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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
Age for longer, my minimum is 7 days. Try 14.Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbear
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
yeah that should help - you could try and marinate with pulped kiwi fruit for 6 hours before cooking - kiwi fruit tenderizes meatQuote:
Originally Posted by MB
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…..
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 worksQuote:
Originally Posted by Ginga
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.
I'm sure your method works, but I've never had to beat or tenderize a back steak.
Here's what I do, Age it for 10 days in the fridge then either vac seal and freeze or eat it.
I dry brine all my steaks, there's heaps of vids on YouTube on how to do it, but basically once thawed give them a generous salting with crushed rock salt then fridge for 8-12hrs, remove from fridge and allow to come back to room temp and then cook to your desired doneness (rare to medium rare or you've fucked it)
I usually just cut them in to 4" long sections, never had a tough one yet.
That's how I do em, don't be afraid to experiment :thumbsup:
one time when some bashing has its place is when one is out in camp and its fresh venison back steak or ?? meatless meal but its more massage than bash even a beer bottle will do - just thump gently until steak is barely holding together then cook as one piece and cut can come out surprisingly edible considering its fresh but for me its age it whenever possible I only use the bash when desperate
you shouldnt have to beat your meat...but if its tough..well it works,sort of prechewing it LOL....
This thread is absolute perfect timing, we're in the back blocks of Hari Hari, shot my first deer last evening.
The back steaks are in the meat safe and the back wheels are hanging in a tree in a shady spot.
Will likely take the legs to a butcher for processing to Salami or sausages I guess, the back steaks wifey & I want to enjoy and share.
Am I reading right to age them in the fridge for a week or so then cook them?.
I myself like meat black......well done, wifey prefers still going meh....or moo.
either eat within 12 hrs of death or wait till after 36 is my go to rule...the time in between can be jandle rubber.
There are several cuts of the back legs that are well worth keeping as steak or snitzel the rump of the top is great steak and so is the large muscle down the side - your butcher can take them out but with a good animal dont turn all the hind quarter into sausages unless you really like them - you are missing out on some great steak - ask the butcher to put in a little fatty beef off cuts into your sausages really improves them - and yup age your steak -
Love the Hari Hari pub :cool: they used to do a pretty mean feed there a couple years ago :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Twodiffs
Yeah chuck em in a zip lock bag in the fridge for 7-10 days :thumbsup:
You are removing the silver skin aren't you?
now for anyone reading this and thinking WTF is silverskin???
thats the bit under the skin that is silver/white in colour and is the outer casing of the muscle..
two ways to deal with it...either place it skin side down on cutting board and slice down to it then out in idividual steaks...or get knife,preferably flexi filleting type between it and the steak..with silverskin hard down on cutting board and holding knife down flat,do a push with knife and pull on skin at same time so knife slides between silverskin and steak..same way you take skin of fillet of fish..... if yo uleave it on..tough as an old boot...
So 90% of my meat animals are shot the same way.
whole animals come home hang in the chiller for 5 days, skinned of in to butcher and back steaks come home and some are cooked before they are frozen.
meat animal shot same as above back steaks are cut out of animal put in a meat bag get home in chiller for days or fridge
They are cooked by the same cook:)
the only difference is one steak is getting taken of animal straight away
All my meat is hung in the chiller for 7-14 days usually if fallow it's hung whole skin on if reds I carry out back wheels whole skin on to stop meat drying out.
The biggest way to improve B steaks is to cook it correctly, first remove sinew like filleting a fish I start in the middle cut in half down to the sinew then flatten out the blade and run it to one end then do the other half.
Let steak warm up to room temp and rub with oil and I like Masterfoods garlic pepper on one side.
Cook in a smoking hot pan on seasoned side then turn over first side has a nice crust, cook until how you like it then rest and cut and enjoy.
It's always tender even stags.
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An old trick with back steaks to tenderise them was sprinkle them with baking soda and leave overnight. Have done it with sambar. Works.
Agree with animal age and condition. You can’t make strawberry ice cream out of pig sh*t so no point trying to eat rubbish meat. When I was younger I’d take it all. Now I figure I only have so many good feeds left in me so no point trying to eat tough, rank, old, foul meat. Crap stuff also puts off other people you try to feed it to.
25/08 I do like that idea of starting filleting slice from the middle outwards....might give it a try..normally I cut a couple of 1cm thick slices off the fat end first,cutting down then out,leaving silverskin on main piece then hang on to that tag end and do rest in one go.
I do it with the silver skin up and start at the mid point going both ways. Insert your knife under the skin and angle it up. Keeps the whole piece intact.Quote:
Originally Posted by Micky Duck
interesting....having been a fish filleter in previous life,skin down seemed natural...will have lots to try next time I have backsteaks in hand LOL.
If you have some tough steak, Coca cola is your friend. I kid you not.
Either just drop it in the cola overnight, or do something a little more chef like.
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Coca-Cola-Marinade
Its worth remembering as all most always you can find a bottle of coke, even if the pantry is empty.
Also Too much steak is turned into steak. As someone else mentions Schnitzel is often an awesome way to cut meat and so much can be done with it. The other idea is minute steak, which is essentially thick schnitzel served as steak, all is needs is a quick hot fry on either side. Ie a minute.
Its all back to the saying that there is no bad meat, just bad cooking.
I always do the knuckles into snitty, always a favourite for the kids
Yes, did that when we got home today, funnily the local butcher was open when we got back to Kaiapoi so he's now got the back legs and going to process them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Henry
Lots of people seem to fail to sear venison steaks properly and then proceed to overcook it. We’ve all been to BBQs, meat sopping wet, straight from the fridge, poorly bled and sitting in a pool of its own juices. Results: steamed tough steak.
I’d say to the OP that 5 days in a chiller is on the conservative side and cooking back steaks rare and as a whole fillet is superior to thin individual steaks.
Unsure if this was covered already but
Don't cook it from frozen.
Thaw in fridge night before.
Depending on how big the steak is you could reverse sear it : Oven roast / smoke it to internal temperature of 46-47°C then a quick sear.
Or just grill/fry it - main point is don't over cook it - medium rare is as cooked as it can be there's no fat and they toughen up super fast.
Rest the meat after cooking it too.
I shot a roaring stag last week and the meat has been fine, took 3 days to get back out of the mountain/bush then another 3 or so to get to Wellington / in my freezer (was on ice in a chilly bin).
Definitely works - no questionQuote:
Originally Posted by MB
Tried this about 12 months back and thats how I treat all my backsteak now
Once vacuum packed, it can stay in the fridge up to 3 weeks, and then freeze if necessary
Exactly what I do. It seems to workQuote:
Originally Posted by MB