Ageing game meat vs Eating fresh

[sally-bee]

Hello hunters,

I understand supermarket meat is hung for a few weeks before being sold to mature the flavour and tenderise it.

(Not there yet but) if hunting and you drop a deer or pig is it passable to throw it on the camp fire that night? Or is it not enjoyable tender wise?

[headspace]

If you kill it quickly with one shot and let it hang away from the blowies as long as possible it would probably be OK. The thing is to let anything hang you need serious fridge space and most Kelvinator's don't measure up.
JD

[FuzzyM]

I know of people who have built small coolrooms to hang deer in.
Not very hard really.
Second hand coolroom panels are pretty easy to find around here as it's a big nursery area.

[Oneshot270]

I grew up in beef country here in the Kimberley and we always hung fresh meat when we could because although our beef is tasty it can be a bit chewy. Unless it was a nice looking docile cow then we would rip the fillets and back straps off and eat ASAP.

[wrenchman]

i like to hang the deer for a week but if the weather is to warm i break them down i also do like to take the inside tender loin the hart and have it for dinner in camp that nite liver will be for lunch the next day.

[bigfellascott]

I'm with Wrenchman - pick a tender cut and eat that if need be, but better to age it for best eating qualities and easier to butcher too when they have had a chance to set properly.

[deanp100]

There is no health reason why you cannot eat it immediately. Some cuts will be just ok and some will be worse than that. A piece of meat , cut straight of a fresh kill and thrown on a hotplate will most likely turn into a twisted piece of leather as the muscle fibres react to the heat. The aging process firstly allows for the muscle fibre twitch to stop, which is a problem for instant cooking and tenderness. After that the meat will set a little and then the biological breakdown will commence which is the tenderising, flavouring part. So yes you can eat it, but it is better to let it set, break it down and age it

Deano

[Noisydad]

A week to ten days is enough for beefies but I know folks who like to leave them in a portable cool room for two full weeks.

[deanp100]

In a cold room situation the dry air causes the fat and external tissue to form a skin on the carcass which reduces the ability of aerobic bacteria to act , further lengthening the time it can age. If you have a cold room you should be able to guarantee superb meat. I worked on acattle property after college. They had the best cattle in the region but the worst meat. It was like chewing a steel belt radial. They had a cold room that stored beer, but the meat went from the paddock to a freezer in an hour. Wouldn't listen to me because I was a college boy. I remember a bbq for the district that looked like the turkey scene from Christmas vacation. Such a waste of good meat.
Deano

[1290]

When slaughtering sheep, we would normally have one beast for the barbie(lamb), one for the fridge / freezer (after a 1 or 2 day hang)

As far as I understand the 'aging' causes the proteins to start breaking down, breaking the links etc.. that is to commence effectively rotting...yum, it seems to work!

[Hatter]

Texture will be a bit different but meat is meat.