The Deer Aging Thread

[robby denning]

What is an ideal humidity percentage?

I can’t imagine that leaving the hide on doesn’t reduce surface drying and therefore meat loss. Really?

Ya, that's what I understood he says. The good thing about all this is as long as you're in that 33-40 degree range, you have some flexibility on trying that. I've left hides on up to 13 days before skinning and haven't seen a problem. But until I weigh two bucks before aging, one skinned, one not, I can't really say for sure the difference on meat loss

I've never seen the ideal humidity number but I do know inside a fridge with no air flow could be too high. I've done most of mine in the garage so probably under 40% humidity if I had to guess..

 

[Hunterman22]

Hi, I got a question for anyone who might know about aging deer.I just got done doing a 26 day in the refrigerator aging .The meat turned grey/brown.It is still dull pink inside (almost like a smoke ring when you smoke a brisket).Question is do I have to cut the off color meat away all the way down to the dull pink ?Thanks

 

[robby denning]

Hi, I got a question for anyone who might know about aging deer.I just got done doing a 26 day in the refrigerator aging .The meat turned grey/brown.It is still dull pink inside (almost like a smoke ring when you smoke a brisket).Question is do I have to cut the off color meat away all the way down to the dull pink ?Thanks

Just cut the dry layer away. I’m color blind so to me if I cut off the dry layer, it’s red meat directly below that. Usually about 1/8”-1/4” trim does the trick.


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[Hunterman22]

I also used the vegi drawer(37 degrees) in the fridge and it seems the meat never really dried out to much.The roasts got alittle dry on the top but the bottom of the roasts which were on cookie racks just got sticky or tacky.26 days of waiting now I get to try them!

 

[biking_2003]

I've never aged anything that long but might have to give it a try. Our seasons are typically early and warm this converted fridge comes pretty handy to regulate temps while hanging.

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This is sweet, something I've been pondering doing for a while now. We had a walk in cooler growing up; it aged meat without as much waste as out in the air. How did you set up the thermostat on the fridge?

 

[hunt-n-ski]

I have an old fridge in the garage and use it to age the hind quarters. I've done 4 deer and 1 antelope in the last two years. I don't think I will do antelope in the future because the smaller size makes the waste higher (at least for the does). I put a small fan inside the fridge that runs the whole time and a bowl with salt water in it. I keep adjusting the temperature until in is relatively stable around 35 degrees. The meat comes out great but one of the other benefits for me is that I don't have to process the whole anamal at once. I can deal with the backstraps, and front quaters (plus smaller stuff like neck meat) and put the hind quaters in the fridge and I'm done. If I'm in a real rush cause I either need to work all week or get back into the field I'll wrap the front quaters whole (minus shanks) and throw in the freezer and just deal with it when I pull it out.

A quick question, do you think it is worth aging the front quaters? I've always figured that since I make them into stews, burgers, and sausage that it was not worth the effort. But then I see that you did it so maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Rangerpants]

This is fascinating, thanks for the tutorial! I've never aged anything as it never gets cold enough locally to do it without using a dedicated fridge or something. Reading this makes me wonder about building a little shed and hooking up a window AC. I saw some mention of a similar set-up from other posters and I wonder if anyone has actually done it successfully?

 

[600gr]

I built a small cold room late last fall using the CoolBot/AC method. I haven't hung any meat in it yet but I've tested it out and it will hold ~36 degrees pretty consistently. I'm also interested in the ideal humidity for aging meat if anyone has figured that out.

 

[robby denning]

I built a small cold room late last fall using the CoolBot/AC method. I haven't hung any meat in it yet but I've tested it out and it will hold ~36 degrees pretty consistently. I'm also interested in the ideal humidity for aging meat if anyone has figured that out.

Great project. Until you figure out the humidity, just let a little air flow in. That’s what I used to do when I used a fridge. @realunlucky ? Any info on humidity?

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

@Indian Summer I have found that leaving the skin on might save a little meat loss, but not a ton. And skinning a deer after 2 weeks of hanging is a PITA. Like Robby, I always prefer to dry age venison. I've hung deer for up to 6 weeks (we shot a lot of deer that season and the last one didn't get butchered till after Christmas). The quality of the meat is spectacular.

Here in TX I use a different approach now. I put the quarters above ice in a chest cooler (meat sits on racks to let fluid drip off), and I leave the drain plug open. This method is probably more akin to wet aging, I never bothered to figure out the science or terminology. Anyways, you can age them a couple weeks that way, and when I did it last season I found there was no trimming required. The deer was young, so I can't comment on the relative tenderization compared to dry aging.

 

[Indian Summer]

@Indian Summer I have found that leaving the skin on might save a little meat loss, but not a ton. And skinning a deer after 2 weeks of hanging is a PITA. Like Robby, I always prefer to dry age venison. I've hung deer for up to 6 weeks (we shot a lot of deer that season and the last one didn't get butchered till after Christmas). The quality of the meat is spectacular.

