Quarter or De Bone?

[Goober]

and just to clairify.....I am not at all arguing one way or the other, just looking to hear if anyone takes this into consideration or has noticed a difference.

 

[belly-deep]

I like to quarter if possible. It saves some meat from getting dirty. Unfortunately, most critters I kill are in places where de-boning makes life easier, so thats usually what I do.

 

[2rocky]

I'm sure I answered this somewhere else, but I like the rigidity of the legbones for packing.

I think going through Rigor Mortis on the bone improved tenderness. Ideally you don't want to freeze a carcass before Rigor because of the cold shortening effect on the muscle fibers. (Think Seinfeld scene "Shrinkage"). Commercial packing facilities have a "hotbox" where the carcass is cooled to between 70 and 50 degrees F for 24 hours before going into the deep freeze locker.

Rigor mortis is very important in meat technology. The onset of rigor mortis and its resolution partially determines the tenderness of meat. If the postslaughter meat is immediately chilled to 15°C (59°F), a phenomenon known as cold shortening occurs, where 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]

It could be argued that the "death run" of a bowkilled animal would reduce the ATP reserves, but I don't know of any studies that looked at it. HMMMM....Maybe I need to do a masters....

 

[RUTTIN]

I have always quartered my animals with the bone in to pack out. But this year if I am lucky, I am going to bone it out. As far as letting game hang and age, I don't buy it. Since I have cut up my animals the day I kill them(getting all of the fat and bone off) I have never had meat taste so good. I think that a lot of the gamey taste people get, is from hanging animals with the fat and bone still on, letting all of the gamey taste seep in to the meat. Just my .02 cents.

 

[Jager]

Goober, you are quiet correct with leaving the bone in and hanging the quarter producing much more palatable meat, it is a process known as tender stretch hanging, the weight of the quarter giving the weight needed to stretch the meat as enzymes begin to break everything down, this is where a meats tenderness comes from. There is no question, the method produces better meat. However, as it is not always possible for a hunter to carry full quarters out we need to de-bone. If it is possible once you get the meat to refrigeration, try and let it age in its different cuts for at least a few days before freezing, again, this definitely improves the quality of the meat. I have experimented with different aged cuts from the same animal, both with hanging and letting sit on a plate in refrigeration to see (taste) how things go, the longer it is aged the better it becomes, tender wise, the trick is to know when to refrigerate before it starts to go off.

There are glands between cuts of meat in the hindquarters of Red deer that, if not cut out, will absolutely destroy the venison and have heard people complain that the meat is too gamey, yet, they had no idea about the glands.

 

[DWarcher]

there's a reason man is dog's best friend my dogs absolutely love some elk of leg bone

I love my dog...just not that much!

 

[flatlander51]

Hey Aron will this video be out by the end of sept. ?

 

[bounds]

I was thinking yesterday about posting a question to see if anyone had a video or pics of deboning and how they do it in the field. Just got on and saw this thread. Would love to see the video Aron.