dry meat

hughsurrey

Well-Known Member
As mentioned on another post, I butchered my first roe of the season last night and I noticed that the edges of the chest, the flesh on the entry/exit wounds and, to a lesser extent, the inside of the ribs had dried out (almost like jerked meat), am I doing something wrong or is there no way to stop this?

I know it is supposedly a bad thing to put water on the meat, because of bacteria, but is there a way to keep moisture in?
 
i personally have butchered more deer than i care to remember ! And the only way i can think you can stop this meat drying out is to butcher it almost straight away .
For my own tastes i usually hang my carcases 24 hrs tops just long enough for the meat to set .
If you do skin and butcher straight away you will find the meat will be sloppy and will be difficult to cut and make presentable .
If you have refriegeration i would not hesitate to hang for 4 weeks or more if that tiles your fancy but if you dont this time me year 24 is ample . But even after 24 hrs you will still find dried areas of meat .
Hope this helps .

Cheers lee
 
Cheers Lee,

I had thought of butchering straight away and then 'aging' the meat in the fridge wrapped in cellophane. I am working on the basis that it is the time that does the aging rather than the air (meat wrapped in cellophane still goes bad, after all, which is the far end of the 'aging' process) or am I being a complete muppet?
 
Hang in the jacket! That is what my butcher does. Then very little meat will dry out. Obviously avoid the jacketed carcass touching any other meat/game that may not be skinned in the larder. Then wash out the larder after and you will have no contamination issues.
 
meat

Hang the body in the fur, with the head, feet & all tracts removed, for roe up to 2 weeks in a chiller running between 0/4 degrees is fine, if there is any green/hair or gut content around the wound site then I would cut a window around this also to remove any contamination from the carcus.

With larger Species they will hang for 3 weeks fine chilled as above.

They will always dry out a little iround the ribs, this does make them easier to butcher when they hace chilled down & set in shape.

Regards Lee
 
Hugh,
Any area of cut meat can be treated with olive oil this will stop it drying out...


regards
griff
 
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