Hanging/aging meat in plastic wrap

[UtahJimmy]

Ever since I build a walk-in a few years ago, I'm always hung my quarters bone-in for a few weeks the the meat exposed. The end product is superb and I just trim the crust and further dehydrate it for the pup. But I'm curious if wrapping the quarters (after they are fully cooled down) in saran wrap would provide any benefit?

I could see more meat yield since I would be wet aging instead of dry aging, but is the flavor profile different?

If you had a choice of dry vs wet, which would you prefer?

I killed a cow Tuesday afternoon and the center of her rears are already a perfect 38°. I'd like to be able to reduce the crust depth mostly on the shoulders, as there is a lot more surface area to volume ratio vs the rears, but still age for a few weeks.

I reread the thread from @Beendare about his buddy using wrap instead of game bags, but there isn't any info there about what he does once he gets it home.

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[TX_Diver]

Following this one. We butcher a lot of stuff ourselves at home...

 

[robby denning]

I would really hesitate to do that based on my experience with plastic bags in the old days and putting my meat in them. It seems like they got a little slimy.

I’ve aged a lot of animals, and tried it with hide on and off, and it still seems like you get that little bit of dryness you have to takeoff, even with the hide on, I still had to trim it if I aged it very long.

Can’t give you a definitive answer on this, but it’s just my gut feeling that airflow is a good thing


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[Runningwater]

You could try one as a test and have a direct comparison of the two. Keep a close eye on it and if things look like they are heading the wrong way you could remove it.
Have you tried talking to a local processor? They might share some knowledge. Good luck! A walk in is on the short list of projects when I retire!

 

[mtblackdog]

I wouldnt do plastic. Id wrap in cotton sheets. Seen plastic "slime" out meat before.

 

[jking6765]

I’ve wet aged vacuumed sealed cuts, and it’s been a game changer on whitetail for me. 2-3 weeks for backstraps/roasts have all been great! I would drain blood and reseal every once in a while. I just rinse them off when i pull them out. I haven’t tried anything bigger than that, but I’m wanting to build a walk in.

 

[Rich M]

I’ve wet aged vacuumed sealed cuts, and it’s been a game changer on whitetail for me. 2-3 weeks for backstraps/roasts have all been great! I would drain blood and reseal every once in a while. I just rinse them off when i pull them out. I haven’t tried anything bigger than that, but I’m wanting to build a walk in.

That's what I'm gonna try this year with a beef cow - some vac seal aging.

Any time i tried to age venison in a plastic bag, it got slimey. Always just left in cooler, drain 2x day and add ice as needed (every 2 or 3 days).

 

[journeyman713]

I’ve wrapped hanging whole skinned deer with Saran Wrap. Top to bottom. It works fine - no slime at all. Here’s the thing, I wrap the outside only, the inside cavity breathes some. The result a week later is as you’d expect with no meat loss where it is covered. The insides of the quarters unwrapped, have the typical dry red surface that needs to be shaved off.

 

[butcherboy]

It will work if it’s not covered for too long and then leave some part of it open so it can “breathe”. It’s not a wet aged meat doing it this way. I would watch it carefully for that slime. For me, the dry skin on the outside is very minimal and easy to trim off in big long pieces before the quarters are deboned. If too much red meat is left on the dry strip then just lay your knife flat between the two and pull the dry strip towards you. This will filet more meat off that dry strip.

A true wet aged meat needs to be deboned and vacuum sealed or placed in a ziplock bag with as much air removed as possible. Another option to keep the outside meat from drying out is to use a shroud. You can buy them from meat supply companies.

 

[#1antler]

If all your meat cuts are vacuum packed and placed in cooler before freezer will it continue to tenderize?

 

[butcherboy]

Yes.

 

[Ucsdryder]

In my experience overnight hanging in the back country, if I put in game bags they don’t form a crust, open air they quickly form that crust. Not sure how that would change over an extended period but I would try wrapping in some sort of DRY game bag. If it gets wet you’re probably going to want to change it out

 

[aclawrence]

I’d like to see some more info on this cooler you made!


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