cross over.

Lots of naysayers to this are saying "I did it and the meat tasted great," but taste is not the issue in question, texture/toughness is.

From Wikipedia on rigor mortis:
Rigor mortis is very important in the meat industry. The onset of rigor mortis and its resolution partially determines the tenderness of meat. If the post-slaughter meat is immediately chilled to 15 °C (59 °F), a phenomenon known as cold shortening occurs, whereby the muscle sarcomeres shrink to a third of their original length.

Cold shortening is caused by the release of stored calcium ions from the sarcoplasmic reticulum of muscle fibers, in response to the cold stimulus. The calcium ions trigger powerful muscle contraction aided by ATP molecules. To prevent cold shortening, a process known as electrical stimulation is carried out, especially in beef carcasses, immediately after slaughter and skinning. In this process, the carcass is stimulated with alternating current, causing it to contract and relax, which depletes the ATP reserve from the carcass and prevents cold shortening.[6]

I think immediately chilling game meat to 59F or cooler is standard practice, especially when an animal is taken in the cool/cold weather normal for hunting seasons. Other articles on the web get into technical details well beyond my understanding of chemistry and are focused on commercial meat handling, which is quite different from handling game taken in the field. We may not observe texture/toughness changes due to cold shortening and rigor effects because field game handling practices are not amenable to the commercial practices used to maximize tenderness.

 

[missjordan]

4 or 5 years ago i shot a cow and we left it whole with the hide on in the bed of the truck. A bunch of the meat surprisingly spoiled even with it being high’s in the teens. First time that ever happened. I would skin quarter and put in game bags to freeze. Live and learn


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[johnnycake]

The best option is to leave it bone on, if you don’t it’ll be tough.


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It definitely helps to leave the bone in (whether it freezes or not), but even bone in freezing before rigor mortis has relaxed runs the risk of cold shortening and tougher meat.

 

[Bigfeet]

I've processed my own animals for many years and ran into an issue with my Whitetail from this year. Took him on day 2 of a 10 day trip. Took the hide off immediately and put each quarter into its own game bag - like I've done for years. Meat rode in the back of the truck the rest of the trip, but below freezing temps the entire time. Done this many times and never an issue. Cut him up when I got home (had to bring in the quarters to thaw for a day) and the meat didn't have the normal 'fresh' smell. There was a slight taint to the smell - like it was on the edge of spoiling. Odd, as I've never had that issue before. Hope it doesn't affect the taste, but I'm guessing (for whatever reason) there was too much moisture in the meat that froze and contributed to the smell? Anyone have any ideas on why?

 

[william schmaltz]

Cold shortening is certainly a thing. Growing up when we shot deer close to 0F, we would gut in the field and keep the hide on to prevent them from freezing until we got home at the end of the day to hang ‘em. My wife got a cow moose a few years ago at -10F. We let it lay for a little over an hour to let it rigor. Seemed to work well. Then it was about two hours to break down and get it hung in the 40F garage. It I had more than an hour drive, I would’ve left the hide on until I got it home. While Musk Ox hunting, we’ve covered the meat with the hide for the transport back to the village to prevent a quick freeze with varying results.