Is Aging Required for Ground Products?

Ryan from Saskatoon, Sask wrote:

Just purchased and watched your Deer and Big Game Processing Volume 1 DVD. I enjoyed the DVD and feel like it has given me confidence for field dressing.

I have a question regarding aging. Is aging required if I plan on grinding up all the meat for jerky and sausage?

Thank you


Thanks for the great question Ryan!

Aging changes the moisture content and flavor of the meat. It also affects the tenderness of the product. If you are grinding the meat for sausage and/or slicing it thin for jerky, then breaking the muscle fibers down during the aging process may not be necessary because you are not looking for a tender product.

However, the flavor of the product will vary between an aged animal and a fresh processed carcass. I'm not saying one would be more desirable than the other, this would be personal flavor preference. I'm just saying that if you make a processed meat product like jerky or sausage, you will taste a difference between a product made with aged meat and the same product made from freshly harvested meat.

You may want to age one front shoulder for 3-5 days and then process the other fresh and see which you prefer. Let me know your thoughts on the results please.

I look forward to the results and findings on your experiment!


Thanks again for the great question!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood