How long do you age meat?

[Hunt anything]

I was curious how long people hang their game meat before processing and freezing?
My standard practice is to take the back straps cut into meal sized portions, any roasts and the tenderloins, vacuum pack them and then stick them in the fridge for up to 10 days sometimes longer before freezing. I guess that would be a form of wet aging. Anything I’m going to grind I don’t age and just take it straight to the processor.

 

[Boyd Brooks]

Kill it, cut it, wrap it (freezer paper), freeze it.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

I am the wrong person to answer, because my situation is probably a lot different.

Rural Alaska... everything is processed by me. The short answer? It depends on the season and weather conditions. Moose are big. I don't have a way to refrigerate very much. But if the temperatures drop enough, I shut off the stove in my shop. No windows, so it stays dark/cool. I turn on fans. And check it often. A few days if I can. But for fall moose it often needs to be processed immediately.

Oh, and I am in the vacuum pack crowd.

 

[DieJager]

Roe deer usually 5 days ( gutted but with skin on), small game (not gutted)depends sometimes a couple of days sometimes not at all, depends.

 

[KJE81]

Moose meat usually about 7-9 days depending on how it looks/smells. We have a cooler room adjacent to our butchery in my hunting club that we have the meat hanging. Entire moose body without head and fur and of course without the intestines.

Usually we hang the moose in outdoor temperature the first 24 hours before sliding it into the cooler room.

About the same for roe deer and red stag also.

Birds I usually hang a couple of days in outside temperature, mainly pheasants, black grouse and Capercaillie. Also hares.

For reference the climate here in the northernmost parts of Sweden is quite similar to that of southern Alaska I have been told.

 

[gillettehunter]

My dad would usually skin an animal and hang it where cool. The colder it was the longer he would allow it to hang. I still remember him smelling the the meat. He'd put his nose up very close between the quarters and taking a long sniff. He said when you got the first whif of mold it was ready to cut up.
For pronghorn I usually don't really age it anymore. Deer and elk 2-10 days depending on temps and help availability.
Bruce

 

[skydiver386]

The last few years I've tried to learn all I can about this subject, and I've found it make a tremendous difference in the final taste of my wild game.

Bigger animals like hogs, deer and larger hang for 7-14 days at around 34 degrees f. Smaller game like rabbit, pheasant hang for 2-3 days.

The more closely you can control the temperature, the longer you can age the meat. If it gets much above 36f you need to keep a close eye on things and shorten the aging period.

This past season we downed a few Whitetail here in Ohio and aged them for a week and a half at as close to 34-35f as we could with a coolbot. It turned out to be the best venison I've ever tasted.

 

[Hunt anything]

What made me think of this was down here people put their deer in ice water for days. To me when it comes out it just doesn’t look very good. More white than pink or red. Never eaten any that was soaked but I may ask someone for a roast to try.
I’m lucky I have a fairly large extra refrigerator in my barn and I can put 2 whole deer (quartered) in it along with any ducks/geese or small game I get.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Depends.
If the carcass is cooled quickly outside, with the skin on, it's November (winter), cool room is cool. I have aged Deer and Elk just like beef up to 21 days.

There are plenty of times when this is not possible or of interest and have processed meat the same day. Typically, it won't hang for more than 7 days.



Great article on the subject that was the result of research done at the University of Wyoming.


"Hunters seldom agree as to the length of time a big game carcass should be aged.

What is involved in the aging process? When is it beneficial to age game meat? Under what conditions is it inadvisable to age game? This pamphlet is concerned with answers to these questions.

Let's assume that the hunter has made his kill and properly dressed the carcass. Now we want to know what he should do from the time the carcass is eviscerated until it is ready to be cut into steaks and roasts."

Summary

"Many practical considerations must ultimately determine whether to age or not to age game meat. Among these are the temperature at the time of kill, the chilling rate, the internal temperature of the muscle after chilling, the youthfulness of the animal, the relative humidity, the amount of weight loss the hunter is willing to sacrifice, the processing procedure and the cooler space and labor available if the game is to be processed commercially. Under ideal conditions, age antelope 3 days, deer, sheep, goat, cow elk and cow moose 7 days and bull elk and bull moose 14 days after the kill at 34ºF. If the temperature is higher, the aging period should be shorter. Game which is killed when the temperature is 65ºF or above and held at this temperature over 1 day should be cut immediately. Game that is to be ground or chopped does not need to be aged."

Aging Big Game 
 — by Ray A. Field and C. Colin Kaltenback
Bulletin 513R, Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071. Publication date: October 1987.

 

[dlmac]

I never hang anything with the skin on. However most of my hunting is out of state so it gets butchered and flash frozen most of the time. What game is taken locally is hung for 7-14 days.

 

[mdwest]

depends for me as well.. both on the time of the year, and where I am hunting..

This past September I took a hog on our hunting property in E TX.. It was in the mid 80's.. the animal was gutted, skinned, and quartered on the spot, and immediately thrown into a cooler (no other real option available).. I "cooler aged" it for about a week, leaving it in an ice brine, draining off any melted water, adding new ice when needed, etc..

When I hunt another place a little further south, there is a big walk-in fridge.. I'll typically gut and skin the animal in an appropriate period of time depending on the outside temp, time of year, etc.. but then will let it hang in the walk-in for however long I've got left in camp.. and then quarter and put the meat in a cooler for a finishing off period of however long is needed before processing.. (sometimes it gets a day or two in the walk-in.. sometimes it gets 3-4 days in the walk-in.. it just depends on how long Im going to be there and how early in the hunt that I took the animal)..

This far south its difficult to hang/age meat.. even in the coldest part of the year its not uncommon to have temps in the 50's during the day.. the high today is going to be 68 and the low is going to be 59... so if you don't have access to a walk in fridge of some sort you're kinda screwed, and just do the best you can with whatever tools you have access to..