Is leaving a butchered deer rest in the fridge rhe same as hanging in a chiller ?

[wheely]

I was told that if you could butcher and cook or freeze before rigor set in then you would be ok. Once rigor has happened then a period of hanging for the muscles to relax is required. A couple of days should be enough for deer and with less fat cover it would need to be in the skin, if any more than a couple of days it will start drying out. With larger animals the weight of the carcass helps stretch the muscle fibres that had shortened during rigor

 

[StephenToast]

not sure about the benefits of hanging to be honest. I will butcher roe anything between 1 and 10 days after shooting and never notice any difference.

I have also recently started to skin warm, its so much easier, and again don't notice any difference in the taste or texture.

Same here.

I don't have a chiller I can use for deer so anything I shoot, pretty much from now onwards is butchered warm and mostly just goes straight in the freezer or is eaten there and then.

I have had muntjac on the barbecue within two hours of being shot before. maybe two hours and ten minutes from field to fork.

In the winter obviously I can hang for longer but the only benefit is that I can butcher at my leisure. I don't notice any difference in flavour or texture.

This is for fallow, roe and muntjac

 

[SCB]

I think i will comment and dispel some myths. firstly when you hand deer it is not blood loss your aiming for and if shot and bled correctly you should have a carcase with very little blood.
You hang in the skin to stop the main mussel surfaces drying to leather like consistency.
animals covered in fat[pigs, sheep, beef etc] do not need the jacket left in place.
Meat is not hung to develop flavour, it is hung to develop tenderness [something more important on bigger or older animals]do an experiment hang two deer of the same type, one 24hrs and butcher the other the correct length of time cook the same piece of meat from both the same way exactly and blind test a few people asking taste and texture and tenderness, the answers will be all taste same, texture same, tenderness longer hung better.
Now if hung correctly the carcase loses a lot of weight by evaporation of fluid/water [reason supermarkets and modern butchers don't like it] partially through enzyme breakdown of muscle.
you cannot give a time for hanging correctly as every carcase is different! my beef was hung from 14 days shortest to 58 days longest to get to the correct stage, age, sex, feed, time of year all have a bearing on how long it takes.
If you cut up a carcase into the main parts you cannot just put it in the fridge and expect it to be hung/mature, it will start rotting fist, go slimy and start growing mold, and regardless of what anyone try's to say, moldy fresh meat is seriously wrong.
if you have no chiller etc , you can still use a fridge by using air dry bags. put a whole leg, shoulder etc into bag and vacuum on machine and seal. put it in the fridge with nothing touching it and turn daily until it done. hope that helps.

Interesting. Are these the type of bags you mean?

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If so, when the meat is ready in order to freeze it what do you do then?
Put the meat in a secondary bag or take them out of these bags and put them in something different? I’d be very interested to know
Thanks

 

[Dunwaters]

not sure about the benefits of hanging to be honest. I will butcher roe anything between 1 and 10 days after shooting and never notice any difference.

I have also recently started to skin warm, its so much easier, and again don't notice any difference in the taste or texture.

Hanging definitely improves the meat, if you hang it skin off, the meat darkens as it dries and it doesn’t look as well on the slab but no other difference, it‘s easier to skin when warm but will dry out quicker in the fridge.
Ideally hang for 6-10 days, for anything longer you need to control mould growth. You can age meat cut into joints in a fridge but you need to either hang it up or keep it off the bottom of the tray on a grill or it will end up in a puddle of blood and serum, which goes off fairly quickly, keep the meat as clean and dry as you can.
Butchering venison warm is a really bad idea, there’s virtually no fat, the meat wont take a set and you’ll end up with rough uneven joints, leave it in the fridge or chiller if you can, it’ll make life a bit easier.

 

[Erik Hamburger]

I shot a Muntjac buck this morning and the exit wound was a little too far back resulting in a bit of a sloppy mess in the cavity. A familiar scenario to many who shoot a lot of Muntjac. Having experienced this before I opted to 'field-butcher' USA style: Remove the Haunches and the Loins, without opening up, there and then. I left the remainder to the wolves. Once at home I rinsed of the mud and grass and put it in the fridge. I will report back in a a few days time what the eating quality was like. I suspect it will be...just fine!

 

[StephenToast]

Hanging definitely improves the meat, if you hang it skin off, the meat darkens as it dries and it doesn’t look as well on the slab but no other difference, it‘s easier to skin when warm but will dry out quicker in the fridge.
Ideally hang for 6-10 days, for anything longer you need to control mould growth. You can age meat cut into joints in a fridge but you need to either hang it up or keep it off the bottom of the tray on a grill or it will end up in a puddle of blood and serum, which goes off fairly quickly, keep the meat as clean and dry as you can.
Butchering venison warm is a really bad idea, there’s virtually no fat, the meat wont take a set and you’ll end up with rough uneven joints, leave it in the fridge or chiller if you can, it’ll make life a bit easier.

