Hanging game meat in cooler

[#1antler]

I ended up having my deer hang 12 days in my homemade cool bot cooler. 36 degrees. I lost a substantial portion due to trimming heavy rind on quarters. Butcher's never have rind on carcass. How do they store in coolers to accomplish this. How can I correct my homemade cool bot cooler ?

 

[Tod osier]

I ended up having my deer hang 12 days in my homemade cool bot cooler. 36 degrees. I lost a substantial portion due to trimming heavy rind on quarters. Butcher's never have rind on carcass. How do they store in coolers to accomplish this. How can I correct my homemade cool bot cooler ?

Humidity, but when adding humidity you will have to watch it doesn't get slimy. I routinely do 10 days in a small enough space that you don't get rind, the animal and other materials in there produces enough moisture.

 

[bsnedeker]

Butchers have to deal with rind when dry aging... what makes you think they "never" do?

Butchers do hang deer whole with the skin on which protects the meat from getting a rind. That is the only thing that will protect it. If you skin it and hand quarters you are going to have to trim the exposed meat, no way around it.

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[Howler80]

I always store deer meat in bags in my cooler for 7 days than package and freeze, never had any loss or rind, get 99 percent of the meat this way, besides from trimming white skin and fat I get it all, hanging in a cooler dries put alot of good meat, all the best

 

[svivian]

I have always gotten rind on mine hanging for 9 days in fresh game bags. For those who are not getting a rind what are your hanging conditions? Humidity, temp, meat prep etc…

 

[Tod osier]

I have always gotten rind on mine hanging for 9 days in fresh game bags. For those who are not getting a rind what are your hanging conditions? Humidity, temp, meat prep etc…

The rind is just the meat drying at the surface (think jerky). It is perfectly edible, even if it doesn't look great. It can be ground into burger with the rest of your trim and you cant tell the difference.

When I age meat on the bone in my chiller, it is higher humidity and you get no rind at all. If you go from hanging with rind (for example, if I hang in the barn) to higher humidity the rind softens in a couple days.

 

[Jimss]

If you live where it's hot when you return from hunting it is definitely a challenge keeping meat and capes from spoiling. I have a simple answer! I have 2 very large freezers in my garage that I use for everything from capes to meat. Depending on the season it can be as hot as 90 degrees when I return home. I've had no problem putting meat in my freezers for several weeks until I have time to butcher them. Never had a problem with freezer burn or anything else. I plan ahead to make sure I have plenty of room for cape plus meat. The meat tastes delicious once I thaw it out and get it processed and packaged. It's also warm to hot in the spring when I return from turkey hunting. I often freeze the entire turkeys until I have time to cape and bone the meat.

Obviously it requires room in a garage to handle a freezer but it's definitely worth making room!

 

[Tod osier]

If you live where it's hot when you return from hunting it is definitely a challenge keeping meat and capes from spoiling. I have a simple answer! I have 2 very large freezers in my garage that I use for everything from capes to meat. Depending on the season it can be as hot as 90 degrees when I return home. I've had no problem putting meat in my freezers for several weeks until I have time to butcher them. Never had a problem with freezer burn or anything else. I plan ahead to make sure I have plenty of room for cape plus meat. The meat tastes delicious once I thaw it out and get it processed and packaged. It's also warm to hot in the spring when I return from turkey hunting. I often freeze the entire turkeys until I have time to cape and bone the meat.

Obviously it requires room in a garage to handle a freezer but it's definitely worth making room!

To add to that idea, if you have a couple freezers, one can easily be made into a chiller. We have 3 chest freezers and have a 9 cubic foot running at refrigerator temps nearly all the time. Works great for beverages, bulk veg storage and aging animals.

One of these to set the temp:

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One of these to move the air, so no cold spots develop:

Amazon.com

 

[Snowwolfe]

You can also explore shrouding the meat by covering it with a damp sheet. But I think humidity is equally if not more important.

