Dry aging your harvested game?

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SoonerMedic

SoonerMedic

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Does anybody dry age your game? How do you do it at home? Have you built something custom or used a fridge minus all the shelves?
 
I am not a fan of aging meat. I would rather have to cook it longer than risk it spoiling. Having said that beef and pork is aged in walk in large coolers, as part of the refrigeration cycle also removes moisture, so yes, that would work.
 
A friend does it and swears by it, he just lets it hang in a barn (secured to keep coyotes and such out). Its also very cold there during hunting season.
 
I know that ideally between 33 and 40 degrees is the best way to let it hang. And hanging meat takes the game and toughness out of meat by letting enzymes break down connective tissue while the temperature dramatically slows down the rotting process and bacteria growth. From my understanding it’s best to allow the animal to go into rigor until it passes. Typically takes about 24 hours for a carcass to leave rigor mortis and its then when you should process the meat. However, letting a deer hang for 7-20 days is supposed to allow it to reach it’s true potential.
I’m thinking that if I can find a decent working fridge I can cut small holes, one on top and one in the middle of the door and cover them with very fine mesh or cheesecloth to keep any insects out and let air flow at the same time while keeping the temperature a relative constant inside that 7* range. If the carcass won’t fit whole, I bet I could probably quarter it and let it hang that way. I was hoping to find somebody that has experience already lol.
 
I dry and age meats as well a freeze and refreeze to tenderize, but my climate is arctic and cool at best.

In fall, my Caribou meats freeze and thaw several;l time, and at worst I get a dried out body cavity.I hang them whole, in the skin until I use them, sometimes as late as March.

However , its tender as can be and no course grain, even in Moose.

When I hang skinned meats, and the outer layer is dry, I cut off the dried outer layer and set it on my meat rack poles to finish drying. I might garlic salt the wet side, but usually not.
 
I hang roe deer and boar for at least a week. Roe bucks shot in August and September when its warm, i hang in an old fridge with the shelves removed.
Winter time i just hang them in my garage so they don't freeze. We always hang moose,skinned for a minimum of a week. Deer and boar i hang in their skins. Never had a carcass spoil yet.
 
I'm in south Texas. Dry aging meat means rotting meat unless it's in a cooler. I watched this ad for "Cool-a-buck" portable refrigerated coolers. It was hilarious, talked about how aweful chilling the meat in a large ice chest is. Well, I've been doing it that way for 30 years and it works just fine for me, soaks the blood out, gets the gamey taste out. I'll keep a pig on ice for a couple of days, but deer sometimes take longer especially a buck killed in the rut. What works for me, works for me and I ain't fixin' what ain't broke. We have 85 degree days down here in the winter. Can't just leave something hanging in the barn. The vultures will find their way in from the stink. :D
 
I 'm with MC on this, too hot in deep south to hang meat outside. definitely refrigerate or put in ice chest for a few days. The latter is what I do also. no chance of spoilage, I add ice often and drain melt water out often. You do have to keep the ice chests secured so dogs and critters don't get into your meat.

Bull
 
Bull Nutria said:
I 'm with MC on this, too hot in deep south to hang meat outside. definitely refrigerate or put in ice chest for a few days. The latter is what I do also. no chance of spoilage, I add ice often and drain melt water out often. You do have to keep the ice chests secured so dogs and critters don't get into your meat.

Bull
Click to expand...

So I’ve heard about this method. Prop the chest up at an angle so the water drains out...but does your meat lie directly on the ice? Seems like the moisture wouldn’t be good on the meat?
 
Hell, I SOAK mine on ice water, soaks out the blood and bleaches the meat, far cry from hurting it. I'll dump the water out daily to get rid of the blood.

I have a 120 quart ice chest that I set in the loading room. No door on that room on the back porch, just set a couple of old marine batteries I have laying around on the lid, keeps the critters out. :D
 
I've always thought about the big cooler and ice method.... would it be bad to add salt to the ice? It would melt the ice quicker, but basically you would brine the meat (theoretically making it more tender and juicy). I've never done it, but I always liked the idea better than hanging a carcass out.

Anybody add salt to their cooler?? Or is that really really bad? I figured 3 days is a good brine for a quartered animal
 
Aging, however you do it, gets the blood out of the meat. I don't care for gamey venison. My wife's cousin is a trophy hunter and occasionally he has sausage made up. Of course, he has no clue about how to age the meat by whatever method, and he's always got a buck that's usually shot in rut, so his sausage always tastes rank. He usually breaks it out at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners when we go to their place over near Seguin. I try to be nice and tough it out eating a chunk or two and never say anything. I just let the wife know about it on the way home and she agrees with me. :rofl:
 
My buddy was raised on a farm north of Waco near the little town of West. They had a slaughter room for their calves and they built a well insulated hanging room with a concrete floor and built in drain/grate where they could wash down the carcass. They installed a large room AC window unit and ran it as cold as it'd get and they'd leave the meat hang for 3 or 4 days. Larry said it worked great. I guess it'd take a lot of ice for a calf and if you're slaughtering calves routinely, the chill room is a good idea. :D They were set up well for butchering, huge commercial meat grinder and sausage stuffer and such. For game, I just have a number 8 LEM grinder with stuffer attachment. But, everything is scaled down compared to a calf slaughtering operation. Would be nice to have all that, though. It'd really take the pain out of butchering. :D
 
I age my deer in a spare refrigerator on racks after it is quartered. I usually only do it for 4-6 days as it dries out and turns dark on the edges after that. I turn/rotate it every day in case it isn't being done equally.
It's hot down here during most of deer season and the fridge doesn't get much below 38 deg.
 
drunkenpoacher said:
It's actually very easy to build a walk in cooler using a refrigerator or freezer compressor.
Maybe I will get around to doing it this fall.
Click to expand...


Since we have 4 hunters in the family now, 5 counting son's fatherin law, we are getting back into processing our own deer. Maybe pork too.

Keep us posted on the walk in cooler project.
 
drunkenpoacher said:
Great, now I have to build it or come up with an excuse for why I didn't.
Click to expand...

I found a video on YouTube last night of a guy that built a 6x6x8 or 9 walk in hanging cooler. He said he built it for about $1,000. It uses a regular A/C window unit with a coolbot, insulated walls and a rail on the ceiling to hang your meat from. Pretty basic and straight forward. Said the smaller unit can cool down to 33* but he has it set at 37* and takes approx 30 min to drop it to that temp. I’ll link it below.


Edit: I updated my iPhone and it’s not wanting to let me paste into this box. Just search Wyoming Hunter Walk In on YouTube and it should pull it right up.
 
Sooner, that sounds very similar to the set up my buddy in Waco had that I referred to. I did like his concrete floor and drain/grate set up for washing down the meat. It was an all in one deal, hang it, skin it, wash it, cool and age it all in the cooler. :D Bonus, if it was a hot day, skinning was done in the AC. :D

My set up is more crude, a gambrel hanging from a tree out back. :)
 
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