Preparing elk meat

[sandhillhunter]

I shot my first elk last year- a late season cow tag, and have been enjoying all the meat since then. My wife is not too thrilled about preparing wild game, especially venison, because of the dark meat and the amount of bloody water that runs from the meat when it is thawed. How can this be prevented, or how is the best way to minimize this problem? I'm going back for another one in 2 months. It was cold when I shot the cow, we immediately quartered it, hung the meat for 24 hours, then hauled it on ice to a meat processor 48 hours later.

 

[rost495]

seems like the last package of beef we thawed had blood and water also.

One thing I do on game meat is that I leave it in ice in a cooler with the plug open and keep ice on it for a minimum of 7 days before I cut it up at home.

If at the processor you may have to request aged meat and you may or may not get that.

The darkness of the meat usually cannot be overcome, though leaving my deer in the cooler for a week or more sure lightens the color up quite a bit as ( I feel) this allows for the most amount of blood to drain from the meat.

Surely you'll get more opinions

 

[Smiley]

Here is a tip for those of you that want some good tender meat, let it hang. I know that most butcher shops from the time it comes in and is hanging to the time it is cut is 14-16 days hanging .
Let that meat hang and you will have the best tasting and most tender meat you can have , just be smart and keep it cool .

 

[Chef]

Smiley is right on the money. The meat needs to be hung (aged) in order to release liquid and tenderize it. Even restaurants and hotels recieve shipments of frozen meat that bleed like crazy when thawed out. This comes from the expediting of the butchering process and skipping a lot of the aging process.


You have however, followed great steps to provide fresh and less gamey tasting meat by your quick cooling, and most importantly de-boning of the meat.

Regards,
Chef

"I Love Animals...They're Delicious!"

 

[sandhillhunter]

Thanks everyone for the replies. It is a preception thing for my wife. Most folks don't prepare game right, overcook it, etc. I am convincing her this is the healthiest thing in our freezer. Now if I could just get her to fry that carp..........

 

[outtabreath]

Aging is the key. Case in point... I got my first elk on the 10th of October. I was excited to eat the "hanging tenders". We cooked them up in camp that night. Probably five hours after the kill. I didn't want to come off as ungrateful, but the meat wasn't that good. I cut the backstraps and put them on ice. After a week and a half they were awesome.A couple of times I have soaked them in milk prior to cooking and that seems to pull some blood out also. I make alot of jerky out of venison. No problems putting down a few round steaks(jerky) just nibblin'.

 

[RIMROCK338]

I was told that it's best to hang the animal up head first,
hanging by the hind hocks stretches the hind quarter meat and makes it tuffer. any thoughts on this?

 

[Hoosierbuck]

One thing nobody mentioned...the best way to insure that there is as little blood in the meat as possible is to shoot it in the heart and lungs, then it bleeds out into the chest cavity and pretty much drains all the blood from the rest of the animal.
The coroner's report would indicate cause of death: exsanguination secondary to gunshot wound.
The dinner report would indicate: good eats!
HB