Stanley wrote:JoeRE wrote:To each their own, I am glad its a free country. That being said I think the key to great tasting (not gamy) venison is cooling it down quickly, processing it quickly, and correct preparation. I gut, skin, cut up and freeze as quickly as possible and end up with great tasting meat with proper preparation and cooking. Leaving the hide on slows the cooling process, in my opinion that always should be removed ASAP.
Venison is much leaner than beef and should not be cooked the same way, it dries out quickly. I would rather have properly prepared venison than any other meat, no aging necessary.
Most of the aged venison I have eaten has been poor - probably because it just got hung in a tree for two weeks under fluctuating temperatures and pretty much all the experts agree precise temperature control is the key to aging. Temps rarely remain between 37-40 F for 2 days straight let alone 2 weeks.
No worries, just my two cents!
You are 100% correct on cooling the meat down ASAP. You are also 100% correct on not having great hanging temps in most instances. It can be 70 degrees one day and 40 the next. Happens every year. That said if you can hang the meat it is much better than meat that isn't hung. Those tender great tasting steaks you get at the restaurant are from aged beef.
Those gut shot deer are never as good as a fast clean double lung shot buck. A gut shot deer has poison pumping through its system until it expires. It then often lays around for hrs until found with the guts keeping the meat from cooling down fast. That is why some people don't like venison they get a taste of rank stank deer that were not recovered quickly and taken care of quickly.
I agree Stanley. You really have to use your head with each individual deer. But I cool and process mine as fast as possible. I don't feed anyone anything I wouldn't feed my mom. I like seeing someone have a great experience with venison for the first time. Overall I think dealing with the meat fast and carefully is the best option for me. Where I hunt and when I usually kill deer, they'd freeze right away anyway. I use Georgia Pellegrini's method to help tenderize the meat now -- simply leave it in the fridge 6-7 days and let the red protein water run out and let the other connective tissue break down. I trim away anything else. Tallow is not like beef fat and not really meant to be eaten the way we eat beef fat. In fact Chef Milos points out tallow will taint the meat and should be trimmed off before packaging. In the Wild Harvest videos, Chef Milos ages deer, pheasants [glow=red](whole - if they're not shot up)[/glow], waterfowl etc. Some of that sounds like a time bomb for gross ... but I would imagine his turns out A+. However, he is an expert, having won multiple gold medals in culinary Olympics. I have to be more K.I.S.S. with venison and other wild game.