It’s a Good Day When.......

[Tom Flanigan]

Dean, I’ll give you my perspective on young animals vs. old on the table. The meat of very young animals is tough for some reason. Take veal as an example. It is sliced into cutlets because it is too tough to eat thick. And even the cutlets are tough. It’s the same with all animals, I believe. It is my opinion that a year and a half old buck is no more tender than a five and a half year old deer. If both are aged properly, it makes no difference. Aging properly at a constant temperature is the key. Aging breaks down the muscle and makes meat more tender. Some deer take more aging time than others, without regard to age. I can tell by the smell of the meat when it’s ready to be cut and packaged. I let my venison and other large game age for about a week and then I smell it every day to determine when I should process it. I once left a hindquarter age for two months just to experiment. It was the most tender venison I ever had. The only problem is that the hindquarter had almost two inches of crust that had to be removed. Hence, there was a lot of waste so I never did it again. Hindquarter should not be covered with anything to age properly. A week and a half aged hindquarter will have some crust but it is minimal.

It is important also to skin the animal as quickly as possible to permit rapid cooling. I never take a deer whole out of the woods anymore. I treat it like I treat a moose. I skin it by cutting a slit on top of the backbone and then skin down the sides, remove the backstraps and then skin out the hindquarters and take them out in two pieces by breaking the hindquarter joints. It takes me about 20 minutes to process a deer in the woods. I had a friend time me once. He said I looked like the guy on the Ginsu knife commercial.

Bears take more time to process in the woods since you have to skin to the feet and then break the bone so the feet stay with the skin. But aging of all game and quick cooling are the keys, in my opinion. I’ve never had a bear, moose or deer that was tough, regardless of the age.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Tom Flanigan

The meat of very young animals is tough for some reason.

It is my opinion that a year and a half old buck is no more tender than a five and a half year old deer.

Well Tom, that has not been my experience...

I've had older bear that was aged properly and at the right temperature and the meat, although tender and tasty, had that stringy consistency of a pot roast... while the meat I have had from younger bears was also tender but wasn't stringy at all.

Deer meat - I'll call it venison - I much prefer from 1 1/2 year old deer but the venison from older deer isn't necessarily tougher but the meat, even though aged the same way as younger venison, has a more 'dense' consistency than that of a younger deer. The age of the animal when it is killed certainly must have an effect on the fibers of the muscle - they have been used longer and harder and that must make a difference - I can usually tell a young deer's venison from that of an older deer.

I love deer liver and certainly prefer it from a 1 1/2 year old deer. Today I won't even consider eating the liver from an older deer because of an experience I had a few years ago...
A friend shot a buck that was determined by a biologist to be 6 1/2 years old and my friend gave me the liver within two hours of having killed the buck.
It was tough on the outside (not dried at all - it had been in a zip-lok bag since the deer was gutted) and mush on the inside. Never again will I even consider the liver from an older deer.

I know, everyone has different experiences and opinions on this topic and the folks that will shoot an animal but won't eat it stems from the fact that the meat/carcass was not handled properly from the moment it was killed.
You can't drive around with your buck in the back of your truck for several days showing it off to all your buddies and expect the meat to be fit for consumption - those are the folks who don't really care for venison 'cause "it tastes too gamey."





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