Thread: Back steaks

How come am ending up with chewy back steaks?
if i can take the whole animal , hang it in a chiller for 5 days all meat is tender
Now same type of animal cut out back steaks and i was hanging them over meat rail 5 days later still chewy, mate said lay them flat sinew up. tried that
Is it because am not cooling them enough after cutting them out before i get them home and putting them in a chiller??

Ive had slow death kills- neck shots- animal still alive but paralysed when I got to it= all the meat was tough. Started aiming only for the boiler room after a few of those, none of that issue since, I think if you hit heart or lungs the sudden loss of pressure helps- and they may run 20 or 30m , but are always dead.

Can be because when hanging meat as carcass muscle/ tendons etc. stretches
Look up tenderhang u hang thru the pelvic bone , not by backlegs. Even that has an effect.
Hang for longer , try 8 - 10

As for cooling - probably not as it should " tenderize, which is controlled "spoilin" while hanging, higher temp - goes faster
Eg I hang lamb for 12- 14 days at 2-4 deg C
2 days at 14. Or it gets a bit cheesy

Originally Posted by bigbear

How come am ending up with chewy back steaks?
if i can take the whole animal , hang it in a chiller for 5 days all meat is tender
Now same type of animal cut out back steaks and i was hanging them over meat rail 5 days later still chewy, mate said lay them flat sinew up. tried that
Is it because am not cooling them enough after cutting them out before i get them home and putting them in a chiller??

Age for longer, my minimum is 7 days. Try 14.

Hanging individual cuts dries them out too much. You could try wet aging. Vacuum pack and then leave in the fridge. I don't like the idea of it, especially for wild game, but it seems to work for some people.

is it a roaring stag back steak?if so chuck it over the closest cliff you shot it to.otherwise ageing is the key to tenderness

Originally Posted by MB

Hanging individual cuts dries them out too much. You could try wet aging. Vacuum pack and then leave in the fridge. I don't like the idea of it, especially for wild game, but it seems to work for some people.

yeah that should help - you could try and marinate with pulped kiwi fruit for 6 hours before cooking - kiwi fruit tenderizes meat

It helps of the carcass can go through rigor mortis before you cut the meat off the bone. Apparently the fibres stretch against the hold of the bone, and this helps with tenderness.

The trend of boning out while the deer are still warm flies in the face of on carcass aging, but they carry a whole lot easier disassembled.

Most of mine get nothing flash after shot. Generally backsteaks are taken straight off the animal and cooled before transit home. Sit in the fridge a few days till I can be bothered processing them where they just get trimmed free of sinew and frozen whole. I reckon preparation for eating plays just as much of a role. Don’t eat them the same day you defrost them etc etc. I normally find the most noticeable difference in animal type, IE old red hind vs yearling hind. Lots of different potential factors

All my deer get shot, taken out whole, hung in garage over night then everything cut up the next day, packed into snap lock bags and into the freezer and have never had a tough piece of meat yet.

Steak is always tender.

how are you cooking the steaks ? Do you slice them in to individual steaks then cook , or cook as a larger section of backstrap and slice after cooking?

Individual steaks will dry out during the cooking if you are not carefull.

Put in fridge for a few days with glad wrap over it so it doesn’t dry out too much. Then clean it up a bit. Ie take silver skin off. Vpvacuum pack then back in fridge for 3-4 weeks then eat. Roaring stags. Shoot it. Study it. Step over it and carry on hunting…..

Originally Posted by Ginga

Put in fridge for a few days with glad wrap over it so it doesn’t dry out too much. Then clean it up a bit. Ie take silver skin off. Vpvacuum pack then back in fridge for 3-4 weeks then eat. Roaring stags. Shoot it. Study it. Step over it and carry on hunting…..

best advice so far the age and condition of the animal is everything right from the start then use the Ginga method I do the same thing - I eat mainly fallow so normally tender -I dont eat fallow bucks in the roar - they are manky - if you try some venison you have got and it is chewy try the kiwi fruit it works

back steaks........ if cook as a LOG..... they come out better...Mrs likes her steak incinerated so I cook as a log then slice and give hers a few seconds on pan to finish it off..I can take steak as a chef would like it..rare and just sear the surfaces and its medium rare in no time.... but if you cook it sliced into steaks...get the meat mallet out and beat the sucker flat ,apply your steak seasoning and some salt then cook it.... no worries to beat,season,stick in oil and sit in fridge for couple of days either... if you didnt age it for week when killed it...do so before cooking by leaving it to marinate. the only bit of back steak that should be tough is the silverskin...its like a log,the thinner you cut the rings the easier it is to split. the grain runs longways along a backsteak so should break up easily.