A good friend of mine makes the ground type jerky with a jerky gun. It is fabulous, but I am old school and like sliced jerky better. Matter of fact, I got some marinating now
Yeah, he using the gun as well.....you wanna send some of that Florida jerky to a Canadian friend :chef
We take a little different approach to processing our deer in that we age them in a cooler for at least 10 to 14 days. Aging venison is just like aging a beef carcass. Google the aging of meat and see what it says. Been doing it for over 40 years and we are well pleased with the final venison products that grace our table all through the year. Weather permitting, I'll hang a deer in the ol' oak tree (covered with a fly bag) for several days before it goes in the cooler. With temperatures in the 30's at night and 50's during the day, some years in the panhandle of Florida we feel comfortable doing this. Some years we can only hang one over night to rid the carcass of body heat. Had a guy ask me "when do you know when to put him in the cooler?" My respose was "when you see the buzzards start to circle it's time". Seriously though, aging makes a real difference in the tenderness and taste. Treefarmer
I have never known anyone to hang a deer for 14 days in my life and maybe that is why the burger taste so gamey compared to the great taste of the steaks and roasts. I am going to try this in the fall when I get my deer; hopefully it won't be ruined as we are only allowed to bag 1 deer.
Thanks for the tip treefarmer
Walk in coolers are not common in the area I hunt, and I am usually a weekend warrior with working. To me the key is getting them in a cooler as quick as possible and layered in ice. I keep all my animals on ice for about a week-10 days. Keep them packed, cooler tilted and drain plug open. Like I said, its very rare for me to have any gamey taste other than a rutting buck. Also, make sure anything that is blood shot does not get put in the cooler. In my opinion, blood shot meat taints other meat and it really has no purpose. And be careful of the piss sack.
Hence the reason I neck shoot everything
I used to keep mine on ice for only 2 or 3 days. I started keeping all game on ice for at least a week and have noticed a difference in taste for the better. I will also let all my meat get to room temp before I even think about cooking it.
