Thread: Refrigeration for your hard earned venison

As per my PM @kiwijames Have access to this plus the chiller room that it supplies and a heap of extra panels if needed to make a door.

Worthpulling out? Time is limited

I know nothing about this stuff.

Originally Posted by PerazziSC3

As per my PM @kiwijames Have access to this plus the chiller room that it supplies and a heap of extra panels if needed to make a door.

Worthpulling out? Time is limited

I know nothing about this stuff.

Attachment 53298Attachment 53299

Hey @PerazziSC3. It looks like that may be a freezer not a chiller. It looks in reasonable nick. There's a little green nameplate with DWM Copeland on it. Grab the compressor model number and anything that might identify the refrigerant its using. From that I can give you a better idea.

Is isceon 406a on the naughty list?

Originally Posted by longrange308

Is isceon 406a on the naughty list?

Yes. Banned from importation. Any refrigerant starting with a 4 will be looking at phase out. R406a was a retrofit refrigerant for R12 (also banned). Its a R22 and R600a isobutane mix. Not the end of the world as it will have not been the original refrigerant used in any system. There are options for other refrigerants. Being a R12 drop in gas though, the system it is used in by default will be quite old.
Message me if you need. Im guessing an old chiller?

@kiwijames sorry to ressurect an old thread. Just wanted to say thanks for all of this information and ask a follow up. Shot two deer and I'm nervous about things being too moist in my fridge to handle all the meat, ot there not being enough airflow. Some of the meat got wet in chilly bin coming back home so thinking that hanging until it dries out on surface is best? Also not sure the best length of time to leave things before further breaking down into cuts.

Do I or don't I??? Bugger it why not. What we use is four X 15 litre plastic buckets.two of them have multiple holes drilled in its bum. The holy bucket goes inside a normal bucket and meat goes inside holy bucket. Any blood can drain through holes into the cavity/gap and every second day stir meat around and tip blood out by removing inner bucket and tipping out base bucket. We age for a week like this.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Do I or don't I??? Bugger it why not. What we use is four X 15 litre plastic buckets.two of them have multiple holes drilled in its bum. The holy bucket goes inside a normal bucket and meat goes inside holy bucket. Any blood can drain through holes into the cavity/gap and every second day stir meat around and tip blood out by removing inner bucket and tipping out base bucket. We age for a week like this.

Venison sitting in blood makes it rank and defeats the purpose of ageing. We do 2 weeks.

Originally Posted by TeRei

Venison sitting in blood makes it rank and defeats the purpose of ageing. We do 2 weeks.

That's why two buckets. Bloody drains to bottom and goes out holes into cavity below to be tipped out. By storing meat around and getting rid of blood from underneath it.it is not sitting in blood at all. Interestingly even after mincing it we give it another day in buckets and get more blood out again.

Think of or look at a pot plant with bace under it...same but we letting moisture out not adding it in. And typing that I won't use buckets when current ones are stuffed.will find a pot n base lol

That is the point of hanging the carcass - draining out although it's perfectly fine to break the animal down and hang each piece. If you have no option but flat chilling on a shelf or plate, you need to invert a tray inside a slightly larger one and place the meat onto the inverted tray. This is similar to the two buckets idea - I personally don't store meat in plastic unless it's something I know what the grade of plastic is and I am confident it won't taint the meat as I've had a few bad plastic taste taint experiences. If I'm freezing it I'll use specific freezing bags...

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.



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.

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%

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 ! 😂

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 ! ��

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