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Post by steiny on Sept 26, 2020 9:32:37 GMT -5
I'm of the opinion that you only need to hang venison long enough to get it cooled clear through and stiffened up so it cuts and butchers nicely. Hanging any longer or "aging" as some refer to it does little to improve quality, tenderness, etc. I think that's mostly just something in peoples heads because that's what somebody else always did or told them.
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Post by buckbuster13 on Sept 26, 2020 17:06:20 GMT -5
I'm of the opinion that you only need to hang venison long enough to get it cooled clear through and stiffened up so it cuts and butchers nicely. Hanging any longer or "aging" as some refer to it does little to improve quality, tenderness, etc. I think that's mostly just something in peoples heads because that's what somebody else always did or told them. Yeah I’m of the same opinion, gut deer right away, skin and start cooling down. I butcher as soon as the meat has cooled, if it’s warm I quarter up and put in fridge to speed up process.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2020 17:29:10 GMT -5
I'm of the opinion that you only need to hang venison long enough to get it cooled clear through and stiffened up so it cuts and butchers nicely. Hanging any longer or "aging" as some refer to it does little to improve quality, tenderness, etc. I think that's mostly just something in peoples heads because that's what somebody else always did or told them. Yeah I’m of the same opinion, gut deer right away, skin and start cooling down. I butcher as soon as the meat has cooled, if it’s warm I quarter up and put in fridge to speed up process. There have been copious studies done in which meat was both wet and dry aged, for various times, and most agreed that aging made a noticeably marked difference in taste, for the better. Although some things like taste can be subjective, other things, like tenderness are not. It's been scientifically demonstrated that aging does improve taste, texture and tenderness.
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Post by michaelc on Sept 26, 2020 17:57:02 GMT -5
I'm really glad someone started this topic, it gives us ideas and answers to some questions we might have. In my personal opinion, I think it comes down to the individual, temperature and time. I also think that there's not really a right or wrong as to field dressing in the woods or at home, but for me I choose to wait until I get home if I can. I have a heck of a long drag and though it would lighten my work load, I'm not much on dragging a dressed deer through the dirt and debris that's in my course of my truck.
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Post by esshup on Sept 27, 2020 23:05:36 GMT -5
I've shot an antelope in almost 100°F temps, gutted it, filled the body cavity with ice, rolled it up in a blue tarp, belly up, drove 1.5 hours "home" then skinned/cut/packaged/froze. No complaints about the meat at all.
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Post by whitetaildave24 on Sept 28, 2020 5:38:14 GMT -5
My son’s deer yesterday was shot at 7:44. By 11:00 it was gutted, carted up to the barn, cut up, and the meat put in a cooler on ice. I trimmed it all a little later and will grind and package today.
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Post by BigJLocke on Dec 19, 2021 23:46:44 GMT -5
I killed a doe on opening day this year and she was gutted within 10 minutes is getting to her. Mostly because she landed in the bottom of a ravine and was much lighter afterwards haha. Two weeks later, I shot my buck and would have gutted him immediately as well, but he crossed the property line and I had to drive in to get him. I read in a post on this thread that they never found a hair in their meat from the processor. I take my deer to the same processor my dad always took his too, but I found it a little weird that nearly every package of meat I open up, the paper has chunks of meat and bloody finger prints all over and every package so far has had deer hair in it. I’m not really one to complain, but is that not normal?
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Post by bullseye69 on Dec 20, 2021 7:32:21 GMT -5
Bloody finger prints and pieces of meat on the paper shouldn't be normal imo. A hair here or there doesn't bother me but every package? Seems like a messy processor and isn't cleaning up as much as they should.
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Post by sculver7 on Dec 20, 2021 7:59:58 GMT -5
I also think that is weird.
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Post by boonechaser on Dec 20, 2021 10:11:33 GMT -5
I killed a doe on opening day this year and she was gutted within 10 minutes is getting to her. Mostly because she landed in the bottom of a ravine and was much lighter afterwards haha. Two weeks later, I shot my buck and would have gutted him immediately as well, but he crossed the property line and I had to drive in to get him. I read in a post on this thread that they never found a hair in their meat from the processor. I take my deer to the same processor my dad always took his too, but I found it a little weird that nearly every package of meat I open up, the paper has chunks of meat and bloody finger prints all over and every package so far has had deer hair in it. I’m not really one to complain, but is that not normal? NO that is not normal. I take my deer to a regular locker plant. (Costs slightly more) but is professionally done. I once had a doe that coyote's got to before me and ate some of one hindquarter and the locker would not process the doe because of possible contamination , so I took to a local Amish processor. (Last time I will do that.) Similar results with bloody packaging and some hair in meat and when I picked up meat the place was less than clean by any standards.
