Deer meat. Soak and drain or Keep it dry and cool

[TxDispatcher]

I just let my deer stay on the hitch cargo hauler of the van for the duration of the drive home in 75-80* temps, till I get to the house and unload everything. Then I take it to mama n em's to show it off. If it a really big buck, like a 4-5 point, I'll strap it to the hood of the truck and cruise down the main drag of town. But if its just a doe, I just leave it on the hitch rack. I figure that being behind the exhaust helps to smoke it like I hear talk of round here

jk I'd much rather have it hanging in a walk in cooler, but if that isn't an option, its into thew ice chest with a rack under the meat to let ice drain, and packed down with ice, and tilted with the drain cracked open to let the water drain out. But I'm keeping my eyes out for a fridge that I can get cheap, to at least hang the quarters for a few days to let them age (even tho someone said its useless and a waste of time )

[Traildust]

Lets settle this, we can swap some backstrap from my cooler for some backstrap kept dry and see if there is a noticeable difference. It's that simple. I'm willing to bet no one could tell the difference but hey, I've been wrong before.

No, you're not wrong.

[SwampRabbit]

So when you shoot a hog or a deer and you say to yourself "I want to hang this meat and dry age it"... and you look around and you don't hunt on a ranch with a walk in freezer... and you just keep looking around.... But drying aging is best!!!! (I won't disagree) What do you do???

You do what everybody else who doesn't have those facilities does... you put it on ice in a cooler and keep it drained!

But let's not just leave it there, because there are a ton of ways to approach this very common and successful method of cooler + ice + meat.

1) When you put your meat in a bag and then put it on ice... you are not dry aging it. You are using a method that butchers in the modern area have been using for quite some time now... you are wet aging it in it's own fluid. The tissues are still breaking down and they are doing it in its own fluid because you are not allow it to drain. In a real dry aging situation, all that fluid evaporates or drips to the floor.

2) #1 out of the way, I bag up straps and tenderloins and any other trimmings and put them in a ziplock bag in the cooler and let them wet age for a few days in their own fluid. This is not "water" logged... it is actual wet aging. The meat is bright, red, etc. These cuts usually then trimmed again and vacuum sealed or put in a ziplock bags if going to be consumed quickly.

3) Whole quarters have a crap ton of silver skin/fat on them that protect the meat underneath. You don't have to bag these up.... unless of course you are really bad at skinning out your critter and you have a bunch of knife slices through the meat where water can get in. For shoulders and rear quarters... I prefer to let them sit on/under ice for up to 7 days or so and let them drain until the water coming out is no longer bloody.

4) Prioritize your meat. If you can't put a spacer on the bottom of your cooler... put in the shoulders on the bottom. These are typically the ones with pooled blood and wounds, etc that will benefit from being rinsed by the melting ice...layer ice on bottom first, put on shoulders, another layer of ice and then quarters on last with ice on top of them.

5) Keep the cooler tilted so the water accumulates near the plug end near the worst shot shoulder. You could keep the drain plug open... or just drain it often.


If you follow these steps, your best meat, the hind quarters should be nice and red on inside without any water logging of meat. They will have had water drip around the outside of the silver skin and will just collect the fluid that drains from them and carry it out through the drain. One of your shoulders on the bottom might have a tad bit of water logging up where it attaches to the rib cage if you didn't drain properly, but I usually trim that up. (another tip is to face that exposed side UP in the cooler.)

That's it. There are ton of ways to age meat... and while I'd love nothing more than have a place to hang and dry age my kills... I just have a garage, a cooler, and a convenience store that sells ice.

[Derek H.]

No matter what anyone says, red meat should never be wet. A brine for fowl is OK, but beef and venison should always be dry aged. I've even had a lot of success in dry aging ducks. You'll get plenty of guys on here who disagree, but that's OK....the world needs wrong people too.

This right here. What types of ducks have you tried dry aging? Puddle ducks only or some divers too?

[TxBowHntr]

Question for those that dry age: When it is done hanging, do you wrap in cheese cloth or trim off the outside layer? When they dry age beef, they typically wrap the meat in cheese cloth that gets discarded every so often and trim off the discolored "rind" pieces on the outside that have formed. I have been intrigued to try this with a backstap, but don't like the idea of cutting away the outer layer...

[Roy]

So let me get this straight... placing meat in a cooler with ice that is allowed to drain when melted is considered 'soaking'? Seems more like prolonged 'rinsing' to me.

I've done both, and have to say the ice-chest meat has ALWAYS tasted the best.

Tenderloins and heart (on lung shots) never make it to the cooler- straight to the frying pan! The ribs get doused in season-all or fajita seasoning and placed in the pit from that night's bbq to cook overnight (amazing jerky breakfast next morning). Everything else- into the ice chest for a few days.

[curtintex]

This right here. What types of ducks have you tried dry aging? Puddle ducks only or some divers too?

Puddle ducks. I donate divers to a few of the guys that work for me.

[2coolforschool]

I like to wet age in trash bags. Trash bags keep the meat from direct contact with ice in the ice chest. Drying invariably leads to some waste as outer of muscle tissue turns into jerky.

[HighwayHunter]

Spacers in a cooler is the poor mans walk in and your best bet for flavor. Keep the meat out of the water. My dad always told me to leave it in ice and let water run out. Decided to try something new a few years back and haven’t gone back since


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[Snowflake Killa]

Puddle ducks. I donate divers to a few of the guys that work for me.

Did they make duck fajitas out of them

[BaseKAM36]

cooler with ice seams to help drain all the blood

[DesertDug]

Bed of ice with drain open. Meet on top. If available use some burlap between ice and meet. Keep enough ice to maintain max temp of 40. Add ice as needed. Age for 4-6 days.

Do not soak in water! Dry is best if available to hang dry, most do not have this option. Putting in plastic bags is no good as the meet will sit in the drained blood, which defeats the whole reason it is aging.

[critter69]

Do most of you that place your game meat on ice, process your own animals or take it to a processor ?

[scott.str]

Mines taken to the processor so i know big grinds it doesnt matter what i do i could get someone elses badly treated meat. But its an OCD thing knowing at least i tried to bring mine in nice.

Does CCR do joint grinds or is it deer in deer out?

Do most of you that place your game meat on ice, process your own animals or take it to a processor ?

[tigerscowboy]

Cool and dry. If temps are warm, we bone and lay on freezer paper in the fridge for a day or two.