What do you do with “meat crust”???

[TheCougar]

Normally my game sits in a cooler for a week or so since it is too warm out here to hang meat. We had a cold snap this week and I hung my quartered deer for about 2 days, since I had never tried that before and I had the opportunity. When the meat is in the cooler, it never gets a dry outer layer. This meat obviously did get a dry outer layer. Not what I would call a “crust”, but still a dry layer. Can you eat that? Do you trim it? If you trim it, do you grind it? Trimming it seems like a waste of a lot of meat, but I don’t know if it will “moisten” up in the vac back and be normal when it is cooked? Any help is appreciated

 

[Fordguy]

If you're at all concerned about the dry outer layer cooking in a pressure cooker will make it tender and edible. I've also ground the dry outer layer in my burger and sausage and never noticed it when cooking or eating. It probably depends on how dry it is and how thick the dry layer is though. If it's (less than 1/8" thick) dry but still pliable enough to bend without cracking I'd probably just vacuum seal the cuts and let the moisture "redistribute" throughout the cut of meat before freezing.

 

[TheCougar]

Yeah, it isn’t much of a crust. It was only hanging for 2 days. The exposed meat had a bit of a dried layer of meat. Most of the meat had the dried out muscle casing/silver skin. I had a lot of trouble peeling the silver skin off. It made a lot of work and I wasn’t a huge fan. If I could leave it on the steaks and roasts, that would be ideal, but that layer is pretty dry and tough.

 

[wapitibob]

I set it crust side down on a big plastic cutting board and fillet it off like filleting a bass.

 

[TheCougar]

I set it crust side down on a big plastic cutting board and fillet it off like filleting a bass.

I did a lot of that today! I just hate wasting any of the meat

 

[Fordguy]

If its on a roast it shouldn't be much problem. Just cook it low and slow. Even silver skin on small muscle groups like the shanks will end up tender if cooked that way.

 

[Fallow120]

I mostly hunt October and Early November, and hang my deer in the garage for a week and a half. The crust gets nice and thick, so we normally trim it and feed it to the dogs.


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[Stalker69]

The thing with the crust, is that is were the hair and dirt reside also.And it’s impossible to get the hair and dirt off. We trim and toss.

 

[Bauerj372]

Cut it off and feed it to your dog. Doesn't take much hair or anything else for that matter to taste terrible. Especially anything rutted up. Unless you get them out in one piece with the skin on and can skin them in a shop. Where you can be much more careful with how clean you skin them.

 

[Antares]

This is what dogs are for. I carry out bloodshot meat, diaphragms, and organs just for my dogs. They also get all the trim. I treat my dogs like garbage disposals. I only throw out food if it’s too salty for dogs or contains a lot of onions or something they’re not supposed to have.

 

[Austink47]

I dehydrate it and make what appears to be the best dog treats ever.

 

[Lytro]

I typically leave the hide on to avoid crust if I hang it any longer than overnight. One of the 9 deer I processed this year I skinned out and let it hang for a couple days. I trimmed the crust/silverskin in large sections and smoked them at 170 until dried out for dog treats. My dog went nuts over them. I might do that with one or two deer every year for that purpose, but otherwise the crust is a little wasteful IMO.

 

[MO Shooter]

Working as a butcher, typically that's throw in the hamburger pile.

 

[EJFS]

If it's clean, I'd tend to leave it and just trim it before cooking, adds some extra protection against freezer burn.

 

[Read1t48]

If you cook it for the family, you’ll ensure that you’ll always have elk to eat.

On a serious note... I say dog treats!

 

[H80Hunter]

I take all my trimmings and put them on the smoker for dog treats.

 

[william schmaltz]

I grew up in a butcher shop. We usually hung beef for 10-20 days. The crust you speak of was always thrown into the burger pile. Noone ever complained.

By definition, feeding it to your dogs would be wanton waste in Alaska. I know it specifically says your can't use black bear meat as dog food.

 

[HighUintas]

I hose down all my meat on a clean table outside and try to get off all hair and dirt. Whatever won't come off, I cut off.

Then I hang it in the fridge. Any dried stuff gets put in the burger as long as it's clean and smells good