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Post by BigJLocke on Dec 20, 2021 12:49:26 GMT -5
I killed a doe on opening day this year and she was gutted within 10 minutes is getting to her. Mostly because she landed in the bottom of a ravine and was much lighter afterwards haha. Two weeks later, I shot my buck and would have gutted him immediately as well, but he crossed the property line and I had to drive in to get him. I read in a post on this thread that they never found a hair in their meat from the processor. I take my deer to the same processor my dad always took his too, but I found it a little weird that nearly every package of meat I open up, the paper has chunks of meat and bloody finger prints all over and every package so far has had deer hair in it. I’m not really one to complain, but is that not normal? NO that is not normal. I take my deer to a regular locker plant. (Costs slightly more) but is professionally done. I once had a doe that coyote's got to before me and ate some of one hindquarter and the locker would not process the doe because of possible contamination , so I took to a local Amish processor. (Last time I will do that.) Similar results with bloody packaging and some hair in meat and when I picked up meat the place was less than clean by any standards. Well Archers has been around since before me, so I just assumed they were good. I’m in Fortville and they’re the closest to me in Greenwood. They cost 80 per deer unless you have something special done. I also requested the hides on both deer I’ve taken this year, and both times the person working on them hasn’t saved them and blamed it on the girl at the front desk. If I find somewhere else, I’ll probably elsewhere. My wife didn’t grow up like I did, and she definitely does NOT like picking the hair out of our roasts :/
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Post by bullseye69 on Dec 20, 2021 14:06:07 GMT -5
NO that is not normal. I take my deer to a regular locker plant. (Costs slightly more) but is professionally done. I once had a doe that coyote's got to before me and ate some of one hindquarter and the locker would not process the doe because of possible contamination , so I took to a local Amish processor. (Last time I will do that.) Similar results with bloody packaging and some hair in meat and when I picked up meat the place was less than clean by any standards. Well Archers has been around since before me, so I just assumed they were good. I’m in Fortville and they’re the closest to me in Greenwood. They cost 80 per deer unless you have something special done. I also requested the hides on both deer I’ve taken this year, and both times the person working on them hasn’t saved them and blamed it on the girl at the front desk. If I find somewhere else, I’ll probably elsewhere. My wife didn’t grow up like I did, and she definitely does NOT like picking the hair out of our roasts :/ Skin it before u take it in maybe.
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Post by deadeer on Dec 20, 2021 14:13:15 GMT -5
Well Archers has been around since before me, so I just assumed they were good. I’m in Fortville and they’re the closest to me in Greenwood. They cost 80 per deer unless you have something special done. I also requested the hides on both deer I’ve taken this year, and both times the person working on them hasn’t saved them and blamed it on the girl at the front desk. If I find somewhere else, I’ll probably elsewhere. My wife didn’t grow up like I did, and she definitely does NOT like picking the hair out of our roasts :/ Skin it before u take it in maybe. In the past, most places wouldnt take in a skinned deer. I remember seeing signs or on the price sheet. It's been over 20 years since I had one butchered tho. Maybe its changed?
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Post by tine-n-spur on Dec 20, 2021 15:05:45 GMT -5
I don’t know why they would not take in a skinned deer.
Maybe because they were charging to skin and then selling the hide?
I have always skinned before taking to be processed.
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Post by jman46151 on Dec 20, 2021 15:56:22 GMT -5
NO that is not normal. I take my deer to a regular locker plant. (Costs slightly more) but is professionally done. I once had a doe that coyote's got to before me and ate some of one hindquarter and the locker would not process the doe because of possible contamination , so I took to a local Amish processor. (Last time I will do that.) Similar results with bloody packaging and some hair in meat and when I picked up meat the place was less than clean by any standards. Well Archers has been around since before me, so I just assumed they were good. I’m in Fortville and they’re the closest to me in Greenwood. They cost 80 per deer unless you have something special done. I also requested the hides on both deer I’ve taken this year, and both times the person working on them hasn’t saved them and blamed it on the girl at the front desk. If I find somewhere else, I’ll probably elsewhere. My wife didn’t grow up like I did, and she definitely does NOT like picking the hair out of our roasts :/ I didn't have time to process one last year so I took it to Archer's. I don't remember having issues with bloody fingerprints but have found some hair in a few of the packages. I had quite a bit of trimming of silverskin after the fact but I assume this is normal for a processor.
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Post by esshup on Dec 20, 2021 18:25:51 GMT -5
Skin it before u take it in maybe. In the past, most places wouldnt take in a skinned deer. I remember seeing signs or on the price sheet. It's been over 20 years since I had one butchered tho. Maybe its changed? Correct. The places I asked said no skinned deer, it's too big of a PITA to take off the dried outer layer of meat before they start packaging it up. Plus it's too hard to keep the meat clean that way.
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Post by bullseye69 on Dec 20, 2021 18:30:37 GMT -5
In the past, most places wouldnt take in a skinned deer. I remember seeing signs or on the price sheet. It's been over 20 years since I had one butchered tho. Maybe its changed? Correct. The places I asked said no skinned deer, it's too big of a PITA to take off the dried outer layer of meat before they start packaging it up. Plus it's too hard to keep the meat clean that way. Hmmmm wonder what they do with the skinned cows they get???
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Post by deadeer on Dec 20, 2021 20:11:37 GMT -5
Correct. The places I asked said no skinned deer, it's too big of a PITA to take off the dried outer layer of meat before they start packaging it up. Plus it's too hard to keep the meat clean that way. Hmmmm wonder what they do with the skinned cows they get??? Maybe a slaughterhouse is a better controlled environment over the average Joe with a deer? Idk, just throwing out my 2 cents worth, its it's hardly worth that usually. 😇
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Post by bullseye69 on Dec 20, 2021 20:31:22 GMT -5
Hmmmm wonder what they do with the skinned cows they get??? Maybe a slaughterhouse is a better controlled environment over the average Joe with a deer? Idk, just throwing out my 2 cents worth, its it's hardly worth that usually. 😇 🤣
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Post by boonechaser on Dec 20, 2021 20:49:48 GMT -5
I don’t know why they would not take in a skinned deer. Maybe because they were charging to skin and then selling the hide? I have always skinned before taking to be processed. My locker won't take a skinned deer nor even a capped buck. State mandate they cannot process livestock while deer processing either. So they close for 2 months and do deer only.
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