INSIDE OUTDOORCLASS
Basic Early Season Meat Care
PHOTO: courtesy Remi Warren
by Bugle Staff
When all that pre-season scouting and hard hunting during the season pays off and your animal hits the ground, it’s a time for celebration. It’s also time for the most critical part of a successful hunt—meat care. Quality of care equals quality of meat. It’s especially important in the early season when soaring temperatures and prevalent insects add urgency.
We’ve compiled some tips from OutdoorClass online course instructors Randy Newberg and Remi Warren, who hold combined hunting, outdoor media and guiding experience of more than 50 years, to help you make sure your hard-earned meat tastes delicious.
Sure, it can feel a little presumptuous driving around with a giant cooler in the back of your vehicle, but it’s actually just responsible preparation. Remi Warren recommends a large cooler like the Yeti 210 he uses for his early-season archery mule deer hunts. To optimize meat cooling, a day before the hunt he adds a bag of ice to precool it. The day of the hunt, he lines the bottom of the cooler with block ice, pours cube ice in to fill the gaps and then places ice packs over all of it. Then he covers all of that with another layer of cube or block ice. He closes the cooler and keeps it closed until he needs it, storing it in the shade to help the ice last longer.
As OutdoorClass instructor Randy Newberg says, “heat is your enemy.” The faster you get the body heat out of an animal, the better your meat will taste. This is especially important while hunting in a warm season such as August pronghorn or September archery deer or elk. Skin the animal as soon as you can. Consider using the gutless method to quickly remove the hide and quarters. The inside of a quarter against the bones holds the most heat. You may want to bone out the quarters, especially the rear ones, to get more airflow (which helps dissipate heat) and to prevent ”bone souring,” when meat spoils from the inside out. Hang each quarter or bag of boned-out meat in the shade as you continue to break down the animal. Once you’re back to your vehicle, get the meat into your cooler right away.
Odds are, wherever you are field processing your animal there’s a lot of dirt, dust and debris that could contaminate your meat. Try not to process on bare dirt. Newberg recommends carrying a small tarp to place under your animal. Dirt, pine needles and grass are all hard to get off the meat once they cling to it. After the animal is quartered and the meat is cut off the bone, use quality game bags to keep dirt, bugs and bacteria off the meat while you transport it to your truck. But cleanliness doesn’t end in the field. It carries over into your kitchen as well. Make sure when you cut and grind your meat you keep it clean of the animal’s hair and don’t introduce any additional grime.
Cut, package and store your meat with care. Make sure you continue to keep the meat cold if you are processing the animal at your home. Consider trying a method like OutdoorClass instructor Hank Shaw’s seam butchering technique to get the most of your steaks and roasts. If possible, use a vacuum sealer or wrap tightly in butcher paper to package your ground meat, steaks and roasts so they stay fresh and resist freezer burn.
Want to learn more about meat care and all things hunting, processing and cooking wild game? Visit outdoorclass.com and subscribe.
