Handling Venison in the Field (2402)

Venison is a nutritious game meat you can enjoy as roasts, steaks and as ground venison. You can also use it as an ingredient in various kinds of sausages. How you handle venison just after the kill affects the wholesomeness and quality of the final product. Proper care begins as soon as you down the deer.

Key points when handling venison are: One—keep it clean, two—keep it dry and three—keep it cold. These tasks aren't always easy to accomplish under the wide range of conditions you may find when you handle the deer carcass, but here are some tried and tested tips you can use to help assure safe and good-tasting venison. You do not need to further "bleed" a downed deer. Remove the viscera from the body cavity as soon as possible, especially if the deer was hit in the gut area. Be careful not to cut into the intestines, stomach or bladder.

Use a clean sharp knife to trim visible contamination (feces, rumen contents, etc.), making sure to clean the knife between cuts. This keeps the knife from dragging bacteria into the meat.

If intestinal contents have spilled in the body cavity or if the cavity is very bloody, use a clean cloth or toweling to clean up. Some recommend thoroughly rinsing out the cavity with cold water soon after the deer has been killed.

However, it is very important that the cavity dries out quickly. Bacteria thrive in water, especially in warm weather. Spread the walls of the body cavity apart with a clean stick to promote drying and cooling.

If you plan on saving the heart or liver, carry a clean, food-grade plastic bag with you.

In most cases, leave the hide on the deer until you have it processed; this keeps the meat surface clean and fresh. Protect game flesh from dirt during transport. Stitch the belly back together using loops of cord. To cool the carcass, bags of ice can be placed in the cavity and held in place by stitching the belly with the cord.

To slow bacterial growth and improve meat quality, you should chill the carcass to under 50 degrees within six hours. You can improve cooling by propping the body cavity open, keeping the carcass in the shade, and exposing it to air movement. Never transport a carcass on the warm hood of a car. If the carcass freezes within the first six hours in extremely cold weather, the meat may toughen. In such cases, you can slow chilling by putting the carcass in a garage or shed, or by wrapping something around it.

If you have the deer processed at a meat plant, get to the plant as soon as possible to place the carcass under controlled temperature conditions.

"Aging" refers to holding carcasses at 35 to 45 degrees to allow naturally present enzymes to tenderize the meat. The tenderizing does not occur if the carcass is frozen, and it proceeds more quickly at temperatures above 45 degrees.

Opinions differ on if and how long venison should be aged. Some feel young deer need little aging, while others believe older deer may be improved by five to six days of aging. You must weigh the possible benefits of aging against the drying of exposed surfaces and possible bacterial spoilage accompanying longer aging periods. In warm weather, it's risky to try to age venison; it's better to process it as soon as possible. If you have an entire carcass made into sausage, it does not need aging.

If you're cutting up the deer yourself or preparing the meat for sausage making, trim off dehydrated areas or areas that show signs of spoilage such as discolored lean and fat, objectionable odors and sliminess. Be especially careful when skinning and handling venison to remove stray hairs. Many people like to remove most surface fat from the meat, because venison fat goes rancid rapidly and can produce off-flavors.

Although thorough cooking may destroy any spoilage bacteria that are present, the products of their growth remain in the meat and can lead to off-flavors and other defects. Highly contaminated trimmings do not yield quality sausage, and using it for sausage is unfair to others whose meat is processed in large batches with it.

Don't use black garbage bags to store venison trimmings destined for sausage making. These bags are often made from recycled plastics and are not intended or approved for food use. Instead, store venison in clear or white food-grade plastic bags or rigid plastic containers. Some meat plants can provide the proper storage bags for you.

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

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