Venision How Long to Prep

[Blackwood Outdoors]

Anyone able to offer advice, I shot a roe the other evening, , left it hanging in the garage, and woke upto a fairly warm day, but didn't get around to skin and butcher it till the afternoon, which I did and placed some of the meat in the fridge prior to freezing.

Question being, I bagged the venison in portions, but its got a little whiff about it, when I removed it from the fridge, and a very small amount of blood on the bottom of the bags, will it be ok, normal, or dog food?

 

[StalkingKent]

You said that you "shot a Roe the other evening" How many hours after shooting had it been left in that garage environment before you decided to skin and butcher?

I have left a beast shot at dusk overnight in my garage on a winters evening then skinned / butchered it first thing the following morning and all was fine, no whiffs and certainly no blood after bagging it up and freezing.

 

[Cut+Squirt]

I think the name of the game is to play it safe. . You don't want a dose of the ***** or worse.

 

[rick6point5]

It is always a shame i feel to spend the time and effort to get a beast, and for one reason or another not be able to eat it.

 

[Tackleberry270]

The text book answer is you need to gradually reduce the carcass to under 7 deg C and not let it rise above it. In the real world if you can keep a carcass at 10 deg or below overnight and the flies off it you are fine so long as you do whats necessary to get it into the fridge before temperature starts to climb again in the morning. Gralloch and Carcass prep will also play a part. If chest shot you will find any congealed blood will start to smell pretty quick at 10 deg. Goes without saying, any spilt rumen contents will also turn the carcass.

 

[Blackwood Outdoors]

Your talking about about 20hrs in garage, the main problem was it was fairly warm on the day although the garage is a lot cooler, the temperature still came up...
I have a chiller but nothing was setup at the time, it is now. Worst case scenario, I have some expensive dog food.

 

[Erik Hamburger]

Anyone able to offer advice, I shot a roe the other evening, , left it hanging in the garage, and woke upto a fairly warm day, but didn't get around to skin and butcher it till the afternoon, which I did and placed some of the meat in the fridge prior to freezing.

Question being, I bagged the venison in portions, but its got a little whiff about it, when I removed it from the fridge, and a very small amount of blood on the bottom of the bags, will it be ok, normal, or dog food?

If you hang the carcass overnight, and providing it is in a fly-proof muslin bag or similar, and the summer night temperature drops to a typical 12-14 C, i believe it is perfectly safe providing you skin and butcher the carcass by, say, AM coffee time the next day. The 'whiff' you describe could be the natural scent (some deer smell more than others) but if it is the whiff of decomposition (?) I would be careful and not use any of the meat that has been in contact with the air. For example I would not use the strips of meat from between the ribs and they have been in the open air for 12 hours or so. The 'whiff' could also be from a little bit of contamination of green matter mixed with blood as that gets very smelly very quickly. A carcass from a well shot, clean and tidy gralloch is a lot safer than one where there has been some contamination in the cavity. The food safety issues will be potentially much more relevant if the carcass temperature has not been brought down to below 7C within hours of the cull.

 

[berg]

If the smell is in the meat and offensive then best not eat it . If it's inside the cavity then bone the meat out cool it down NOT COVERED as this can cause sweating of the meat if it smell's when it's cold then it might be passed it , but it souldn't be just depends on how hot it was .if you plan on air cooling ,witch i do in the winter i leave them in the lader over night if theres a few and they cool of lovely ,pop them in the fridge in the morrining ,that why i dont have big temputure jumps ,as cooling down 3-4 deer in a fridge with cold product in already can cause big problems ,you can bugger up a fridge in no time doing this, unless it is made to pull down hot animal.

 

[arron]

if it was my deer i would skin it off , bone out the haunches , take the back straps out , bone the shoulders out , ie all the meat that is covered with skin ,the rest feed the dog ! the smell i suspect is blood turning in the chest cavaty ,please dont take this the wrong way as we dont no how many deer you have shot /gutted ! did you take the anus and all the pluck out , as these can soon start to stink in warm weather , and also its worth taking some strong paper towels to mop out as much blood as you can as that is the first thing to turn , sorry if you have done tonns , but its good for novices to learn also if they read this , atb arron.