Dry "Leather" on Hanging Quarters

[treillw]

Wife shot a cow on Saturday. We hung the quarters in the garage for storage and to cool until we are able to get them cut up.

In less than 24 hours, the surface of the quarter is starting to dry out and has become hard, almost like leather. A few years ago we had one hanging similarly for a week and it really dried out. Was a pain to cut off the entire surface, as I didn't think it would be tasty. I said I'd never do that again; didn't expect it to dry out so quickly.

Last night I sprayed the quarters with a little water and tied a trash bag around them. I left space at the bottom so the meat isn't soaking in standing water. A little worried that it could get moldy, but wouldn't expect that to happen too quickly.

Couple of questions:
How do you stop it from getting leathery?
Do you cut the leather off, or just grind it and hope it rehydrates?
Think the humidity bag will be an issue with mold?
Any other advice?

Thanks!

 

[wapitibob]

Separate each muscle then fillet the skin off, skin side down just like a bass.

 

[Bearlodge10]

In my opinion, the crusty outside on hanging carcasses and quarters is a good thing. For me, it makes cleaning the meat of hair, bloodshot parts and allows the meat to age while keeping the inner meat fresh. I just take it off like I do hide or silverskin and it goes to the scrap pile. With that said, it does make me curious as to the conditions of the garage. Your post makes me think that there must be something that takes the moisture out of the air fairly rapidly. Adding moisture to the air is not bad but I personally wouldn't spray the meat nor bag it. As bad as you don't like the leathery surface, I would rather have air circulating around it to cool it and not make the environment more bacteria friendly.
just my .02

 

[Rob5589]

Not a problem. I wouldn't wet it and bag it though. That's going to invite bacteria.

 

[RockinRam96]

I shot a whitetail about a month ago and I t really wasn’t cool enough here in NY to hang and age. I threw everything except for the two hind quarters in a cooler. I didn’t have another cooler to put them in so I put them in a game bag and threw them in the freezer. Last week I pulled them out of the freezer hung them, thawed and cut them up. There was some harder outer meat but as mentioned about, it made cutting silver skin off.

Moral of the story I think the game bags helped keep the skin from drying out too badly.


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[treillw]

I'm going to make all the quarters into jerky, sausage, or burger. I don't think it would be advantageous to have it age if it's getting ground up anyway??

This is probably the best job I've ever done field dressing - there is hardly any dirt or hair on the meat. Having to cut the leather off just makes more work. It would be nice to just cut it up, throw it in the grind bucket and not have to worry about removing it. With how clean the meat is, there is no need to cut the exterior off, unless it gets too dry.

Right now it's 35% humidity outside. It was 29% humidity in the house the other day. Drought year, no snow, dry as a bone - it's always dry here regardless.

In our apartment we never had the luxury of being able to hang the meat due to space. I used to take it all out of the game bags and pile it in the bottom of an old refrigerator. It never got dried out and "leathery" in that environment. There was always a good bit of blood at the bottom of the fridge and I never had any issues with the moisture. I didn't spray a whole lot of water into the garbage bag.

The meat was cooled long before I put the bags on, so don't think I'll have any issues with heat.

I'm willing to learn here; just giving more info and hoping to learn something.

Thanks!

 

[wytx]

No way I would put that dry rind in my ground meat and I would not wet it and then bag it, bacteria as mentioned above.
We hang with the hide on when we don't want to trim the rind.
It won't be thick and you should just trim it off .

Garbage bags can have a treatment in them also for smell etc., don't use garbage bags if possible.

 

[Jethro]

Get a spare fridge for the garage and keep it cool in there. Or keep it in coolers with ice jugs till you can cut it up. That would keep it from getting leathery. Got to be that humidity. 35% is dry. Right now my humidity here in PA is 63%.

Maybe a humidifier for your house too.

 

[Bearlodge10]

I'm going to make all the quarters into jerky, sausage, or burger. I don't think it would be advantageous to have it age if it's getting ground up anyway??

This is probably the best job I've ever done field dressing - there is hardly any dirt or hair on the meat. Having to cut the leather off just makes more work. It would be nice to just cut it up, throw it in the grind bucket and not have to worry about removing it. With how clean the meat is, there is no need to cut the exterior off, unless it gets too dry.

Right now it's 35% humidity outside. It was 29% humidity in the house the other day. Drought year, no snow, dry as a bone - it's always dry here regardless.

