Dry aged venison -- How I did it.

[footfootfoot]

Hey, One of the other hilarious people on the cellar, who also hunts, wanted me to share my how I did it, so I am. I'll also include what I learned is the way it is supposed to happen according to some and what actually happened to me and how I justified the difference.

So, I gutted the deer and dragged it to my car then drove it home.

Got it hung up, head down, and weighed it. It was 140# gutted.

I peeled it and cut the head off and pulled off a LOT of fat. I'd never seen so much fat on a deer before. I fed it to the chickens over the winter. At that point it was down to 115.

In order for the enzymatic activity to go to town, making the meat tender, the temp has to be above 32f. In order for the bacteria that starts to rot the meat to be suppressed, the meat needs to be below 40f (food safety pun, 'Life begins at 40') Since I do not have a climate controlled room, I kept the deer in my unheated, uninsulated, unfinished addition. There were a couple of days that the air temp dropped below 32f, I measured the carcass temp with an IR thermometer twice a day. In the morning to see how far it dropped over night, and in the evening to see how much it had risen during the day.

The nature of the room was that it tended to hold the cold because of the massive cement floor and the second storey above that kept the solar gain on the roof far from the deer, so the temp of the carcass didn't fluctuate unless there was a multi day temperature change.

A couple of times the carcass got below 32f. People say that if the meat freezes it fucks up the texture. I figured that while pure water freezes at 32, blood with its sugars, minerals, salts, and what not, wouldn't freeze at that temp so I was only losing enzymatic action until the temp rose again. (Beef freezes at 28f) The carcass never got that cold.

Then we had a small warm spell and things got above 40f for a bit and a couple of times the carcass got to 42f and 44f. Here's where I asked, "How the effing eff did humans survive, what is the current figure now, 100.000 years without eating meat that was always below 40f?" So, I guessed that number while certainly a very good rule of thumb, might also be a bit USDA conservative cover our asses kind of a number. On the other hand, I was giving it the heavy sniff test and had it gone above 42 and stayed there for a while, I might have just called it and frozen the meat.

I pressed on well into 2 weeks, then thought I ought to butcher it but got delayed. In the meantime I spoke to some old timers who said that typically, dry aged meat had a fine layer of mold on it that was wiped away when butchered. Skeptical, I looked that up and apparently it is a specific type of mold that grows on meat ** and not only adds to the flavor but also to the tenderness.

As the drying progresses a thin crust is formed that is kind of like jerky, since it is essentially the dryest part of the meat. The color of the meat gets very dark as it dries ranging from nearly black at the surface through dark purple to brown to a deep brownish red.

I finally got to butchering it at close to four weeks because temps were trending warmer, 90% of the time it was between 32 and 40 degrees with a few days below and a few days over.

I wiped away the fine mold, trimmed as little of the crust as I could because that is where the concentrated flavor is. Any dried crust that wasn't moldy went into the burger pile.

By the time I got to butchering and cut the front and back lower legs off the carcass had gone from ~115# to 70# and that is why dry aged beef is so expensive.

Here is what I did wrong:

Since aging dries and shrinks the meat, you are supposed to cut all your burger meat off the animal right away. All the meat on the ribs, anything that is thin to begin with will disappear when it dries. And anything that is sinewy or silverskinned will need to be ground anyway so why dry age it? So, I lost about 20 pounds of burger by letting all that stuff dry into leather, and the 20 pounds of burger that I got when butchering would have been at least 30 or 35 if it hadn't dried. Next time anything that will be burger will get trimmed asap.

I was told to take all the fat off the animal right away because it would give the animal an off flavor. On the other hand, when dry aging beef you should leave the fat on. I will test this out on part of the animal next year. I've eaten deer fat and while it is a bit chalky and not as luscious as pork fat, I didn't find it disgusting, so I wonder if it is just a case of people repeating what they've heard and not having actually tasted it. I think if I left the fat on I wouldn't have lost so much to crust and mold, but again, I need to test this next year.

The piece I cooked the other night was from the haunch and it was as tender as back strap.


Finally: If you have a meat locker then leave it there four weeks at 35f, if you have a small shed and an AC unit and some extra cash you can get one of these bitchin' rides that converts your AC into a cold room cooler. An engineer friend of mine turned me onto to them. They do have some limitations and the company is very up front about how they are not ideal for every situation, and at $315, they are out of my price range, but pretty sweet if you can afford them.

I'm going to stick with old fashioned weather luck for now. (There is a way of quartering the animal and putting it in a fridge, but I think you have to allow for air circulation to allow it to dry, if you are hit with warm outdoor temps)

Good luck.


**

The process of dry-aging usually also promotes growth of certain fungal (mold) species on the external surface of the meat. This does not cause spoilage, but actually forms an external "crust" on the meat's surface, which is trimmed off when the meat is prepared for cooking. These fungal species complement the natural enzymes in the beef by helping to tenderize and increase the flavor of the meat. The genus Thamnidium, in particular, is known to produce collagenolytic enzymes which greatly contribute to the tenderness and flavor of dry-aged meat.