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Best tasting bucks?

Ski said:
I'm not sure what difference that would make. Would like to hear more about the reason. Interesting
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It's been a very long time since I took meat science but in a very lay man's explanation it's this; rigor is the process of turning muscle into meat, the muscles have energy in them and it takes time for that energy to deplete and get the ph down, some butchers will actually hang red meat by the hip to increase the time it takes to use up that energy vs hanging by the tendons, dark cutters is a label of beef that is docked from the price and is caused by stress (it's argued whether taste is impacting in a noticeable way), rigor and cooling of meat is sorta hand in hand but there is a balance, cool too fast before muscle contract and it gets tough, butcher before rigor/cooling/contraction it gets tough.

I'm sure I butchered some of that (pun sorta intended) but that's it in a nutshell. Aside from from special techniques (electrical shocking and immediate feinting of pork) red meat really needs to go through rigor to ensure you get the minimum tenderness required for adequate consumption. Hence, aging meat allows it to tenderize even more but at some point aging and tenderness stop and the only impact aging has is flavor profile.
 
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 do the gutless method. I put the meat, bone in, in a cooler on ice. I let the buck i killed in Georgia age for 17 days, keeping the plug open and ice packed. I left the ice in bags and it didn't sit in water as much. It turned out so much better. I left it in the back of my truck. I tilted the cooler toward the drain. With the last 2 weeks of freezing temps I didn't have to add ice. I pulled it out Monday, deboned it, and cleaned it up. I was sure to cut anything away that wasn't straight meat. The texture was amazing. So tender. After deboning it I let it sit in the refrigerator until we ground it today. (3 more days) I just tried some of the burger. Best deer burger I've ever had. No gamey taste. No tallow residue taste at all. We ground it 4/1 deer/thick bacon. Until I can afford to build a walk in cooler this will continue to be the way I age my deer meat.
 
Apostolic Outdoors said:
I do the gutless method. I put the meat, bone in, in a cooler on ice. I let the buck i killed in Georgia age for 17 days, keeping the plug open and ice packed. I left the ice in bags and it didn't sit in water as much. It turned out so much better. I left it in the back of my truck. I tilted the cooler toward the drain. With the last 2 weeks of freezing temps I didn't have to add ice. I pulled it out Monday, deboned it, and cleaned it up. I was sure to cut anything away that wasn't straight meat. The texture was amazing. So tender. After deboning it I let it sit in the refrigerator until we ground it today. (3 more days) I just tried some of the burger. Best deer burger I've ever had. No gamey taste. No tallow residue taste at all. We ground it 4/1 deer/thick bacon. Until I can afford to build a walk in cooler this will continue to be the way I age my deer meat.
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Do you not get the heart and tenderloin?
 
Omega said:
Do you not get the heart and tenderloin?
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The heart? Bow hunting yes. I shot this one with a 30.06. Didn't want to open him up.
I learned how to get the tenderloins out without opening the gut cavity up. You go in from each side and pull it. I'll see if I can find a video of it.

This is a homesteading channel I follow. It really helped me understand aging. I hope to some day be able to build a cooler.

 
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Omega said:
Do you not get the heart and tenderloin?
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This is the video I learned to take the tenderloins out gutless. They are doing it on an elk, but the process is the same on a deer. The key to remember is, don't pull them out. Run your fingers behind and around the tenderloin, from top to bottom, then pull toward the deers head, then toward the deers hind quarter. The loin will pull loose from each end. If you try and pull it out, toward you, you will tear it in half. Once you learn how, you'll never do it any other way. At least I haven't.

 
Apostolic Outdoors said:
This is the video I learned to take the tenderloins out gutless. They are doing it on an elk, but the process is the same on a deer. The key to remember is, don't pull them out. Run your fingers behind and around the tenderloin, from top to bottom, then pull toward the deers head, then toward the deers hind quarter. The loin will pull loose from each end. If you try and pull it out, toward you, you will tear it in half. Once you learn how, you'll never do it any other way. At least I haven't.

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I think it's easier to just field dress them.
 
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. 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.
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Yes I agree with you on that, I was thinking young deer like fawn that just lost its spots. It's like veal and the meat is a pink instead of red. I prefer an older deer to that.
 
Thank you for the great explanations, AThiker. I've always tried to let rigor mortis run its course before freezing or consuming, but I'm guilty of boning them out while hanging after skinning and am sacrificing quality. If I have a covering I let them hang hide on or off until a convenient time, but most of the time I'm using a Deer Assassin Hangulator™️ on the back of my truck.

I gut while hanging but am very careful to salvage the heart, liver, kidneys, caul fat, and leaf fat from inside the cavity.

The last two years I've been referring tallow and have been very happy with the results. It's even saved me a trip to town before when I wanted to fry fish.

I started out with leaf fat, but this year I used any fat I trimmed off and it rendered well. It's pure white after cooling and odorless. Soap is next.
 

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