That is dead right. Butchering warm it is really difficult to make a neat job. Not impossible but cold butchering is much easier.

Sometimes needs must though.

 

[levigsp]

Interesting. Are these the type of bags you mean?

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If so, when the meat is ready in order to freeze it what do you do then?
Put the meat in a secondary bag or take them out of these bags and put them in something different? I’d be very interested to know
Thanks

you can drop them straight in freezer if you like, but better to put in another bag in my opinion.

 

[SCB]

you can drop them straight in freezer if you like, but better to put in another bag in my opinion.

Thank you

 

[sauer404]

Once I get home from shooting (by then the animal is dead for 5-10 hours usually) I skin it and split in in primal cuts. I have a dedicated under the counter fridge in which these primal cuts stay for a couple of weeks. Then they are vacuum packed and off to the freezer. I never had a problem with sika, roe and fallow.

 

[Overlay]

I’m leaving mine ( Roe) in the chiller for 2 1/2 days now skin on - Roe skin virtually fall off the carcase and have yet to master the art of a quick coat removal of Muntjac at any state or rigour, 4 days in the chiller seems the best for munties and using a neck upper hanging position of the carcass seems the best way so far

re splitting a carcase up, in the event of a bad shot placement, I generally remove the salvageable bit ( normally the straps and back legs if no green) and hange in the skin albeit a bit smaller than normal and treat as a full carcase hang and skin

When Roe are in the moult I do remove a wider strip from the neck front to the back legs ASAP to deter hair getting in the carcase
it does dry the flesh along the gralloch cut out, but a quick trim up does the trick and sorts that

overall the above works for me, but I’m open to suggestions.

 

[2021]

I shot a Muntjac buck this morning and the exit wound was a little too far back resulting in a bit of a sloppy mess in the cavity. A familiar scenario to many who shoot a lot of Muntjac. Having experienced this before I opted to 'field-butcher' USA style: Remove the Haunches and the Loins, without opening up, there and then. I left the remainder to the wolves. Once at home I rinsed of the mud and grass and put it in the fridge. I will report back in a a few days time what the eating quality was like. I suspect it will be...just fine!

Still alive?

 

[Bowland blades]

Nope !

 

[Heym SR20]

Most of my Roe bucks shot during the summer get skinned and then haunches and shoulders get aged in the fridge. Loins get eaten.

 

[Olaf]

I shot a Muntjac buck this morning and the exit wound was a little too far back resulting in a bit of a sloppy mess in the cavity. A familiar scenario to many who shoot a lot of Muntjac. Having experienced this before I opted to 'field-butcher' USA style: Remove the Haunches and the Loins, without opening up, there and then. I left the remainder to the wolves. Once at home I rinsed of the mud and grass and put it in the fridge. I will report back in a a few days time what the eating quality was like. I suspect it will be...just fine!

Still alive?

That’s what I was wondering too, maybe he’s just busy fending for his life from all the Wolves they have in Cheltenham
Kindest regards, Olaf

 

[nic531]

That’s what I was wondering too, maybe he’s just busy fending for his life from all the Wolves they have in Cheltenham
Kindest regards, Olaf

its a special sub species called the gloucester grey, primarily hunts for expensive left over sandwiches from the many coffee shops.

 

[Utectok]

Honestly just stick and old fridge in the garage you won’t regret it… let the Mrs fill it up with food at Christmas as a overflow fridge that worked for me….

 

[Overlay]

2 & 8 is my benchmark i try and get to 2 days 8 hours combined hanged and then into a chiller have done them earlier but with 2&8 the carcass appears to be more settled and easier to skin and work - works for me

 

[EckyP243]

All things relative. Objectively speaking if you took two rear quarters from the same animal, butchered one straight after the kill and left the other to go through rigor, the latter would be superior

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Steven Rinella talks with meat scientist Dr. Chris Calkins, Spencer Neuharth, Corinne Schneider, and Phil Taylor.Topics discussed: debunking meat myths; how stress affects the flavor of meat; myoglobin and hemoglobin; why you shouldn't cut into an animal before rigor mortis is complete; muscle is...

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Meat scientist on this episode of the Meat Eater podcast gave a load of insight into getting the best meat, what to do and what to avoid if possible. Quite a long podcast at almost 2 hours but a very interesting listen

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