 

[Zappaman]

We hung a doe or two every year in the ranch's saddle barn (hide on- dry climate in high country NM). We "widdled" the hide down (and the meat) off that deer for MONTHS. Average temp in winter day 60 degrees, nights in the 30s. I recall cutting meat out of the neck of a larger doe one year in February-- she'd been hanging for 3 months- the neck meat melted in your mouth.

Aged on the bone, without flies, the tougher meat gets tender (aged) even with the hide off. Have to trim the outside meat a bit (1/4"), but it made for good ranch meat for our hands (and us when we were there)... next to the goat and sheep we also hung in the winter in that dusty old rock-walled barn.

 

[huck]

Agree with Z if theres any way at all to do it I wont skin a deer ,I hang them in our barn from Sept. low 70s daytime high I can get 7 to 12 days hang time.. Rifle and Archery season we can do about whatever we want . Our barn is high so we can hang meat high enough to get away from most bugs . I also make sure to take out the esophagus from as far up in the throat as I can get , I dont wash the cavity ,I will wipe it if its a bad shot .

 

[Pony Soldier]

When I went to school at NDSU I visited the meat lab and learned that you age beef and buffalo. Everything else cut once it is chilled - hence next day. Have done it that way since 1971. The flavor improved immensely.

Just offering an option -- your choice.

 

[huck]

I agree ON farm raised meat, pork ,poultry ,rabbit , lamb ,mutton but not elk ,deer sheep ,moose , antelope .

 

[fisherman983]

Trim off the rind and toss in your burger grind pile. You'll never know it's in there. Started doing that a few years ago and my burger pipe grew quite a bit

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[NoWiser]

The quality of our elk, antelope, and deer meat has gone up immensely since we started aging it 2+ weeks. The results have been irrefutable.

 

[Zappaman]

Just hung a doe two hours ago... she will hang AT LEAST two weeks with the hide on. And if it gets super cold, she can stay out behind the garage out of the sun until late February if need be. This isn't always an option during the buck hunt when its 72 degrees on opening day in Dec. (in Kansas- damn hot/weird year). But thankfully we're back in the teens here in the next few days (buying me time to get some fall meat out of my freezers and to my sausage/jerky maker-- so I can FIT the meat I hung up tonight).

Next big purchase: side-by-side stainless restaurant freezer (*WITH LOTS of cages fitted for filling DEEP with prepped game: deer, pig, turkeys, geese, ducks, and occasionally an elk, and/or oryx). Chest freezers are getting old (in many ways).

 

[gbflyer]

Just hung a doe two hours ago... she will hang AT LEAST two weeks with the hide on. And if it gets super cold, she can stay out behind the garage out of the sun until late February if need be. This isn't always an option during the buck hunt when its 72 degrees on opening day in Dec. (in Kansas- damn hot/weird year). But thankfully we're back in the teens here in the next few days (buying me time to get some fall meat out of my freezers and to my sausage/jerky maker-- so I can FIT the meat I hung up tonight).

Next big purchase: side-by-side stainless restaurant freezer (*WITH LOTS of cages fitted for filling DEEP with prepped game: deer, pig, turkeys, geese, ducks, and occassionally and elk, and/or oryx). Chest freezers are getting old (in many ways).

Same here. 3 hanging in my hangar, it’s getting down to -5 or so at night. I’ve always been the guy that skins them upon kill, short hang, quick process. All
my neighbors hang with the hide on for a couple weeks at least and their meat is better than mine. So here I go…

 

[Iceman82]

I have been in the commercial refrigeration business for over 35 years. I have my own commercial walk in cooler and use it regularly. I hang all my deer at 36 degrees with hide on for up to 3 weeks and I would never do it any other way.
The meat is incredible.

 

[#1antler]

Sounds like the solution to my problem is to hang with skin on. I've never done it this way but will try next harvest.. Thanks everyone

 

[journeyman713]

I do one of two things when hanging a deer in the barn.
Either leave it covered with the hide, or saran wrap it. When saran wrapping, leave top and bottom open, to let the cavity breathe.