cold shorting meat

[_CY_]

Do you guys bag the meat or just let the ice water wash it too? Always heard that wet meat that STAYED wet was ruined?

nope .. putting quarters on ice ages the meat and comes out fine. hanging or dry aging does well too .. more important than wet/dry is the storage temps which should be about same as your refrigerator. since most of us don't have access to a meat locker .. hanging is done only when temps allow it.

 

[_CY_]

nice grinder CY.
I built a few smokers and I have found i do not like the fire box to the side yes it works well but you can over smoke meat and that returns
an ashtray flavor with some wood.. Pecan for instance.. you will get ashtray flavor when oversmoked with it.

I built a couple straight up BBQ/ smokers and really like the performance of them best.
Just a 3 foot tall or taller square box.

thanks ... the notion that it's more the operator than the smoker has some merit. pecan is one of my favorites to smoke with .. hickory (green) is another favorite .. recently have used oak .. all with good results uncovered for 10-12 hours burns for brisket.

when using only wood .. it's really important to allow all the volatiles to burn off before smoking. this usually takes temps 425f range, then smoker gets loaded bringing temps down. after temps stabilizes a bit, intake/exhaust are shut down bringing temps slightly higher than desired cooking range. after another hour or so .. temps finally stabilizes and hopefully be running at your desired temps measured at grill levels.

 

[HiredHand]

This is an interesting topic and I decided to do some research because most of what people share seems anecdotal. It appears the pH has an important role in preventing spoilage. It's also interesting that lactic acid isn't the devil most hunters seems to believe it is on the flavor of the meat.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6909e/x6909e04.htm

Spoilage of meat
It is necessary for animals to be stress and injury free during operations prior to slaughter, so as not to unnecessarily deplete muscle glycogen reserves. It is also important for animals to be well rested during the 24-hour period before slaughter. This is in order to allow for muscle glycogen to be replaced by the body as much as possible (the exception being pigs, which should travel and be slaughtered as stress free as possible but not rested for a prolonged period prior to slaughter). It is important that the glycogen levels in the muscles of the slaughtered carcass are as high as possible, to develop the maximum level of lactic acid in the meat. This acid gives meat an ideal pH level, measured after 24 hours after slaughter, of 6.2 or lower. The 24h (or ultimate) pH higher than 6.2 indicates that the animal was stressed, injured or diseased prior to slaughter.

Lactic acid in the muscle has the effect of retarding the growth of bacteria that have contaminated the carcass during slaughter and dressing. These bacteria cause spoilage of the meat during storage, particularly in warmer environments, and the meat develops off-smells, colour changes, rancidity and slime. This is spoilage, and these processes decrease the shelf life of meat, thus causing wastage of valuable food. If the contaminating bacteria are those of the food poisoning type, the consumers of the meat become sick, resulting in costly treatment and loss of manpower hours to the national economies. Thus, meat from animals, which have suffered from stress or injuries during handling, transport and slaughter, is likely to have a shorter shelf life due to spoilage. This is perhaps the biggest cause for meat wastage during the production processes.

 

[_CY_]

This is an interesting topic and I decided to do some research because most of what people share seems anecdotal. It appears the pH has an important role in preventing spoilage. It's also interesting that lactic acid isn't the devil most hunters seems to believe it is on the flavor of the meat.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6909e/x6909e04.htm

Spoilage of meat
It is necessary for animals to be stress and injury free during operations prior to slaughter, so as not to unnecessarily deplete muscle glycogen reserves. It is also important for animals to be well rested during the 24-hour period before slaughter. This is in order to allow for muscle glycogen to be replaced by the body as much as possible (the exception being pigs, which should travel and be slaughtered as stress free as possible but not rested for a prolonged period prior to slaughter). It is important that the glycogen levels in the muscles of the slaughtered carcass are as high as possible, to develop the maximum level of lactic acid in the meat. This acid gives meat an ideal pH level, measured after 24 hours after slaughter, of 6.2 or lower. The 24h (or ultimate) pH higher than 6.2 indicates that the animal was stressed, injured or diseased prior to slaughter.

