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Best tasting bucks?

Ski said:
What temp are you keeping the fridge?
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I just turned it all the way down.
I had one of those cheap Mercury thermometers and it rarely read above 40. I placed meat on cookie racks to make sure air could flow all the way around. Every couple days I'd rotate trays and flip meat, this allowed the juices to not settle in a low spot.

I also boned out into the major cuts, after it went through rigor. This increased surface area which can be bad if you allow it to crust over too much.

Some people rig up fans inside the fridge but this was my beer fridge 1st, so I didn't want to be cutting holes in it.

* I definitely don't follow a perfect science plan with it. The way I do it is more of an art form vs a controlled environment. Unless your fridge goes out or you forget about it, I really don't think you can screw up. Worse case scenario is you pull it out too soon and notice zero difference or let it go too long and the crust becomes significant and meat loss is great and the dogs eat good.

If I were you, I'd weigh my cuts. Then, periodically weigh them every 5 days. Maybe shoot for a weigh difference of say 15-20% before trimming any crust off. So, let's say the roast weighs 5lbs and after 10 days it's 4lbs, I'd pull it.
 
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Right now? I'd say this one. 😂 Just got done grinding.

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Thanks for the info @AT Hiker !!! Really appreciate it. Been years wanting to play around with it but haven't done it yet. I've always cut and packed right away because around here it's rarely cool enough to let one hang, and I often kill deer earlier in season. When I lived in Ohio I'd let it hang a day or two until rigor relaxed. Sure makes it easier to skin and butcher. I'm seriously considering building a walk in hanger/cooler.
 
If I had the space and means to build one I most definitely would. It would be fun to experiment with plus extremely handy, especially if you get it to the walk in cooler within a reasonable time after killing.

You could experiment with other meat science too, like curing hams, salami, etc.
 
In my old job I got to travel around to various packing plants to grade beef carcasses. I've been to a large commercial Tyson plant in Iowa and several smaller plants down in the South. All very cool and intriguing, from there rail systems to the tools they used to butcher.

I know people wouldn't pay the premium but a boutique wild game processor would be a fun job. Imagine having the option to have your kill dry aged for 21 days and French chops and flat irons cut from the carcass. Venison prosciutto? Coming right up!
 
AT Hiker said:
In my old job I got to travel around to various packing plants to grade beef carcasses. I've been to a large commercial Tyson plant in Iowa and several smaller plants down in the South. All very cool and intriguing, from there rail systems to the tools they used to butcher.

I know people wouldn't pay the premium but a boutique wild game processor would be a fun job. Imagine having the option to have your kill dry aged for 21 days and French chops and flat irons cut from the carcass. Venison prosciutto? Coming right up!
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Sounds great; but you'd likely need to be near a high income suburb to have a chance. Near Franklin would probably be pretty good
 
deerhunter10 said:
This it's all about how it's processed imo.
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To a point, if he hunter wounded it, chased it down and shot it a few more times and didn't gut it till he butchers it or brings it to a butcher the blame cannot be laid on the processing. I used to help a buddy process deer and his saying if you bring me 💩 don't expect gold back.
 
AT Hiker said:
I know people wouldn't pay the premium but a boutique wild game processor would be a fun job. Imagine having the option to have your kill dry aged for 21 days and French chops and flat irons cut from the carcass. Venison prosciutto? Coming right up!
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I absolutely would pay for it. Would save me a lot of time that i could otherwise use to be earning more than the processing fee would cost. Too bad it doesn't exist. Really I don't know that there would be enough business to make a good of it.
 
timberjack86 said:
To a point, if he hunter wounded it, chased it down and shot it a few more times and didn't gut it till he butchers it or brings it to a butcher the blame cannot be laid on the processing. I used to help a buddy process deer and his saying if you bring me 💩 don't expect gold back.
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I guess I'm saying all things equal it's processing. To me the other stuff is a given. Also need to know how to cook wild game as well. It's not beef it's not chicken it is different and a lot of times it's over cooked. But the difference to me between a mature deer compared to a young deer the way we process it and cook it, you will never be able to tell the difference. We are in the "trophy hunting club" while we still kill does we learned how to make all deer taste good. If not what's the point.
 
