I understand hanging beef, condense the flavor and make it more tender but I dislike hanging deer. My dad always hung deer for a week plus and I don't understand why you would want to lose moisture and condense the flavor in deer as it already carries a nice flavor.

Is there a way to hang deer that you feel improves upon taste/quality or are you like me and prefer to cut them up as soon as possible?

I bone mine out, put in cooler with ice and cover with water. Change water daily and add ice as needed.

Most guys that hang deer, almost all of them, use a variation of wet aging. Wet aging doesn't change the flavor much, if at all. It does create more tender meat.

That is my goal when I leave my deer hang, skin on, for 7-10 days. And it works. Aged venison is almost always more tender than meat that wasn't aged.

Dry aging is the method that impacts flavor. But that is a pretty complicated process involving a lot of time and climate-controlled rooms. Most beef is wet aged for those reasons.

So, unless you are properly dry aging your deer, you are not concentrating, or having much of an effect, on flavor.

It alway depends on outside temps and my schedule. I prefer to skin and debone while its warm because I find it easier and my hands don't get as cold.

If its warm it gets quartered and put in a cooler of ice. If I have time I go ahead and debone if not it may stay in ice a week.

When it's cold I may hang it outside or in the barn instead especially If im pressed for time.

I do like putting it on ice 3 or 4 days and draining when necessary.

Same as Providence here, depends on weather as to how I do them.

Alos depends on what you do with your meat. The only parts i dont grind are the loins. Im free to age then in the fridge as long as i want. The rest goes into the grinder anyway for various uses in our kitchen. That is unless i cube a little for stew or save a roast or two. But those cooking methods do all the tenderizing for ya. Ive yet to find meat too tough after a couple trips through the grinder. So i cut when it's most convenient.

Each shoulder is left bone in and split in half for two roast that get used for soup. Back straps are butterlyed and used as steaks, hind quarters go through the meat saw as bone in steaks.

I don't like ground meat much, I prefer steaks or soup.

Can do a deer in 15 mins or so this way.

If I leave the hide on is that then considered wet aging? I usually skin them right away, I would be willing to try letting one sit hide on for a week or so and see what it ends up like.

We skin and quarter our deer and get them into a fridge as quickly as possible, and let them stiffen up for cutting and boning, which we do as quickly as possible. They are easier to cut if they are just this side of being frozen.

We always us a vacuum sealer for the meat. We cut the chops, steaks, etc. and put them in the open vacuum freezer bags till they are nearly frozen, then we seal them, and avoid the blood and juice mess. When we grind burger we make them into patties or chunks on cookie sheets in the freezer, then pull them out, bag and seal them, again avoiding the blood and juice mess. This has worked for us for many years.

Moosetrot

Anybody ever soak there beef in water? Then why do you soak venison in water? I don’t think steamed venison would be desirable.

My group has a walk in cooler made from a truck refer body. After skinning and gutting, we rinse with cold water to remove blood, then hang the deer in the cooler from a few day to a couple of weeks. The fans in the cooler cause some drying. This produces excellent venison that cuts very easily. Temp in cooler is in high 30s.

Yes, that is a form of wet aging. Like I said, almost all hunters/processors use some form of wet aging.

Look up dry aging, it is a very specific process.

I use the hind quarters, specifically the thighs, as roasts. i can get three good-sized roasts out of the three major muscle groups on the thighs. IMO, that is where aging plays an important role by making those roasts more tender than they would otherwise be.

I used to cut the thighs into bone-in steaks like you do but switched to my current method some time ago.

I’ll hang mine skin on for a few days when it’s cold enough here. 77 degrees here today so not an option. I keep two old fridges in the garage and quarter them up and let them cool about three days before butchering and vacuum packing. I’ll turn the quarters and backstraps a couple times a day and it has always worked fine for me.

On deer, I cut off the head at the first vertebrae and the legs at the knees. I then skin the deer. Next, I take off some off the sheeting and cut out both loins. I then take the front legs off at the shoulder. Next I gut the deer saving the liver and heart. Then I take out the tender loin. Then I trim off some of the sheeting on the ribs and abdominal cavity. Next I cut off both back legs at the pelvis. Thor, my Kangal gets the ribs and vertebrae. The rest gets taken into the house, rinsed off and bagged up in garbage bags in the fridge.

Then Diane then debones the meat and cuts it into the various cuts, at her leisure, over the next couple of days. She does an excellent job. She learned by watching the "Scott Rhea Project" and then butchering a lot.

Keith

Nice set up you have there.

If it’s cold, I’ll hang a deer until it’s convenient to butcher. That might be a few days or an hour! I see no need to age venison. I believe the tenderness is in the cooking. I keep water away unless it was contaminated with intestinal contents, then I rinse well and process immediately.

Mule deer. I bone in the field and end up with pieces like bHugo does. I put the pieces on cafeteria trays in the fridge and cover with plastic to prevent drying. BUT--I make sure there is absolutely no bloodshot left on any pieces. I leave it for at least a week and cut when convenient. There is some condensation that happens under the plastic and after a week I would dab the surface of the meat with a paper towel if necessary. I choose to shoot yearling or small bucks that aren't so full of testosterone. Aging may not be much of a factor with that age group.