Thread: How long to let red deer rest?

Hey brothers how long do you guys recommend leaving the red deer meat to rest? Being use to eating the few fallow ive shot I whipped straight into the tenderloins and although they were very nice cooked perfectly the chewing legit hurt my gums hahaha rookie maybe its just because im used to fallow falling apart when you bite into it? Cheers guys

Let it sit in the fridge for a week easy. Just gets tenderer and tenderer.

5-10 days in a chiller is good, but even just a few days is better than nothing.

first 12hrs after death ok...then LEAVE IT ALONE for the next 24-36hrs or it will be like jandle rubber....Ive taken to putting my venison in a couple of 20ltr buckets in the fridge for up to a week....bucket the meat is in had holes bored in the base..sitting inside another bucket to catch the fluids...stir it every day and it will be great.

Cheers boys!

I hung my spiker for 3 days in the garage in a game bag then processed it. Tougher cuts of meat are beautifully soft after 9 hours in the slow cooker.

A week in the Chiller is the ultimate the air flow seems to increase the hanging time , meat in the fridge does not get that so its not to often I leave meat in the fridge for 7 days have done the odd time , sometimes it go,s off sometimes iv steaked it up just in time but its a bit of a gamble , for me general rule of thumb 3-4 days in the fridge pluss my meat animals are yearlings or the odd fawn in may so don't have to leave them to long .

After death the carcase must be cooled as quickly as possible to get it below the temperature at which bacteria rapidly multiply. Make sure that gutting is done in a very clean way with no contamination of the otherwise sterile gut cavity.
With rapid cooling the carcase will 'set' or go stiff with rigor-mortise. If you have no access to a chiller for longer hanging, the meat can be judged OK to cut up when the 'Rigor' relaxes this will be about three days.
As Boaraxa says above be careful with meat in the fridge keep a close eye on it if the pieces are touching. If it can be turned or put on racks to get airflow so much the better. Mickey Ducks idea of the double buckets is well worth copying as meat in the fridge can drain a surprising amount of fluid

For reds I do about 2 weeks.

Fillets and Backstraps get wet aged in a vacuum packed bag as you lose to much to trim with a dry age.

Any shoulder or neck slow cook joints go straight in the freezer

Back legs get aged whole hanging from the top shelf of the fridge.
Airflow is key. I give a sniff and inspect every day, if it starts to smell or look like it's turning (sour smell and greenish patches) I pull trim and freeze.

I've found that if the meet is handled properly in the field it can hang for ages before it goes bad

Results are bloody awesome.

6wks is longest I've hung for..in a tree, muslin-covered(center of tree), middle of winter. Only lost a little 'trim', and all who ate it were amazed. A toothless person could have eaten it. I've also stuffed it up before, and made myself sick, so it IS important to get it right.

Should add, cleanliness is crucial, if you cut suspect trim, ditch that knife into hot-water bucket and use another, I use up to 4 knifes,recycle them,clean and sharpen..same with hands and wiping them..once bitten, twice shy

I bone out the legs etc and then place on racks in a fridge so it can drain at about 2 degrees for 5-7 days. I like to cover the meat with an old tea towel to stop the meat going black and dried on the outside. Very seldom you get a tough bit of meat. I also like to cut as much of the silver skin (muscle) off the meat when getting ready to cook it, that way you only get nicely aged meat and it is tender as.

What Mooseman said.

Just another option, I have flatmates so there is no much room in the fridge, if I shoot something this time of year I usually butcher it asap or the next day and freeze it, then pull out what I want to cook and leave it in the fridge a few days to age before cooking it, works out easier to manage for me. I lost a deer trying to let it hang too long when it wasn't in a cooler and it put me off doing it that way.

A good clean kill and hygenically field dressed red deer stored in proper chilled conditions. An animal could be hung on the bone for weeks. A gut shot deer, with crap smeared about, fly blown stored at 25 degrees wont last a day.
Your methods will determine how long you can hang for. Personally, I don't have access to a proper chiller so I do pretty much the same as @Mooseman at home, But only for a few days. Natural proteolytic enzymes and some microbial enzymes are breaking down protein chains within the muscles. The enzymes and microbes that are mostly endogenous to the muscle vary between age, breed etc of the animal, thus effecting the rate at which they 'tenderise' Its quite cool really. You may have heard of dry aged meat/ beef before? Back in my chef days we would literally hang whole sirloins and ribeyes on a hook in the chiller for up to a month, rotating stock so we always had cuts ready to go. The meat would dry out significantly on the surface and be almost black, but after a small amount of trimming the meat would look a lovely deep rouge. And the flavour, oh man! Intensified beef, oh so tender.. Well worth the extra wait if you can age your meat under the right conditions.