I purposely did very little trimming of the buck I killed this fall I left all the dark colored meat I normally trim off, there was quite a bit of hair, tiny flecks of dirt, some fat, silver skin, etc....I wet aged the meat in a cooler with ice for 8 days, leaving the boned out meat in the synthetic deer bags the meat came out of the field in, I didn't touch the meat or rotate it or anything I just topped off the ice occasionally. I left the drain plug open but the meat was still very wet and nasty looking during this process.
After wet aging, I packaged the meat in in freezer paper and put in the deep freeze leaving all the dark oxidized meat and quite a bit of hair and some flecks of dirt, I basically did zero trimming even leaving the silver skin and most of the fat.
Well after sitting for a couple months in the freezer, I defrosted some pieces of front shoulder in the fridge for another a week and when I unwrapped it to eat it there was spots of white mold all over the meat. This was a shock and I've never seen it before, I figured I ruined the meat. After some googling I was convinced the white mold was fine, and the meat was safe to eat. So I just rinsed the meat under running water to wash off the bits of hair and all the mold. I DID NOT TRIM ANYTHING. I sliced the meat into steak and some of the smaller pieces were oxidized all the way through ie dark and gnarly looking, stuff I normally trim off and throw away.
I nervously fried up the steaks then deglazed with some wine and dijon mustard. The meat tasted great!!, literally the most tender and mild tasting deer meat i've ever eaten. The front shoulder was as tender as some back strap I've had in the past.
I am normally super fastidious and trim off everything that is not perfect red meat and I try to freeze it as quickly as possible. Well now I'm convinced that I've been throwing away lots of perfectly edible meat and expending way more effort then necessary.
After wet aging, I packaged the meat in in freezer paper and put in the deep freeze leaving all the dark oxidized meat and quite a bit of hair and some flecks of dirt, I basically did zero trimming even leaving the silver skin and most of the fat.
Well after sitting for a couple months in the freezer, I defrosted some pieces of front shoulder in the fridge for another a week and when I unwrapped it to eat it there was spots of white mold all over the meat. This was a shock and I've never seen it before, I figured I ruined the meat. After some googling I was convinced the white mold was fine, and the meat was safe to eat. So I just rinsed the meat under running water to wash off the bits of hair and all the mold. I DID NOT TRIM ANYTHING. I sliced the meat into steak and some of the smaller pieces were oxidized all the way through ie dark and gnarly looking, stuff I normally trim off and throw away.
I nervously fried up the steaks then deglazed with some wine and dijon mustard. The meat tasted great!!, literally the most tender and mild tasting deer meat i've ever eaten. The front shoulder was as tender as some back strap I've had in the past.
I am normally super fastidious and trim off everything that is not perfect red meat and I try to freeze it as quickly as possible. Well now I'm convinced that I've been throwing away lots of perfectly edible meat and expending way more effort then necessary.
