Wednesday, May 25, 2016

How to "Bleed" Your Ground Venison



Mike of Colgate, WI asked:

I recently saw an episode of Love of the Hunt on which you were making jerky. I was wondering how you "bleed" your ground venison. Mine always comes out super bloody and hard to work with. Is this covered in your butchering videos? Thank you.



Hello Mike!

Thanks for the great question. The answer is in "Dry Aging" I always hang my game meat a minimum of 3 days for every 100lbs of carcass weight. A good example would be If the hanging weight of my deer carcass is 150lbs then I always hang and age the carcass or quarters for at least 5 full days. This allows all that "Gamey flavor" body moisture and "blood" to evaporate out of the carcass. The second key thing that happens during the dry aging process is the proteins in the muscles begin to break down allowing the meat to become nice and tender. This entire process is called Dry Aging and it makes the meat so much better in flavor and texture! It also eliminates the "bloody" meat you asked about. This is the exact reason why I created the Koola Buck Portable Walk in Cooler. With this product you have a great way to hang and age your meat properly. The Koola Buck portable walk in coolers are perfect for hunters, they set up or tear down in 10 minutes, they're small and light weight for easy transportation and the commercial refrigeration system pulls the body heat form the carcass producing a great wild game meat without the headaches of storing and maintaining a giant walk in cooler in your house! Check them out at koolabuck.com

If you really want to get technical about it you can use Koola Bucks Anti Microbial game bags and keep the surface of your meat moist in the game bags as well as reduce the growth of surface bacteria during the aging process. With this combination you can age for 2 weeks or more making an amazing product for you and your family to enjoy! Aging meat properly is the most important and most overlooked part of preparing quality game meat for your table. You can be the best chef on the planet but if you start with a bad piece of meat you'll have a rough time making a good finished product. Age your meat properly and you will be amazed at the difference!

God Bless and thanks for the great question!

Brad Lockwood