Thread: Can you age meat after freezing?

I've shot a handful of deer recently, and only hung them for about 24hrs.

I don't have a chiller at my new house, so just hung them in the garage overnight and butchered them the following day as I was worried about the heat tainting the meat. There were too many to put in the fridge to age...so I stuck it straight into the freezer in vacuum sealed bags.

Question: will meat age if I thaw it out a few days prior to wanting to cook it, and leave it in the fridge?

Cheers
Kj

Sounds like your next project right there, making a chiller

Marinade it in olive oil, soy sauce and whole grain mustard for a couple of days prior to cooking. The only way I do my back steaks.

Try it. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

I do. I take my vacuum packed meat out of the freezer and chuck in in the fridge for a week to 10 days. Comes out good.

I personally wouldn't age it quite as long.
Freeze thawing softens it up a bit anyway (never quite as nice as chilled unfrozen meat aged for 10 days).
We've all thawed meat and left it several days and it doesn't seem to do it any harm.
Once its been freeze thawed fluids leak out so you can't hang it out in the open to dry age like you can fresh meat.
Due to the breakdown from freeze thaw I would treat it more like mince and if it was very clean when it went in it would be OK but if contaminated by dirt, blood, unwashed hands, hair, dog lickings, dried fly blow, dairy products, old fridge food etc I'd be cautious how long I stored it at fridge temp ie more like 2 o 3 days only rather than the full 7-10.

A good trick this time of year if you have whole animals hanging is to put frozen bottles of water in the chest cavity cools the four courter down real quick especially pork it can go off in 1 hot day.
A chiller would be the ultimate iv been thinking of putting one together as I kill my own muttons this time of year as well , flies can be a prob ...hasn't been to big a issue this year yet though summer hasn't started here !!

As above I have done a few extra days in the fridge after thawing....not sure it actually improved it much/any tho.

If vac packed be carefull of the blood in bag after thawing...as always it is the blood that goes off first.

Yes

I thaw my venison in the fridge and leave it for 5or so days before cooking.

Cheers
Pete

Thanks for all the replies, I learnt a lot from all of you.

Cheers
Kj

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

A good trick this time of year if you have whole animals hanging is to put frozen bottles of water in the chest cavity cools the four courter down real quick especially pork it can go off in 1 hot day.
A chiller would be the ultimate iv been thinking of putting one together as I kill my own muttons this time of year as well , flies can be a prob ...hasn't been to big a issue this year yet though summer hasn't started here !!

To make the bottles stay frozen longer add salt to the water!

Cut it up and put it in the freezer. Leave it there for about 3 months before you use it. Ive done this for years and it works for me. Tender as.

I believe the freezing process ( crystallisation of all the water molecules) remove some of the toughness of the meat. So it does not improve the taste but it definitely tenderise the chewy bits.
I personally eat fresh all I can during the first 10 days following the kill, anything I know I won't eat goes to the freezer straight away after the second day of hanging.

In a nutsell yes it will be fine, and it will age to a point. The bacto count will certainly be higher but still in acceptable tolerances.

Freezingit for a period of time will do pretty mucht eh same thing as hanging in my experience, you just have to wait three months before you eat it...same as tenderizing it with a mallet, (because the freezing process destroys the cell structure. This is my theory on it.)

Originally Posted by Carlsen Highway

Freezingit for a period of time will do pretty mucht eh same thing as hanging in my experience, you just have to wait three months before you eat it...same as tenderizing it with a mallet, (because the freezing process destroys the cell structure. This is my theory on it.)

Why 3months? If your theory is correct once the meat is down at temp (maybe two days max) it is fully frozen and aint getting anymore frozen.