Carcass going off

[mudman]

My brother shot a roe morning stalk, did a quick gralloch and I collected it later that day.

I left it in cool garage overnight, head, legged it and tidied up rear end, rectum bladder out next morning

Put it in chiller at 4C

After four days I thought it was smelling.

Skinned it and put it back in chiller.

Day six, meat was wet. Smelt. I’m colour blind, wife confirmed green discolouration in chest cavity and that it was gone too far. (Chest was not split).

Now I know it was not a piece of perfect larder work, but to loose a carcass in just a few days in a chiller at 4C?

Obviously the 24 hours before the arse end was dealt with wasn’t optimum, but the meat which was obviously off was the neck and interior of chest.

The fan for the chiller only runs when the refrigerator kicks in, so when it is already cool outside that isn’t very often

So what went wrong?

 

[Greenmist]

Did the stomach contents spill perhaps

 

[Tim.243]

My brother shot a roe morning stalk, did a quick gralloch and I collected it later that day.

I left it in cool garage overnight, head, legged it and tidied up rear end, rectum bladder out next morning

Put it in chiller at 4C

After four days I thought it was smelling.

Skinned it and put it back in chiller.

Day six, meat was wet. Smelt. I’m colour blind, wife confirmed green discolouration in chest cavity and that it was gone too far. (Chest was not split).

Now I know it was not a piece of perfect larder work, but to loose a carcass in just a few days in a chiller at 4C?

Obviously the 24 hours before the arse end was dealt with wasn’t optimum, but the meat which was obviously off was the neck and interior of chest.

The fan for the chiller only runs when the refrigerator kicks in, so when it is already cool outside that isn’t very often

So what went wrong?

I never leave mine out, the big ones hang for an hour while I have my dinner but then in the chiller all cleaned out.

 

[mudman]

Did the stomach contents spill perhaps

He never mentioned it, it was a head shot. But a spill of green from the food pipe might be an explanation.

 

[Buchan]

It’s been quite warm, too warm for a carcass. You might then have had too much humidity in the fridge. Or your brother’s hands were less than ideal, or it had an underlying infection

 

[Mungo]

My brother shot a roe morning stalk, did a quick gralloch and I collected it later that day.

I left it in cool garage overnight, head, legged it and tidied up rear end, rectum bladder out next morning

Put it in chiller at 4C

After four days I thought it was smelling.

Skinned it and put it back in chiller.

Day six, meat was wet. Smelt. I’m colour blind, wife confirmed green discolouration in chest cavity and that it was gone too far. (Chest was not split).

Now I know it was not a piece of perfect larder work, but to loose a carcass in just a few days in a chiller at 4C?

Obviously the 24 hours before the arse end was dealt with wasn’t optimum, but the meat which was obviously off was the neck and interior of chest.

The fan for the chiller only runs when the refrigerator kicks in, so when it is already cool outside that isn’t very often

So what went wrong?

Rectum still in overnight and chest not split?

Droppings fell down into chest cavity, which wasn’t draining, so there was a foetid pool in the chest.

 

[mudman]

Rectum still in overnight and chest not split?

Droppings fell down into chest cavity, which wasn’t draining, so there was a foetid pool in the chest.

Good call but it wasn’t the case, no visible pellets, and it did drain

 

[Deerkeeper2]

It’s been 14-15 degrees during the day for the last week or so where I live. Left out during the day I’m surprised it wasn’t fly blown. Left in garage overnight. Not fully gralloched. I’m afraid this is a bit of a ‘how not to do it’ example. I take it you condemned it?

 

[NB568]

I’d go with Buchans comments, it’s been unseasonably warm overnight and quite humid.

I always imagine its a chicken breast-killed at 36c body temp, left overnight (in unseasonably warm and humid weather), then put in the fridge for 4 days. I wouldn’t expect it to survive.

I don’t have access to a chiller and have to wait till the ave temp drops before I can shoot Roe, even then I rarely leave it more than 3 days.

I speak from experience of ‘losing’ meat due to it going off.

 

[mudman]

It’s been 14-15 degrees during the day for the last week or so where I live. Left out during the day I’m surprised it wasn’t fly blown. Left in garage overnight. Not fully gralloched. I’m afraid this is a bit of a ‘how not to do it’ example. I take it you condemned it?

No fly blow and 24 hours at 14C is not enough to ruin a carcass in my past experience. I’ve only had a chiller for a year and previously had many deer hung up behind a fly net for a day or max two at those temps without issue.

