Aging meat at home properly!

[elitearcher]

Hey all,
Just back from my week long hunting trip and it was a total success, I will get into that later for now I am looking for some responses from more veteran folks that know what they're talking about when it comes to properly aging their meat before processing.

Specifically elk tenderloins and back straps, is there a way to do this at home perhaps in the fridge?

I took a mule deer early in the week and needed to get it into the butcher shop as it was warm, they told me they could process it into muscle groups and I could wet age it at home myself, I never heard of this before but figured why not. Could I use the same method on my elk? Other than the parts mentioned above I will be taking the rest to the butchers tomorrow morning to have done properly but the loins and straps are to easy to cut the way I want them at home, just wouldn't mind letting them age for a week give or take first.

I have decided against putting pics up this year due to noticing in the other threads people constantly attempting to figure out hunters locations based on photos shared, why can people not just keep those thoughts to themselves. Just my two cents.

Cheers

[amosfella]

There's a special vacuum seal bag you can seal them in that's breathable. You can then age them in the fridge that way. See if you can't pick up a fridge to do that in, as you don't want to disturb them while they're aging...

At least that's what one master butcher told me...

[Dick284]

Temperature and humidity are the keys.
If you can't maintain those, take it to a proper facility.

But seriously game needs far less aging than beef does.

[elitearcher]

thanks for the quick response boys, any clue what temp and or humidity level (high/low).

[sns2]

Wet aging can be done in a vacuum seal bag. Seal your meat and put it in the fridge. As Dick has said, game does not need to be aged like beef. I would go 4-5 days, then cut, wrap and freeze. No longer. Beef is aged sometimes 42 days, as you have a protective fat cap. Try that with game and you will just have spoiled meat. All the same enzymes are present as if you were hanging it in a cooler at the same temp, so you will get the tenderizing effect, but because there is no evaporation taking place, as in dry aging, flavours will not be concentrated as such.

[rottie]

Snoop through the following link. It might help explain the aging process and what is needed to age different sized animals properly

http://www.uwyo.edu/foods/educationa...wild-game.html

[Flight01]

We have always dry aged our moose. We did not have a walk in cooler.
Typically timeline warm fall : moose was shot then quarter in the woods, carried out and hung that day or night. If really warm then skinned if not that warm then skinned in the early am the next day. Hang for a day, wash with water and cloth to get small hairs and any sort of dust off, hang a second day and then be headed to a cold storage, then once frozen off to the butchers band saw in a week or so.
Cool fall : same as above but hang as long as 5 days. We've only really butchered our own moose twice. This was a cool fall and hung for 4 and 5 days.

We've never had mold issues before. And our temps were well above 34F. I'd venture that for some moose hung for 2 days on a warm year it would have seen day temps in the shaded wood shed of 50F and night time temps of 40F.
The moose hung for 4-5 days on cooler years would have seen daily temps of 40F and night time temps of 25F. Never any issues.

That was before. Now I have learned a lot and it seems we did a lot of things wrong , just never had any bad results.

Last few years for moose and elk we have been skinning immediately and wrapping in cheese cloth. Hang for 2 days at most and butcher ourselves.

I do find reading the many wild game aging articles interesting. I just hope I never spoil an animal. Ever !

[Lefty-Canuck]

We age deer depending on age and sex 10-14 days, moose and elk 15-20 days. We have always done it this way and had top notch table fare. We also have a walk in cooler so the environment is controlled and maintained. 2-4 deg C is where is has to stay to age and prevent spoilage. Having an experienced butcher in the family is a good thing!

LC

[bb356]

Originally Posted by rottie

Snoop through the following link. It might help explain the aging process and what is needed to age different sized animals properly

http://www.uwyo.edu/foods/educationa...wild-game.html

yup

[super7mag]

Many , many times the tenderloins hit the frying pan while we are deboning the rest of the animal. As was mentioned wild game does not need to hang as long as beef, 48-72 hrs just above freezing is all it needs before being cut and wrapped.
Having a buddy with a walk in cooler is an asset in the early season.
Enjoy the elk !! Mmm