ageing your venison for table fare?

[rm76]

Guys, as you can see from this thread, there are a lot of ways to skin a cat (or deer, or not skin, etc., etc.). Sounds like most ways work well enough. One has to keep bacterial contamination low, provide unfavorable conditions for those bacterial that are present, and if tenderness and/or flavor enhancement is desired, provide for those in the aging process. Toughness is cause by 2 factors -- contraction of individual muscle fibers after death and presence of connective tissue.

The first step in preventing toughness is to leave the muscles attached to the skeleton if possible. This means not deboning immediately. Hanging is even better because it tends to stretch the muscle fibers somewhat. The second step to tenderness involves allowing enzymens within the tissue to work (break down) connective tissue. This occurs over time (thus aging). Aging also enhances flavor (again from enzymatic activity).

Tenderness may not be important to some, if one grinds, tenderizes (either mechanically or chemically), or slow-moist cooks the meat. Age enhanced flavoring is a personal thing -- important to some and not to others. Therefore, this is why there is no one correct method of handling. Skin on, skin off, water use, or not -- as long as one does not allow contamination, and keeps bacterial growth to a mininum, it all works. Let's keep enjoying our venison!

[RockyMtnMT]

My butcher told me that venison does not contain the enzymes that cause tenderness from aging. All venison does is get older. Once the rigor is out of the meat it is as aged as it can get. The one important thing in handling game is to get the body heat out. The outside temp is not so important, as long as you do what ever is necessary to get the body heat out. The larger the animal the harder it is to cool. Boning may be necessary. Don't let the meat get wet. Keep the rain off the exposed meat.

The only time I have had bad meat is trying to eat it right after the kill.

That is my training.

Steve

[rm76]

Well, there are proteolytic enzymes in all meat and these will act to break down protein after death. I dont know how those in deer compare to beef in terms of quantity, but proteolytic activity does occur in venison as well.

Here is an informative article:
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/meatscie...ng-venison.pdf

There is another one from Texas A&M but I cant locate it right off. One thing that article stressed is that it is possible to hang venison for a day (or at least overnight) even in very warm conditions because it takes a while for the natural heat to dissipate out of the meat -- assuming proper handling. Bacterial growth is exponential -- meaning the numbers start out lower and doubles every few hours providing conditions are favorable (temperature and moisture). So, it is time at warm temperatures that cause spoilage. This does not happen over night.

A certain amount of moisture is also critical for bacterial growth. So, washing of the meat is not necessarily bad, as long as the meat is allowed to dry rather quickly. It is a constant level of moisture (at the higher temperatures) that enhances bacterial growth. Some hunters "age" their meat for several days in an ice chest with ice water -- but because the temperature is kept so cold, little bacterial growth occurs even though the moisture is present.

Therefore, there has to be a balance between aging and spoilage -- with considerations of contamination, temperature, moisture, and time factors. Let's all enjoy venison this fall. Good luck with the hunt!