Refrigeration for your hard earned venison

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4 deer in the upright chiller @3.5*C after hanging for two days in the field. This chiller has an air circulation fan built in blowing the air over the refridge panel which keeps the meat 'dry'. Best $500 bucks I've ever spent.
Drain trays and rotate meat every couple of days. Chill for 10 days before processing without issue.
US food safety state chiller should be below 4*C to suppress bacteria growth rate. I always make sure that everything is well sanitized (chiller, cutting boards, knives, trays) so you don't introduce bad bugs.

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32kg mince, 8kg of stew, 75ish prime steaks,16x 1/2 eye fillets, 16 shanks.

Loving all the advice in this thread.
For years when I've laid meat out flat, I've used those oven roasting trays with the wire grill just off the bottom.
The meat dries nicely out out of the juice and the trays are easy to clean.

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Originally Posted by kiwijames

Yes. The refrigeration cycle will always do that. Even the commercial units have this problem. It is fine for Coke cans and packaged product as they are sealed. Anything exposed to the ambient condition will dry out. Keep your venison in the original packaging as long as you can or, if ageing try a vacuum packer or plastic bag. Vacuum packing is my preference. This is the same reason you get freezer burn and lumps of ice in your sealed frozen products. Mini climates in the bag with wet and dry bulb temperatures approaching equal, force the water out of the product and is then re-frozen during the run cycle. It can't go back.
The fresh fruit and meat industries have very large cooling coils to not only rapidly chill but also reduce water loss from their product. Lighter carcass weight = less money for your product so is money well spent. Every kilo of defrost water is a kilo of cash lost.
Even the wine guys suffer with what they call "Angels portion". The porous oak casks the wine matures in will leach out some water content and can get up to 5% lost through the the cask in refrigerated storage. This also bumps up the ABV% [emoji3]

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Hi kiwi James
Thanks for all the tips in this thread. Appreciated.
I do this (above). Bone it out in the field then hang in a single door Skope type chiller for 3-4 days and yes, I get the “crust” on the outside too, which I then need to trim off. Then it gets vac packed into the freezer. Are you saying that I’d be better and get less wastage if I left the deer skin on? I’d be happy but the dogs wouldn’t ! 😂

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Originally Posted by stu#71

Hi kiwi James
Thanks for all the tips in this thread. Appreciated.
I do this (above). Bone it out in the field then hang in a single door Skope type chiller for 3-4 days and yes, I get the “crust” on the outside too, which I then need to trim off. Then it gets vac packed into the freezer. Are you saying that I’d be better and get less wastage if I left the deer skin on? I’d be happy but the dogs wouldn’t ! ��

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the skin is less permeable than membrane so you get less moisture loss thus less crust. you'll find that it is better with the skin on. Just more hair on the meat.

This maybe of interest. This family live in BC Canada. They're fantastic. Their young daughters are all great hunters, builders, you name it. This is their "DIY Off-Grid Solar-Powered Walk-In Meat Cooler"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAkCnk-8WHg

For about $40 or even less you can turn any upright or chest freezer into a temperature adjustable fridge using an STC1000 temperature adjuster . Wiring is easy following this diagram . Just wire up the cold-side leave out the hot and stick the whole thing in a project box and run the freezer through it. I also wired in a fast blow 10A fuse on the phase side. With plugs on both sides you can move it between freezers to make temporary fridges. Very easy and works well. Heaps of info on the web about wiring these up. Mostly home brew guys. I have two upright freezers wired using these as chillers and they work well. The have a soft start function (I set them so the compressor kicks in when the fridge hits 5 degrees then takes it down to 3.5 degrees) so you can be gentle on the freezer compressor. Once everything is down to temperature they only kick in infrequently, so probably pretty good on power too.

We use one of these https://inkbird.co.nz/products/tempe...roller-itc-308

Currently have a newish 331 litre fridge in the garage to age veni and such. Seen online internal stainless steel hang frames so no drilling into the fridge walls required. But not available to fit my fridge size. Anyone know of a fabricator in Canterbury that would likely make a custom job? Just want to hang skinned out legs not whole carcass.

You checked out Mitre 10 and the like for the metal closet organiser systems? These things basically bolt and click together - and can carry a surprising amount of ladies clothes... I'm sure you could adjust a kit to size it to fit a fridge, and a bit of 6 or 8mm stainless rod bent up for hooks etc.

thanks, will have another look at Mitre 10. I already have/use the butchers stainless meat hooks but not in the fridge.