Avoid these common mistakes

When the muscles go into rigor mortis, it will last 12 - 24 hours. During this period the meat is in a sensitive phase and these two common mistakes can ruin the meat:

Butchering during rigor mortis will sabotage the meat as it will trigger muscle shortening where the tight muscles will stay contracted and remain tougher than if the butchering happened after rigor mortis. Cold shortening can happens if the carcass is cooled down below 50°F during the first 12 hours. The meat will contract even more than in the normal rigor mortis phase and it will stay contracted. If it is very cold outside it might be better to wait with skinning the animal till later.

The meat aging process and why it matters

Once the rigor mortis phase has passed, the actual meat tenderization process starts. Meat is made of muscle cells and connecting tissue. The connecting tissue, collagen, is a tough substance. With more collagen you get tough meat. With less collagen you get tender meat. As a young animal grows older it develops more collagen. That is why a younger animal is more tender than an older animal.

The great news is that the meat contains enzymes that break down the collagen over time. Simply put, the longer it hangs the more tender it becomes. A supermarket bought beef or a rush processed deer might have aged 2-3 days until it is put into the freezer. This is not terrible as some aging has already happened, but it is far from the quality meat you can get with just a little bit of knowledge and effort.

A young animal needs only a few days worth of aging, while an old buck or a big bull moose benefits from an extended period of aging as more collagen needs to break down. An older animal that is properly aged will give flavorful and tender meat that can easily outdo the young animal.

Aging meat should be a clean, controlled process and the resulting meat should smell pleasant. The aged meat will be more flavorful and much more tender. Compare this to a recently killed animal; if you immediately cook up some of the meat you will see that the meat does not have a lot of flavor. It is tough to chew and will be radically different from aged meat. With a few days of aging we see a huge difference in the meat quality and taste.