Here in TX I use a different approach now. I put the quarters above ice in a chest cooler (meat sits on racks to let fluid drip off), and I leave the drain plug open. This method is probably more akin to wet aging, I never bothered to figure out the science or terminology. Anyways, you can age them a couple weeks that way, and when I did it last season I found there was no trimming required. The deer was young, so I can't comment on the relative tenderization compared to dry aging.

I don’t leave skin on. I quarter, skin, and use Tag Bags. They keep the surface from drying. A buddy has a walk in freezer we set at 34 and in there I hang meat... whole skinned deer when shot at home, and can hang for a long time. But everything stays intact for less surface exposure until final cutting. No chance of hair, bacteria or anything coming in contact with substantially more surface area. Clean!

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

I don’t leave skin on. I quarter, skin, and use Tag Bags. They keep the surface from drying. A buddy has a walk in freezer we set at 34 and in there I hang meat... whole skinned deer when shot at home, and can hang for a long time. But everything stays intact for less surface exposure until final cutting. No chance of hair, bacteria or anything coming in contact with substantially more surface area. Clean!

I didn't know the Tag bags would have that effect. Might need to try it. Do you ever bone out elk quarters Joe? Or do you always keep them on the bone until you're ready to process?

 

[Indian Summer]

I didn't know the Tag bags would have that effect. Might need to try it. Do you ever bone out elk quarters Joe? Or do you always keep them on the bone until you're ready to process?

On the bone. But remember I’m packing with horses. Sometimes I have to pack them to where I can get a horse to them but I still leave everything intact.

 

[Inrutt]

Great post!
I worked as a custom butcher for years and aged many animals. Freezing until cooler temps set in is a great idea. Additional things I've learned:
Careful with exhausts, fumes, and funky smells etc. in garage/aging room.
IF temperatures are conducive to speedy carcass cooling, leaving the hide on helps ALOT with keeping meat from drying.
I've never noticed a difference with flavor, hide or no hide hanging, but always aged to < 14 days on personal deer sized animals.
Cooling larger elk sized animals whole, with hide on, would be risky. Likewise, larger animals lend themselves better to longer aging times due to the thickness of the cuts. A boned whitetail backstrap would be more like dried venison after 28 days aging.
Pull your tenderloins out of deer and smaller sized animals ASAP. They will shrink to nothing after drying and trimming. This is very sad.
I dont dry age skinned smaller WT or antelope due to drying losses though hind quarters from the knee up and untrimmed unboned backstraps would be okay.
I remove thin cuts like flanks, rib meat, and shanks, especially on deer or smaller game, to avoid losing them entirely to drying.
These are some of my experiences and opinions from butchering many thousands of wild and domestic animals. Definitely not a be all end all, but stuff to think about. I have never tried aging in game bags or "wet" aging.
Again, thank you for the awesome work on this post and shining more understanding on this subject!

 

[robby denning]

Great post!
I worked as a custom butcher for years and aged many animals. Freezing until cooler temps set in is a great idea. Additional things I've learned:
Careful with exhausts, fumes, and funky smells etc. in garage/aging room.
IF temperatures are conducive to speedy carcass cooling, leaving the hide on helps ALOT with keeping meat from drying.
I've never noticed a difference with flavor, hide or no hide hanging, but always aged to < 14 days on personal deer sized animals.
Cooling larger elk sized animals whole, with hide on, would be risky. Likewise, larger animals lend themselves better to longer aging times due to the thickness of the cuts. A boned whitetail backstrap would be more like dried venison after 28 days aging.
Pull your tenderloins out of deer and smaller sized animals ASAP. They will shrink to nothing after drying and trimming. This is very sad.
I dont dry age skinned smaller WT or antelope due to drying losses though hind quarters from the knee up and untrimmed unboned backstraps would be okay.
I remove thin cuts like flanks, rib meat, and shanks, especially on deer or smaller game, to avoid losing them entirely to drying.
These are some of my experiences and opinions from butchering many thousands of wild and domestic animals. Definitely not a be all end all, but stuff to think about. I have never tried aging in game bags or "wet" aging.
Again, thank you for the awesome work on this post and shining more understanding on this subject!

Hey man, thanks for hopping on and fine-tuning this post. I read everything you wrote and agree with that wholeheartedly. The smaller cuts do have to be cared for early and I should’ve pointed that out more because you lose so much in aging on those. Thanks again


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[michaelmoore10]

Finally, on January 5th, after 26 days of aging, I pulled the quarters from the pole. I hadn't seen a fresh drop of blood in days, and even quit covering the hood of the truck. The quarters now weighed 15% less than when I started the process. That loss is due to blood (and water) and according to the good Chef McGannon, one of the keys to succulent meat.

Mold (and even some slime) had also begun to form on much of the meat. Most of us have heard an ol' timer say that is when they used to start tasting fine, and they're right.

Don't let the mold freak you out, as it will all be trimmed off when you remove the 1/4" dry layer. Another advantage to dry aging is if you happened to get your meat dirty in the field (and everyone knows how hard it is to keep hair off), all that will go with the 1/4" trim.

Your meat will be cleaner than ever. At least some of the time that I lose trimming the dry meat would have been spent picking hair and dirt off an unaged buck.

