Carcass going off

[shakey jake]

Would putting a small cheap fan in the chiller (capacity- holds four roe), running the cable through the door seal, be of benefit?

In all the years of shooting deer I’ve never had one spoil until I got a chiller, and yes I have double checked the internal chiller temp.

you need to reduce the moisture, air circulation may help but breaking the seal will allow moisture in

 

[JockStalk]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TE-02Pro-H...erature+humidity+logger&qid=1763368219&sr=8-6

Temp should be ‘chilly’ and humidity 75-80%

If too humid as a few folk have suggested then you need a degree of airflow, not too much to lose your chill capacity in hot weather and not too little to make sod all difference to humidity.

 

[CAVHUNT]

Just to add to the confusion. I use an old household fridge as my cool room... it's been running for well over 30 years without an issue and was old and second hand when I got it. It takes sambar back legs and back straps. The legs are with skin on but are a pain to remove some days later. The legs are stored upside down on a wire rack so that fluids drain out into a drip tray under the rack. Storage times vary depending on my time commitments. From memory some 5 to 7 days is the average. Temperature control is very scientific...about "that much" on the dial...guesstimate. Two things I found important. One was to clean the drip tray and rack every day andto trim off any suss bits that may cause trouble. The other was to turn the air over every 24 hours done by opening the door and waving a newspaper at the contents for a couple of minutes. Summer or winter the routine is the same. Never had any spoilage...yet. When the skin is removed it is immediately frozen to use later on as gun/hunting dog training aids.

 

[75]

Humidity in the chiller has been mentioned ….

So how do I measure it and how do I know if the chiller is operating correctly in that regard/ fix it if it isn’t?

PS I posted this initially as I hoped others as well as myself may learn something. Seems to have succeeded in at least that.

Govee temp logger off Amazon will track humidity as well as temp but that way madness lies You might as well buy a bore scope at the same time...

Humidity in chillers is a minefield and poorly understood! There are so many factors at play but most domestic fridges or drinks chillers won't give you any options to play around with humidity but if you've got a monobloc type chiller / coldroom then this might help:

Post in thread 'Carcasses ‘going off’ , ideas?'

Dec 3, 2024

Does anyone run a dehumidifier in their chiller - or just rely on circulation?

I have done, yes. I've done a lot of research into this area but focussed on monobloc chillers. Sorry - long post so skip this if you're not interested in chiller humidity or how monoblocs work!

It came about because I lost a red carcass to mould. It was around the 10-12 day mark and temp had been low and consistent and the carcass clean and dry when it went in so I set about trying to find out what was wrong. First step was to install a temp logger - which also tracked relative humidity and opened up...

• 75

• 

 

[muddy42]

Personally I find it best to skin and butcher within 24 hrs. I don't think hanging for longer than that makes much difference anyway.

 

[kieran222]

My drinks chiller has two fans at the top which pull external air past the refrigeration part at the back. The carcase are always dry, in fact I don't skin them and put them in the chiller because it dries the meat out. I think that just recirculating cold air around inside the chiller will not address moisture issues.