In our apartment we never had the luxury of being able to hang the meat due to space. I used to take it all out of the game bags and pile it in the bottom of an old refrigerator. It never got dried out and "leathery" in that environment. There was always a good bit of blood at the bottom of the fridge and I never had any issues with the moisture. I didn't spray a whole lot of water into the garbage bag.

The meat was cooled long before I put the bags on, so don't think I'll have any issues with heat.

I'm willing to learn here; just giving more info and hoping to learn something.

Thanks!

No added benefit from hanging meat to "age" in most game meat scenarios. However, I do think that if available and in a temperature-controlled environment Aging meat from a nice cow elk can allow for typical aging advantages just like with beef. For me, I find that hanging meat in cool temps allows a good rind to form and this aids in trimming the meat no matter how it is going to be used. Only a few times have I ever processed game meat without hanging and those were trips where logistically waiting wasn't going to work.
If you can, post a photo. Perhaps we are talking about a different scenario altogether.

 

[brockel]

Just going to have to cut it up right away if you don’t want that meat leather. No way would I add moisture to it though and then bag it. That’s asking for bacteria Issues

 

[Centralcoastca]

I debone and keep in the fridge in big 3 gal ziplock bags. Makes it easy to work on one bag at a time when processing.

 

[SDHNTR]

The bag and water might be the worst meat care idea I’ve ever heard of. You just gave bacteria 2 of the 3 prime conditions it needs to thrive. Just cut the rind off.

 

[treillw]

Enough of you have said it....... so I took the bags off!

BUT, I still don't really get how having a bag on the meat to raise the local humidity around the meat and stop evaporation would be a bad thing if you want to prevent leathering. The garage is cool/cold. Going to be 21 degrees tonight. In my mind it's not much different than throwing 100 pounds of meat blobs in the bottom of the fridge and closing the door.

I put the bags on last night. Removing them now and examining it, the meat surface is not nearly as dried out and much more of the way I would like it to be. That being said, I don't want a bacteria farm.

Maybe a dry bag around the fresh quarter would be good next time without the additional very light water spray in the bag? It would just be retaining whatever moisture is in there to start.

 

[wapitibob]

I’ve done every way imaginable and the preferred method as noted by Bear above is dry age and fillet the crust off. Everything comes off with the crust; dirt, needles, outer membranes, all that stuff.

 

[philson208]

The only way I have prevented leathering is by storing in a cooler w ice & in the fridge method. I was nervous as hell letting all my meat sit in a moist cooler w water. I would check it multiple time daily always making sure no meat was touching water. I was able to process my Bull before any problems happened, but I much prefer to hang meat in game bags in a dry environment if temps are low enough. The leathery rind that forms is a good protective layer that is easily trimmed from each muscle group, and as previously stated once trimmed all the dirt and hair are left on the trimmed leathery scraps. IMHO elk meat doesn't need to age especially if you will be grinding and or making jerky w/ the majority of it. Get her cut up and frozen before any more leather skin forms. congratulations on the harvest!

 

[cnelk]

No crust for me. I get the quarters cooled down and then into a cooler with frozen ice jugs.

After a day or so, I’ll take them out and debone and process.

 

[william schmaltz]

Throw it in the burger and grind it. I grew up in a butcher shop, everything was hung 7-28 days. Literally cut up thousands of animals. Never had a complaint. I promise you that you won't know it's in your burger. Don't waste it if it's clean. 100% chance everyone on this thread has eaten plenty of it in burgers and sausage without any complaint.

 

[western406]

I’ve seen guys leave the hid on to prevent that dried out “leather” layer but then it makes it tougher to skin. If you’re not grinding it all then you’d want to trim it but that takes extra time. What I’ve found works good for me is to either skin every quarter and then hang them in game bags or if hanging an entire carcass use a body size game bag and wrap around the entire body. Since doing so I’ve never had an issue with loosing any meat. Since game bags aren’t cheap I use the big canvas ones and just wash them after each use. I wouldn’t recommend wetting down the meat as mentioned above. Garbage bags won’t allow the meat to breath either.

 

[cnelk]

^^^ Thats not silverskin.

Silverskin is the white membrane separating the muscle groups

 

[treillw]

Garbage bags won’t allow the meat to breath either.

Why does it need to breathe?

Thanks!