AT Hiker said:
Except I live near the ghetto 😁
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A "Specialty" wild game processor idea is very intriguing to me; venison prosiutto; ham, salami, sopresotta, etc sounds great. All comes down to the end product - have you seen what good italian deli meats cost? If putting out a quality product you could probably charge upwards of $20/lb or more. My wife's uncle has an Italian deli/restaurant so I'm pretty familiar with these. I've always wanted to try it with venison.
 
deerhunter10 said:
I guess I'm saying all things equal it's processing. To me the other stuff is a given. Also need to know how to cook wild game as well. It's not beef it's not chicken it is different and a lot of times it's over cooked. But the difference to me between a mature deer compared to a young deer the way we process it and cook it, you will never be able to tell the difference. We are in the "trophy hunting club" while we still kill does we learned how to make all deer taste good. If not what's the point.
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So I'm pretty much agreement with most of your post. Are you saying you cannot tell the difference in taste and tenderness between a young deer and mature buck?
 
timberjack86 said:
So I'm pretty much agreement with most of your post. Are you saying you cannot tell the difference in taste and tenderness between a young deer and mature buck?
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No, if you go in our freezers and pick out a steak back strap tenderloin any of that. You will not be able to tell if it's from a 1.5 year old doe or a 5.5 year old buck when we get it cooked. Or I guess I should say we cannot tell at all. Maybe some of yal have better palate then us.

It would also shock the world to know how many old cows and even bulls you eat in a year they aren't all 800 to 1200 pound steers. And how many know what their eating? I do because we kill our own but the vast majority have no idea.
 
deerhunter10 said:
No, if you go in our freezers and pick out a steak back strap tenderloin any of that. You will not be able to tell if it's from a 1.5 year old doe or a 5.5 year old buck when we get it cooked. Or I guess I should say we cannot tell at all.
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I can't tell either. 6yr old bruiser or yearling doe both are the same tenderness and flavor to me if I'm the one who killed and butchered them.

The big difference to me is the yearling doe requires a whole lot less trimming. She doesn't have a thick slab of tallow, no yellowed gelatin fat from rut breakdown, no big swollen lymphs between muscles, and her connective tissue is still thin and not callous. But once all of that removed from an old buck down to trim red meat, I can no longer tell the difference. If care isn't taken to trim all that gunk from the buck then yes he tastes different, and not in a good way. If i were to guess, that is the biggest reason folks think there's a difference. Trimming the old buck is removing a whole lot more than needs removed from a young deer.
 
lafn96 said:
A "Specialty" wild game processor idea is very intriguing to me; venison prosiutto; ham, salami, sopresotta, etc sounds great. All comes down to the end product - have you seen what good italian deli meats cost? If putting out a quality product you could probably charge upwards of $20/lb or more. My wife's uncle has an Italian deli/restaurant so I'm pretty familiar with these. I've always wanted to try it with venison.
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Yeah, you can make some of those products with venison. But the problem is that pork fat is tasty, deer fat is not. Like most of y'all I've made venison sausage and even cured and smoked deer hams. I don't see any way you could make prosciutto, though. And at some point you're adding so much fat from domestic animals that there's no way you're tasting deer meat…
 
They had a meat scientist on the Meateater podcast a couple years back. One of the things he recommended for tenderness was allowing the deer to go through rigor mortis, then relax prior to cutting meat off the bone. I don't guess this would be feasible with the gutless method.
 
Weegee said:
They had a meat scientist on the Meateater podcast a couple years back. One of the things he recommended for tenderness was allowing the deer to go through rigor mortis, then relax prior to cutting meat off the bone. I don't guess this would be feasible with the gutless method.
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I'm not sure what difference that would make. Would like to hear more about the reason. Interesting
 
Ski said:
I'm not sure what difference that would make. Would like to hear more about the reason. Interesting
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www.themeateater.com

Ep. 227: Red Cutter | MeatEater Podcasts

Steven Rinella talks with meat scientist Dr. Chris Calkins, Spencer Neuharth, Corinne Schneider, and Phil Taylor.Topics discussed: debunking meat myths; how stress affects the flavor of meat; myoglobin and hemoglobin; why you shouldn't cut into an animal before rigor mortis is complete; muscle is...
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