Rotten meat....

teabag_46

Well-Known Member
Reading an article in 'The countrymans weekly', a mention was made about pheasant being too bland, unless it had been hung for around three weeks.
Personally, I prefer my food to be fresh. Having tried pheasant, both fresh and hung, my own opinion is that pheasant is only good for ferret food.
Getting to the point though, can anyone provide a CONVINCING argument for eating rotten meat, when, as shooters, we generally show a preference for, and set so much store on our meat being fresh?
 
A keeper on the next door estate to me when I worked in the highlands hung his venison for 6 weeks and it looked revolting, it had a green coating to it.
Another time, a man up shooting grouse had some partridges he wanted me to pluck for him, they were green and had maggots in them and he said thats the way he liked them!
I have a pretty strong stomach but don't fancy it myself.
 
My thoughts on this are, that the landed gentry of years back had bored palates, & were looking for something different,.. so hung the game, for a (Gamey flavour).... a bit like that stinky cheese (Blue), my missus has a liking for! YEEUCH!!
 
It dates back to the days of coaches, grouse especially but other game also was sent down to London, it was often a bit high by the time it got there, again especially grouse shot in August.

It became accepted that that was how it should taste,when rail freight ensured the same or next day delivery it became fashionable to hang game to achieve the taste they had become accustomed too.

However having said that the best tasting beef is that which has been hung for 21 days which you will only get from a traditional butcher, super market beef is to fresh which you can tell by the colour bright red, beef which has been hung is much darker in colour.

IMO its not hanging that causes the problem but hanging in the wrong conditions, for example a beast shot and
hung in a chiller should keep perfectly OK for a couple of weeks, where as one hung in an unchilled larder but fly proof larder in humid muggy weather may have started to turn by the next day.
 
I think the hanging thing probably comes from when we didn't have fridges, for me the fresher the better.... The smell from a freshly shot animal when you gut it is bad enough to put you off eating it, so why leave it to fester?
 
I think the hanging thing probably comes from when we didn't have fridges, for me the fresher the better.... The smell from a freshly shot animal when you gut it is bad enough to put you off eating it, so why leave it to fester?
I have always caught a whiff of freshly mown hay when gralloching deer, now Rabbits,....................... Yeeeuchhh!
 
I don't mind keeping the joints/fillets in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. Providing it doesn't go off the meat will tenderise and taste better. Having said that a first year beast always produces tender meat so can be cooked shortly after shooting.
 
It used to be said that the flavour of a Dover Sole was at its best the day after it had been caught. No doubt by sheer coincidence it would take precisely that time to transport the catch from Dover to the gentlemen's clubs of London where it was a prized dish.
 
Have got to agree pheasant doe's taste better more gamey if it's hung awhile but I'm far from the green and maggotty brigade.
 
In do like my game hung..pheasants partridge for about a week, deer 2-3 weeks, thats in a 1-2 degree cooler...if the game in question gets too 'stinky' just soak in a weak brine for a couple of hours...fetches it back to brand new....
 
I don`t like meat when it is in a decomposing state but if a meat tastes bland to you then i think you need to be a little more adventurous in the ways you cook your meat.
 
I prefer my pheasants hung no more than 2 to 3 days, (in the chiller) fresh they dont taste as nice
 
We don't enjoy rotten meat so we hang our Pheasants & Partridges @ 4 degrees for 3 days, venison 7 days at up to 7 degrees. I think that a lot of the victorian cookbooks like Mrs Beeton were written during a period of relatively cold winters so you would get away with gamebirds being hung for longer with temperatures frequently not getting above freezing. atb Tim
 
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Hanging game gives the meat time to relax,
a lad I shoot with hangs birds until they fall off the peg, they are green.

I like them to hang a couple of days early season perhaps 3-4 later.
 
I hung a large fallow haunch a couple of years back in my chiller (skinned) for four weeks at roughly 4deg. It went black, hard and formed like a case. At the end of the fourth week, I took it into the kitchen, and sliced it into large steaks. When you looked at these steaks, they were black around the edges (some might say metallic green in colour) anyway this lightened to the centre of the steak to a rich dark red.

I'm telling you now, they may have not looked that nice, but they were are have been the best steaks I've ever eaten. Flash fried to medium rare, when you put a chunk in your mouth it melted literally.

Tom
 
Really a matter of taste or rather flavour. Hanging in the right conditions allows enzymes in the muscle tissue to start to break down the muscle fibre thus tenderising the meat and developing flavour, especially valuable if eating older animals. Generally the larger the animal the longer you can hang it I dont believe that there's any red meat that isn't improved by a period of hanging and although this involves the very early stages of decomposition it is very far from rotten. Hang deer in their jackets for as long as possible, depending on weather and the hanging conditions /tempreture you have. If the carcass can be kept cold then atmospheric moisture is the enemy as it can allow moulds to develop. You should be aiming for the exposed flesh be dry and to go a deep ruby colour blackish at the edges. keep a careful eye on the pelvis bone if split as this is usually where it starts to go off. If white mould develops a handful of salt rubbed in clears this but it is a sign that conditions are not dry enough or poor air flow and you probably will have to butcher sooner than later. Done right there's not much can touch it for flavour, or tenderness of meat, Yummmmmmmm.
IMO grouse or pheasant are best hung for about 2-3 days only , I dont like fresh cooked grouse i think it has all the eating qualities of a squash ball and hung till green i find too strong for my palate. Pheasant you can keep i dont care for the Baycox/emtryl flavour no matter how long it's hung for.
 
I know one old boy who hangs his birds by the tail and eats them when they hit the floor. Another chap I used to work for hung a Sika for a very long time, the Carcass was full of mould when he made it all into Bilton (not sure of the spelling).

:-S
 
Pitiliedon has it right about the enzymes tenderising the meat. It improves the quality and flavour.

There are limits and the thought of putting a piece of meat in my mouth that had gone black outside actually stimulated my gag reflex.

Munty. I think it's Biltong as the South Africans call it or Jerky stateside. I'm a big fan of it and now you get little packets in the petrol stations. Not quite as good as home made but mass produced never is. Easily put off the squeamish by telling them you are eating raw meat.
 
no self respecting butcher would sell beef that has been killed in the same month (unless it was done in the first week!)

however I do not follow the same principle with avian and ground game. apart from the fact that it is almost always hung with the entrails in I dont see the point. would you hang a deer carcase with its guts in!? well fed, bred (as opposed to wild) pheasants often have such a deposit of fat on them that this can turn putrid very quickly.
Pheasant is very nice if cooked properly. Too many chefs treat game like they treat lamb and beef and flash fry it and leave it raw in the middle. I had Grouse once at an eminent Michelin starred restaurant in Edinburgh. two breasts in a small casserole pot, one was almost raw.
the opposite is true of the inexperienced game cook who in an effort to ensure it is cooked through will roast a pheasant until it turns into leather.

do agree that a lot of the treatment of smaller game is through traditional methods of preparation and transport but afterall that, its your pheasant. if you want it to run into the oven by itself that is your choice
 
I shot a couple of Geese last winter and hung them in the garage. Garage was around outside temp 0-1 deg.

Two days later when I breasted them, The meat was still warm.
 
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