Skinning Deer.

Didn't want to hijack the post below. So here it goes, when we
hang and skin out deer we hang them by the legs with a spreader
bar we make. Then skin them asap. Sometimes they are warm if we
shot them below the house other times they are cold because we
shot them in the morning at our cabin and don't come back till
that night. We always removes the skin that night. Now as for
letting them hang. If its cold we will hang ours for up to a week. I
can say the most tender meat we ever had was when it was below
freezing out side and our garage was around 34-36 inside. You
could cut the hind quarters with a pretty dull knife. It just slide
right through the meat. I know they age beef so why not age deer
if conditions are right? Seems the meat is way more tender and
loses some of that game flavor.

BTW these are all deer I've shot over the pst couple years. Haven't
had the time to hunt enough yet this year.
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So that's what they look like! It's been really slow here, between the snow and wind. Can't see ten feet in the brush with all the snow clinging. Supposed to be 25 mph winds and blizzard conditions tomorrow. I heard four shots all opening weekend. Young kid got a nine point on my BIL's place.

Larry
 
Deer, moose, elk, beef etc all benifit from aging.
Hanging the carcass will allow the meat to become more tender.
Temperature wise below 32 f nothing happens as the meat is frozen, above 40 f rapid spoiling will occur.
35 f is a good target temperature to aim for.
We have a commercial cooler we age ours in, we cut some moose loin steaks for supper last night and at 3 weeks hanging they were a dream to eat, but I would not worry if it doesnt get cut up till this weekend.
As far as loosing the game flavour, I would disagree as when aging you are loosing moisture and concentrating the existing flavour.
Looks ike you have a nice set-up for hanging, only thing I do different is to skin out the back legs before hanging, much easier.
 
I gave up deer hunting when our group dissipated. We always skinned all deer killed at the end of the day, and wrapped them in a "saran" type wrap to keep the outer layer of meat from drying too much. I tried skinning a frozen deer once,........never again.
 
I never even thought of doing them on the ground... Kinda feel
silly now but I'll do that this year. And at 6'4 I never need a ladder
but that would make it much easier.
 
I'd much rather skin them from the neck down then cut them up and put the meat in the refrigerator or cooler for a few days to age where I can control the temperature.
 
Years ago I did it that way but have found that hanging one from the head and working it that way it is by far easier.
 
Lot of great ways to do it but I've been doing mine like this for the last 10 years. I let 'em hang with the skin on for 7 to 10 days at 35° to 38°F if it's to warm to just let them hang in the garage. Last year with it as cold as it was, I killed one January 2nd, hung her in the garage and she was froze solid until February 21st.. Skinned her out and it was the best venison I ever had.
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Thats pretty much how I do mine but with out the mechanical aide. That would be slick though. Also I like the people who use the golfball method for skinning deer
 
There is a place in Chicago that dry ages beef for up to 75 days before serving. The longer it is aged, the more it costs. I went for the 40 day old rib eye. Can't say it was any more tender but some parts of it had a taste that reminded me a little too much of road kill smell. Don't know what temp they use. Not my cup of tea.
 
I never thought coon skinned that hard. Just hang 'em up and pull the skin down. Skinned an otter once; that is tough. You don't pull any thing. It's cutting all the way.

Larry
 
(quoted from post at 18:20:35 11/17/14) I want to make one of these. Only a larger scale to be able to skin a deer.....
Poke here

I don't have running water at my camp for cleanup, so I farm out the cutting to a local guy down there.
He has a similar deer skinning setup in his barn.
Deer hangs from the back legs, a few cuts here and there,
and he hooks the tail area to a floor mounted winch.
zip, pulls it easily,
When he gets to the back of the head,
he saws the neck.
Customer gets the head with the entire hide attached for mounting if needed.
Took far longer to type this than it takes him to do it.
 
My daddy had a restaurant and his meat was Kansas City aged (for 2 weeks) Prime Angus. Had a following all over the US anytime somebody was in town made it a point to see him for a steak.

Mark
 

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