Lactic acid in the muscle has the effect of retarding the growth of bacteria that have contaminated the carcass during slaughter and dressing. These bacteria cause spoilage of the meat during storage, particularly in warmer environments, and the meat develops off-smells, colour changes, rancidity and slime. This is spoilage, and these processes decrease the shelf life of meat, thus causing wastage of valuable food. If the contaminating bacteria are those of the food poisoning type, the consumers of the meat become sick, resulting in costly treatment and loss of manpower hours to the national economies. Thus, meat from animals, which have suffered from stress or injuries during handling, transport and slaughter, is likely to have a shorter shelf life due to spoilage. This is perhaps the biggest cause for meat wastage during the production processes.

sorry but your article has little to nothing to do with wild game ... deer that I've shot have mostly ran 50yd to 250yd before dropping .. a few have dropped on the spot but most have ran before dropping.

point is those deer were NOT stress and injury free .. yet ended up quite tasty each and every time.

IMHO unless you are harvesting a mature buck which are not as tender .. how you process your deer has a huge effect on how it ends up tasting. scent glands are cut off pronto ... carcass is field dressed ASAP, iced down with bags of ice inside carcass, skinned, quartered and put on ice in a timely manner goes a long ways on producing a tasty/non gamey useful venison.

my goal is to produce venison that you can use in place of beef.

 

[HiredHand]

I doubt that running 50 to 250 yards would completely deplete the glycogen in a deer or game animals muscle tissue.

And in swamprat's post he found a deer that had been dead for days and the meat he collected was not spoiled.

Glad to hear we're still removing the tarsal glands.

 

[_CY_]

I doubt that running 50 to 250 yards would completely deplete the glycogen in a deer or game animals muscle tissue.

And in swamprat's post he found a deer that had been dead for days and the meat he collected was not spoiled.

Glad to hear we're still removing the tarsal glands.

any deer that gets shot and ran would be under tremendous stress which above article specifically says to avoid. to me said article is about prepping beef or other domestic before sending to slaughter.

not a fan of harvesting deer that's been dead for long. usually coyotes will harvest any dead game before the night is over.. about 10 years back, I did find a road kill deer in town at 91st Mingo. it was fresh still warm way before rigor set in. cops showed up and let me haul it home. even helped me load the deer up

 

[dennishoddy]

I doubt that running 50 to 250 yards would completely deplete the glycogen in a deer or game animals muscle tissue

And in swamprat's post he found a deer that had been dead for days and the meat he collected was not spoiled.

Glad to hear we're still removing the tarsal glands.

I've never removed the Tarsal glands in over 200 deer I've killed. Some say getting the skin off moments after the kill helps. All the deer I've killed have been iced down as quickly as possible. Skinned in a day or two and taken to the processor to be hung on the rail for a couple of weeks before final finish.
I haven't researched it yet, but a buddy that wants to start with chickens said that eggs that have never been in the fridge will last as long as thos that have. Just cant refrigerate them first. That might fall In line with swampratt's report?

 

[_CY_]

I get 12 dozen eggs a month that I split with a buddy .. they are free range/organic eggs with the bloom still intact (not washed). they will keep without refrigeration for a few weeks or longer depending on temps. during summer I'll refrigerate all eggs upon receipt then leave out a dozen to use at room temps.


Why Must We Refrigerate Eggs While Europe Doesn't?

 

[dennishoddy]

Cool!

 

[swampratt]

I have got beef that was stressed.. He was laying on the ground for a couple days with a busted leg.. Tasty.
I got 2 of those males.. sure were stinky compared to a deer.. then I got a female and she was not smelly and the meat tasted different.. more like store meat.

I got male Pigs or hogs and NOT cut, those were pissy tasting.. the females were not that flavor.
That flavor had nothing to do with spoilage or lactic acid though. Something else going on. As we know.

I can see where the lactic acid in the muscles will delay the growth of bacteria.

The way I remember about Lactic Acid build up in the muscles is that the muscles will have lower oxygen levels the higher the Lactic acid is.

So without oxygen the meat will not spoil. I am not saying the meat will be free of oxygen just less of it..
So what HiredHand posted has merit.

I got a hog last night..Buddy called me and his best Hog would not pass the piglets.
He greased up reached in and tried to pull one out and no luck as it was to slick.. he has done that before.
He called the vet.. Vet came out and had a snare but was not using it in a manner... well lets cut this short, Hog got a bullet to the head .
Calls me at 6:30 pm asked if I want it. He is 75 miles away from me but YES!
I did a gutless butcher like you do a deer.. Had to do it by myself. He got 1 male from the emergency C section.
What a waste. I did get to keep all the 400+ pound on the hoof Hamshire hog meat.

Got to bed a 2 AM got up at 5:30.. crap.