Meat science

[Mesophilic]

I stumbled on this Meateater podcast the other day and figured some of you might find it interesting.

It's almost 2 hours long, so I just put in some earbuds and listened while I did some work.

They have a meat scientist on and he gives a ton of interesting info.  Some of my takeaways

     -rigor is a good thing, it burns up the glycogen in the muscle which in turn helps with flavor and tenderness
     - don't pack meat with snow,  cooling too quickly halts rigor
     - meat left on the bone till after rigor will be more tender
     - white or grey mold is ok...black mold is toxic
     - a little stress on the animal during the kill is ok, prolonged stress such as a slow death from gutshot is not good
     - the most benefit during aging occurs within the first week, after that theres a diminishing return
     - wet aging in plastic is fine

There was also some useful info about fats and silver skin, tenderizing, and other info that I can't recall right now.

Add the "H" to the prefix

ttps://www.themeateater.com/listen/meateater/ep-227-red-cutter

[Eric Krewson]

I had to change deer processers as my fave went out of business, the new one might cut up your deer they day you take it in, I like mine aged.

The new place charges $80 for a skin on deer but only $40 for a cooler deer. I bought a big cooler for this year, last year I used a smaller cooler and packed my deer in ice for a week before I took it to the processor, the meat was tender and wonderful.

[Pappy]

Good info, most of it I have went by for many years. I always let mine soak on ice for at least 3 day and usually 5 before processing, draining the bloody water each day and add fresh. Then let it drain for a day on racks in the cooler, sure make the meat good /tender and a lot less messy to work with. After do this I have never really seen a difference in a gut shot deer and any other, and have dealt with many gut shot deer over the years. They sometimes stink to start with but after a few days on ice soaking, I can see/taste are smell any difference. JMO.
 Pappy

[Mesophilic]

Pappy,

Do you put the meat in some thing that drains the melt water as the ice melts?  Or is it like a tub or ice chest with ice and melt water both in contact with the meat?

Wondering if the water leaches out undesirables.

[JW_Halverson]

Toughest deer I ever ate was cut up blood warm, packaged, and immediately put in the freezer. Every cut was so tough you could not get a fork into the GRAVY! Tasted fine, just felt like you were gnawing on Goodyear's finest all-seasons. Ended up turning it all into burger. Had to brown the burger, then bake in a covered dish drowned in red wine at low temps for 3-4 hours to change it from being rubber buckshot. Made casseroles from that doe.

She was also a deer that had survived some injury that removed her hind leg from the hock down and she had absolutely zero fat on her.

I am not surprised rigor is good, rigor mortis is not permanent, but is a normal reaction of muscle after oxygen has been depleted. Once rigor has completed, muscle relaxes and becomes more tender. For those of you down south that have never had a chance to eat a well aged venison cut, you are really missing something!

[Pappy]

I just put in an ice chest and pour off the bloody water each day and add more ice. It leaches out the blood and makes for some very clear meat.
The first day the water is dark and bloody the 2nd day not as much and by the 3rd or 4th day the water is almost clear. I think it also takes out the wild taste, some like that, I don't.
 Pappy

[JEB]

We skin, quarter and then put the meat in one or two of those grey restaurant tubs/ with lid on in the frig for 5 days before we cut up. Been doing it that way for years with no issues. On average we cut up 10 deer a year.