Meat Preparation

[ecoaster]

My wife and I love the gamey taste. If I wanted the gamey taste out of deer, I'd buy a cow . Mine is hung and opened up too cool for 4-6 hours, then skinned and butchered. Usually in the freezer within 24 hours of dropping it. That's just our personal preference.

I freezer bag the cuts and wrap in freezer paper. Still eating some from last year and it's just fine.

[Cedrus]

I always wash my game carcasses with fresh clean water following evisceration. Never, ever had a problem with tainted meat.

Read the following regarding proper carcass treatment/preperation:



http://www.wisc.edu/foodsafety/meatrese ... ention.pdf

[Country]

I fortunately have access to a walk in cooler. To properly hang deer or any meat it is supposed to be kept at something like 34 degrees. I can't leave mine outside if it's going to be 25 degrees at night and 60 the next day. I usually pack mine with ice and roll it up in a tarp if it's hot out and/or I have a long drive home with it. As for the water hose treatment, I use a damp rag and wipe the insides down.

[Cedrus]

Hehe.....

[Big Al]

Funny that you post a link and not bother to read the information contained in the link. Look at the temperatures of the water and what else they are cleaning the meat with. If you had read the link you will notice the use of vinegar. I do not cut this with water. I use only apple cider vinegar for the smell as the white makes me sick from the smell. You think you gain something by washing meat below the minimum temp of 160 deg.f ? The idea of cleaning a carcass using what you describe are not in keeping with your posted link! What effort do they go to, to dry the carcass after washing, did you read that?

[Cedrus]

Hehe... Anyone with any kind of science background (like me) can interperate from the research data provided, that washing carcasses reduces the bacteria count, as does aging it below 40F.

[Martin]

Thanks to all the input by my fellow xbow hunters. I feel a little more confused by all the response than before. In Australia it is quite warm most days, with some days in the bush hitting over 40 degress celcius. I do agree with getting the meat cooled asap, and in my limited experience so far, removing the skin feels like the right thing to do, as it begins to stick within an hour or so. Could be due to the heat. All the same, thank you all for the info, it is greatly appreciated!

[CYCLONE]

I would just like to chime in on the post for 1 main reason. Use of water and what it actually does. I agree with everyones posts in that all the practices stated so far work/ or have worked and each is better in certain scenarios. But I beleive someone stated that water is loaded with bacteria and that is why the meat turns brown. That is the farthest from the truth if using common tap water as was stated. A good test would be to lick your tap water 10 times and see how many trips to the head you make in the next 18 hours. Next, lick your raw venison steak 10 times and stay close to the head. You will find out which one is loaded with bacteria. That is why it is recommended to cook your steaks to at least 145 Deg.F. and we don't yet have to boil our water before drinking in most parts of this continent.

Red or bright red meat is in a oxymyoglobin state thus the surface of the meat is allowed to be exposed to oxygen. Brown or dark meat after being washed or soaked in water is brown because it is not allowed to be exposed to oxygen due to the water covering the surface and the hardness of the water stopping the oxymyoglobin reaction.

To much water is bad also so use it sparringly as AL stated, also, if the meat looks dirty cut it off and though it out as BStout stated.

Venison is dry and chewy in most cases unless it still had spots. The best way to combat this is with the use of water and marinades. Once you have the hide off spray the hanging carcass with a light high pressure spray of water, this will remove unseen coliforms and visible hair. Next, when butchering by either cutting subprimals or simply boneing out rinse off each large muscle peice with a light spray of water. ( each of these water sprays with tap water will reduce the coliform "bacteria count" by 1 log) ( it will reduce 1000 coliforms to 100 coliforms by using regular tap water at each step).

If you want venison flavor leave the fat on, if you don't want this take the fat off as that is were 90% of the venison flavor is.
All above is done before freezing/Vacuum packaging.

All below is done within 24 hours of cooking.
To REDUCE the rut/buck flavor soak steak or roast in common 2% or skim milk assuming you are not lactose intolerant. 2-12 hours will work, again it is all dependandt on the size of the meat and the starting flavor.