 

[VSS]

It should have been OK, at least for personal consumption, even though the temperature for the first night was a bit above optimal.
Something's clearly been done wrong in the lardering process.
Did he (or you) perhaps make the mistake of trying to wash out the inside of the carcass?
That's a sure way of spreading a little bit of contamination over a large area.

 

[Heym SR20]

I have always worked on the basis of 20 degree days and the temp does need to be in single digits. So 4 days at 5°c works. If its 10°c you only have 2 days.

If its warm and don’t have a proper chiller then skin and quarter as soon as you can and get it in the fridge. I have even bunged them straight into the freezer and never noticed the venison any different.

 

[mudman]

It should have been OK, at least for personal consumption, even though the temperature for the first night was a bit above optimal.
Something's clearly been done wrong in the lardering process.
Did he (or you) perhaps make the mistake of trying to wash out the inside of the carcass?
That's a sure way of spreading a little bit of contamination over a large area.

That could be it, I made a hash of extracting the bladder and had a copious amount of urine run into the cavity. Garden hose was there so ran it for a while then flushed out the carcass, let it drain for an hour then hung it in the chiller.

 

[VSS]

That could be it, I made a hash of extracting the bladder and had a copious amount of urine run into the cavity. Garden hose was there so ran it for a while then flushed out the carcass, let it drain for an hour then hung it in the chiller.

That's your answer then.
Don't wash carcasses in future. It always seems to result in spoilage, despite good intentions.
Any contaminated areas should be trimmed off after the carcass has cooled and set.
Urine alone is not such a big deal, as it's sterile. Urine spillage within the carcass can be mopped up with paper towels.

 

[John Gryphon]

and had a copious amount of urine run into the cavity

that will do sfa to contaminate.

 

[tarponhead]

Interesting thread. I travel some distance now to my ground, so I’m holding off until overnight temperatures get below double figures, but the couple I’ve had recently I have been very conscious of doing a full bleed and gralloch and getting it as cool as possible before extracting it to my vehicle and then straight home, before hanging overnight in the garage with skin on, butchering early the next morning and straight into the fridge.

I don’t headshot and I noticed the OP said this one was. Should you bleed it immediately, to lower the risk? I try to bleed immediately, whatever, even if the full gralloch is delayed for an hour or two.

As a beginner, I’m keen to learn from these experiences, so thanks to all for your wisdom. Never seen a gralloch done the same way twice, so I’m finding my own way!

 

[JockStalk]

Suggestion - make sure you have a good supply of blue roll handy so you don’t need to reach for the hose.
I’ve often hung overnight and not had any problem so I suspect it’s the hose out combined with fridge humidity.
A cheap temp and humidity sensor worth a try? If your chiller humidity is regularly too high eg in cold weather, then you might need to address that too.
All the above on the basis of plenty of my own ‘experience’

 

[Mungo]

That could be it, I made a hash of extracting the bladder and had a copious amount of urine run into the cavity. Garden hose was there so ran it for a while then flushed out the carcass, let it drain for an hour then hung it in the chiller.

Urine is sterile.

Spilling it is extremely unlikely to affect anything.

I still think leaving the rectum in was the source.

The rectum is absolutely full of microbes. Probably the most microbially active part of the carcass. Even if droppings didn’t fall out, it would have been oozing contamination down into the body cavity.

Washing it out would then have spread the starter culture everywhere, with the highest concentration at the bottom of the carcass because gravity.

 

[zambezi]

chest cavity, which wasn’t draining, so there was a foetid pool in the chest

I recently spotted that, once hung by hind hocks, my red carcass had developed a pool of fluid in the chest/neck area. It took additional* knife work to ensure that drained.

*obviously I had opened the neck pretty much to the chest to extract the oesophagus rearward with the gralloch, but under hanging weight that minimalist aperture effectively resealed itself.

 

[Mungo]

I recently spotted that, once hung by hind hocks, my red carcass had developed a pool of fluid in the chest/neck area. It took additional* knife work to ensure that drained.

*obviously I had opened the neck pretty much to the chest to extract the oesophagus rearward with the gralloch, but under hanging weight that minimalist aperture effectively resealed itself.

Yes - I think this is quite common unless the chest is fully opened and held apart with a spreader.

For a while I was experimenting with not opening roe chests because I felt I was losing too much meat from drying around the sternum.

It turned out exactly as you describe: pool of fluid held in the apex of the thorax that needed additional knife work to get to drain. Absolutely perfect microbial culture vat.