I spent the next few hours trimming, cutting steaks, roasts, stew meat, and trim for burger.

There was virtually no blood on my cutting board. Compare this pic of my cutting board to pic #8 in post #1.

The meat had lost it's typical rubbery texture. It yields to finger pressure and is slightly darker than unaged meat.

I did have to trim more than normal due to starting with boned out meat and all that surface area, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's still always preferable to age the deer whole and reduce the surface area exposed to air.

I finished wrapping all the steaks, roasts, stew meat and refroze the trim for the burger until I had time to grind.

Once the burger was ground, I pulled everything out of the freezer and weighed it.

I had 50 lbs of prime dry aged meat. I started with 78lbs of unaged boned out meat, so lost 28lbs to blood/water loss and trim. Not near all of that 28 is due to aging, as even an unaged buck will have many pounds of trim, especially if the meat is dirty. I'd guess I'm doubling the amount of trim due to the dry age process.

I don't know how much the buck weighed on the hoof. He wasn't huge, so maybe 225-250lb live weight as a rough estimate.

So I retained 20-22% of the meat in they very worst case scenario (dry aging boned out meat.) I think I've read unaged meat will get you closer to 30-35% of live weight. Only you can decide if it's worth the loss. As for me, I'll take the hit 7 days out of 7.

Now for the good stuff. I heated a 12" cast-iron skillet with a few Tbs of canola oil to almost a smoke and seared both sides of a salt-n-peppered steak cut from the top of the front shoulder, for about a minute per side, killed the heat and covered the skillet with another 12" cast-iron skillet and let the meat finish.

While front shoulder meat isn't known for tenderness, this piece was great. Knife cut all the way through with one slice and really tender with little effort to chew. No strong gamey flavor, just the savory almost-mild flavor you'd expect from a cow elk. The loins and sirloins are going to be even better.

About a week later, I unthawed the burger trim in a refrigerator for four days, then worked with Sophia to finish up the entire project.

I ground this burger with no added beef or pork suet. I did do a few pounds with a big piece of tallow from the buck.

I'd fried some of the tenderloin in camp in the tallow and it was delicious. I'll have to chime in later after I've tried the burger. For that night, I just grilled up the fresh burger with no added fat. Had to be careful when handling it as it can fall apart more easily without the fat.

I added three pieces of Genoa salami to the top, then a piece of cheddar cheese over that, stuffed it all in a whole wheat bun with some light mayo.

While technically you don't need to age burger for the tenderization that it provides (as the grinder takes care of that) biting into this burger reminded me that the flavor enhancement from dry aging is worth all the effort it takes to pull this method off.

That aged meat looks delicious

 

[robby denning]

That aged meat looks delicious

It was. Although I’ve been outdone by the Food Network. I saw a restaurant in Texas is aging their ribeyes eight months. you think mine look bad?


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[simpsonhntr]

I decided to age a mule deer buck and this thread was a lot of help. It was an old buck that I was worried was going to be gamey and tough. I did the four quarters bone in. To start, the aging process turned out really well. I used a chest freezer with a inkbird 308 regulator to maintain my temperature. This seemed to work really well for me. The regulator is cheap and it works well to maintain a temperature which you can set. I also built a frame out of 2x4s so I could hang the meat in the freezer and allow air around the meat. I started out, without using a fan becasue I live in CO and thought it would be dry enough in the freezer, but I felt like the meat and freezer retained too much moisture. I decided to put in a small 7 inch fan in the freezer to circulate air. This worked very well. I let the meat age for 2 weeks and during that time I only checked on the meat two or three times. When the two weeks were done I butchered the meat and cooked some steaks and it was absolutely the best mule deer I have ever had. The process was much simpler than I would have thought.

 

[willfrye027]

This year I did a deer and a pig, whole, with skin on for around 10 days. Keeping the skin on made for basically zero meat loss due to drying out. Turned out just and tender and delicious as the ones I’ve done without skin (quarters). Haven’t done mine anywhere near as long as The Legend however.

I’d be curious to try it longer with the skin on, but I can’t imagine it tasting any better than it already does!

 

[robby denning]

I decided to age a mule deer buck and this thread was a lot of help. It was an old buck that I was worried was going to be gamey and tough. I did the four quarters bone in. To start, the aging process turned out really well. I used a chest freezer with a inkbird 308 regulator to maintain my temperature. This seemed to work really well for me. The regulator is cheap and it works well to maintain a temperature which you can set. I also built a frame out of 2x4s so I could hang the meat in the freezer and allow air around the meat. I started out, without using a fan becasue I live in CO and thought it would be dry enough in the freezer, but I felt like the meat and freezer retained too much moisture. I decided to put in a small 7 inch fan in the freezer to circulate air. This worked very well. I let the meat age for 2 weeks and during that time I only checked on the meat two or three times. When the two weeks were done I butchered the meat and cooked some steaks and it was absolutely the best mule deer I have ever had. The process was much simpler than I would have thought.

hey man, thanks for give it a try and for the feedback. Sounds like it was well worth your effort.


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