Marinating steaks with added water is the best way to make your venison table fare you will be proud of. It allows you to use enzymes to help make the meat more tender. It will definitly make it juicer. With the addition of sugars to the marinade it will cause the grill to flame more or sear similiar to beef cuts. It will allow you to expand flavors to the following and more ( Teriaki, Savory, Au Jus, Italian, Tex Mex, Mexican, Fajita, Butter, Creole, BBQ, ect.) There are numerous off the shelf mariandes that can be used now days.

The best common folk way to do this is to use a fork (longer the fork blades the better) and peirce the meat using a consistant pattern covering one whole side of the steaks surface or both sides of a roast. Make up your marinade and add it to steaks at a 10-20% level based on weight. You can by rubbing and massaging the steaks together get the marinade into the meat in about 5-10 minutes. If you have needle injectors or vacuum tumblers then by all means use them to do this. Soak the roasts for 12-24 hours depending on weight.

[Grizzly Adam]

Bstout wrote:

"This is one of the many things I love about this group.

We're all friends and we can disagree with each other without a bunch of personal attacks and name calling. This is beyond a doubt the best forum on the web. I try to make mention when someone goes off the deep end with another member. Excalibur Marketing Dude doesn't appreciate it either. He's told me so.

Reasonable people can disagree and remain friends."
____________________________________________________________

I agree with that. I've never seen such an even-tempered, generally polite, and usually helpful forum group as this one. I really enjoy participating in forums, but I'm usually long gone after a few weeks because of all the bickering and in-fighting and mudslinging. BUT I'VE NOT FOUND THAT HERE ... and I'm glad. I appreciate this group, and I'm glad to be here. I hope I can be helpful myself sometimes.

As to butchering, I think there's more than one road to paradise, but definitely a few general principles to observe, most of which fall under the definition of common sense.

I do quite a little bit of it myself, but I'll refrain from much commentary.

Only thing I'll say is that all my deer are boned out and in the fridge without delay, and some within an hour of death, depending on where I was and what the situation was (I hunt on and live right here on my farm). This is a matter of necessity here in the sunny south unless you have a walk-in cooler ... and though I could certainly have one, I can't see an advantage. Skinning is so much easier when the deer is hot and flexible.

Grizz

[Cedrus]

But I beleive someone stated that water is loaded with bacteria and that is why the meat turns brown. That is the farthest from the truth if using common tap water as was stated. A good test would be to lick your tap water 10 times and see how many trips to the head you make in the next 18 hours. Next, lick your raw venison steak 10 times and stay close to the head. You will find out which one is loaded with bacteria.

Once you have the hide off spray the hanging carcass with a light high pressure spray of water, this will remove unseen coliforms and visible hair. Next, when butchering by either cutting subprimals or simply boneing out rinse off each large muscle peice with a light spray of water. ( each of these water sprays with tap water will reduce the coliform "bacteria count" by 1 log) ( it will reduce 1000 coliforms to 100 coliforms by using regular tap water at each step).

Thank you CYCLONE. I had hoped at least one member could interpret research data.

[Big Al]

I use the KISS principal. I take two plastic one gallon jugs of apple cider vinegar on the hunt. A four inch paint brush and an empty coffee can. Also just in case, a large spray bottle filled with smoke oil (I use to keep the flies off). Any Male killed with a swollen neck from the rut (aka. been drinking cow piss) gets extra vinegar treatment. The moose here are bad for this, yet the meat treated will come out just fine. It depends on your circumstance about hide removal, temperature is a big factor. Other reasons made include unwanted company sharing your kill (aka, growly bears of the brown kind). The latter cause me to quarter right through the hide and get a move on back to camp or the boat for 12ga # 7 1/2 help. for some reason these bear do not like being shot with this combination? If hunting the rivers with a lot of silt I will leave the hide on. until I get it back to camp to skin and start treating. Sometimes I'm hundreds of air miles from home, others I'm days away form home by boat and road miles of trailering. For this cause I use old sleeping bags for insulation, canvass and plastic to build a cocoon around the meat. I just hope all this information helps the new guys out there and it is not intended to raise a fuss. Yes, there is more than oneway to skin a cat. I'm only pointing out what has worked for me. Remember this "Once the trigger is released the fun ends, and the real work begins".

[Cedrus]

Hehehe..

[Cedrus]

Hehe