Home › Forums › Campfire Forum › Storing meat?
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Okay lets face it, probably one of the most important and often overlooked parts of hunting is meat storage, heck if we are lucky people on tv will show how to care for the meat in the feild and I think I have seen that once? There are several different ways to store meat. The way I was taught to store my meat, that is small game was in a bag full of water frozen, now that is the best way to store meat for a long time, but it is very space consuming, and I am sure that alot of you guys know some better ways, so could you enlighten me!?
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I second using a foodsaver vacuum packer. I’ve stored game meat for up to three years using the foodsaver. A couple of tricks, if you are doing small game then put them in the freezer until ice crystals form. Larger game use a paper towel to keep the blood from being sucked into the unit, and ruining the pump. I wore out a couple of the consumer models, moose will do that, now I’ve moved onto a vacuum chamber, commercial style. But, with that being said the Foodsaver will suffice for most hunters.
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From 15 years of butchering venison for others I will offer these rules of proper meat care/storage that I will never stray from.
Water: The water from your hose or faucet is NOT bacteria free and does carry with it and introduce to the meat various bacteria. If you ever saw the “water test” from most ground water and the “allowable limits” of some of the bacteria, you wouldnt want to drink it let alone spray it on raw meat.
Washing out an animal is sometimes mandatory should the paunch get broken but if AGING the meat (aka hanging the meat to tenderize) especially it is mandatory to use store bought distilled water to do so. Frozen BLOODY meat will far outlast frozen “washed” meat, every time.
I know millions have and will “hose out” their animal, but should you wish for the ultimate in aging or long time storage use distilled water if available.
On my own, I do not use water at all unless absolutely necessary and I “hang” mine if the weather permits or a locker is handy for NO LESS than 10 days.
Air: Air is another culprit and the cause of “freezer burn” on frozen meat. For decades Ive put meat in thinner, long and narrow plastic meat bags bought on the web or at a kind local meat locker and making sure all the air was out of the bag, simply twisted the bag above the meat once or twice then rolled the remainer of the bag around it.
Ziploc bags are a horror. Buy some thin bags that will completely surround the meat. I know many use them but for long, LONG time storage, freezer burn will be the result if they are used. Getting ALL the air out of them is all but impossible.
Freezer paper is NOT all equal. Good quality COATED freezer paper is worth it’s weight in gold for long time storage. The brown “butcher paper” is all but asking for trouble.
Buy COATED, white FREEZER PAPER. Using it, lay the meat above one corner of the rectangle of freezer paper and roll the paper over the plastic bag of meat until covered. Then fold both sides (corners on both sides of the meat over the bag of meat and keep rolling till you reach the other last of the paper. A single peice of freezer tape will hold it tightly together.
Dont be stingy on the paper amount. Properly wrapped you will have 3-4 layers of waxed freezer paper TIGHTLY wrapped over the bag.
A few hints too. DATE your packages and cycle them accordingly. Write the date or pick up a cheapie date stamp at the local wally world or office supply.
I personally never had meat year to year because I will eat it every meal if I have it but customers and friends have brought me meat I have processed as much as 6 years old “to grind up since it was “old”. Upon unwrapping it for them they changed their minds and took it home almost every time.
Lots may turn up there noses at this but, for information, this is fact from butchering over 3000 whitetail and a half dozen elk. Not a lot to a bucther shop but a lot to most hunters.
These rules are MANDATORY for me as are the rules of cooling one out ASAP and never EVER hanging one in the sun.
Some of the horror stories I could tell from what Ive seen that were brought to me, would turn your stomach.
Season is almost here in Indiana!
Steve
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I was always intrested in the foodsaver, now I have to convince dad to get one!:roll:
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I’ve always wrapped my venison in waxed freezer paper. I’ve never wrapped it in plastic first and have never had any trouble. But, then, I don’t usually store meat for much over a year.
It’s fast, easy, and it works great. If you haven’t tried it, give it a shot. As an added bonus, it stacks nicely in the freezer, unlike vacume packed stuff which slides all over the place.
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My folks used to wrap their stuff in paper. I haven’t used paper much. My uncle killed an elk about 4 or 5 years ago, and they ate off of that meat for almost 2 1/2 years. My aunt vacume packed everything, and the last meat they ate off that elk was as good as the first stuff she cut off of the carcass. Never freezer burned and never went bad. I have a Food Saver, and my wife and I vacume pack a lot of stuff. Yes, Clay is right, the packages do slide around a lot. If that’s an issue, small boxes that are labeled solve that problem. This meat in this box, that meat in that box, this hear, that there, etc.
Michael.
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