Tasty wild game begins at the moment of the kill. Ensuring that you get the best meat possible is a two-step process involving  proper field dressing and aging of the carcass. The faster an animal is field dressed, the quicker it can begin to cool, and the less likely spoilage will occur. The meat of any game animal begins to deteriorate the instant the animal dies. Bacteria can enter through the wound, and with a gut-shot animal, the hoard of bacteria in the intestinal tract will begin what they are designed to do—break down things.

I am not going to go through step-by-step instructions in this article. The best way learn is to watch someone, or in today’s world, watch several YouTube videos.

I would like to give some hints that I have learned over the years. Ticks can still be active, so wear rubber gloves. Forget the cheap, disposable ones. They are very slick and do not fit well, which is dangerous when you are handling a sharp knife. My favorite gloves are Eastman Premium Field Gloves, but any rubber gloves that fit up to your elbows will work.

I like a knife with a short blade (3 inches or less). It is more maneuverable and safer when you have both hands inside the carcass. I have a couple Morakniv Eldris fixed-blade knives with 2.2-inch blades. Get the orange one. I don’t understand having a camouflaged colored knife; its only good for getting lost in leaves.

Have three or four plastic bags for the heart, liver and backstraps.

Back at the cabin, before you make any congratulatory toasts, thoroughly rinse and hang the carcass. Rinse until the water runs clear to remove any blood and digestive material, which can give an “off” taste to the meat. You want to cool the carcass as fast as possible. Hang the carcass and use something to hold open the abdominal cavity. I hang the carcass from the neck as I find it easier to remove the hide from the neck down.

The age and sex of the deer has a great deal to do with how and when to change it from a carcass into steaks. A yearling or a young doe can be processed sooner than an old buck or doe. An older deer needs to be aged before processing. There are two reasons to let a deer age: To get tender meat and improve the flavor, although I have always been a little iffy on the second reason.

First, flavor is on the tongue of the beholder. Some people expect their venison to taste like beef. It won’t. It’s venison!

Second, and this is also true with beef, the flavor is affected by what the deer eats. In farm country where they feed on corn and soybeans, you are going to get a much milder taste than from a Northwood deer that feeds on forbs, sedges and tree buds.

With beef, much of the flavor of meat rests in the fat. That’s why beef cattle are bred for good marbling, and they are fed corn before they are slaughtered to increase the amount of fat, and hence flavor and tenderness.

Not so with deer. Deer fat has a bitter taste. Deer have very little fat in their muscles. It’s all stored in that thick layer of tallow that covers their entire back. It is an effective survival mechanism that stores badly needed fat for the winter and acts as a layer of insulation. This is good for deer, but not so much for venison, as it makes for tougher meat.

Hanging venison (aging) or any wild game is a way to let nature do its thing. You are, in essence, letting the natural process of bacterial decay break down the tougher connective tissues. During the whole period, hang time temperatures should ideally be in the high 30s. You want bacteria to have time to begin the decomposition process, but not proceed too fast or too far (rotting). If this makes you squeamish, think about beer, cheese and expensive dry-aged beef. These processes are the result of controlled actions of yeast (beer) and fungus/bacteria (cheese). Keep track of the internal temperature as well as the ambient air temperature. No matter what, if the internal temperature reaches 40, it’s time to process.

Day one

Sometimes, time constraints or high temperatures force you to butcher a deer immediately. Soon after death, rigor mortis begins to set in. During this process (anytime 24 hours+/- after death), the muscle fibers begin to contract, which stiffens the muscle tissue. After this period, the muscles will relax, but if the meat is frozen before this relaxation, it sets the tissue into this contracted state and you get tough meat. I like to bone-out a deer and age it at refrigerator temperature. When getting rid of the carcass, make sure to check the regulations for disposing of a carcass, especially if you’re in a CWD or CWD watch area.

Days two to four

Yearlings and young does are already tender and can be fully processed at this time. If you want to split up the processing of older deer, grind any meat that you will use as burger or for sausage at this time, as grinding effectively is a tenderization process.

Days five to nine

This is about the right amount of time for aging a middle-aged deer (3-1/2-year-old). Again, I like to do this in a refrigerator where I have good control over temperature and humidity, but in a basic deer camp, this might not be possible. If you are using a meat pole to age your deer, a cheap sleeping bag is a good investment. Use it to cover the deer if temperatures begin to rise before the deer has aged. Just make sure you don’t mistakenly use the same bag for camping next summer! If you are using a cooler and ice, just make sure that the meat stays dry.

Days nine to fourteen

The older the deer, the more connective tissue there is and the tougher the meat. Two weeks is the limit for aging. High temperature is not the only thing that promotes the growth of bacteria. Humidity and moisture also factor into the aging process. This is another reason that I like to debone and let the meat age in a sealed plastic bag.

Processing

I have been vague on processing, as everyone likes different cuts of meat. I like the tenderloins and backstraps for straight venison. Most everything else I will use as stew meat or ground venison and jerky.

The most important thing is trim, trim, trim. Remove as much fat, and connective tissue/silver skin, as possible, now rather than at the time of use. There is an argument in that it is easier to remove this tissue from slightly thawed meat rather than fresh, but I like to do it before, so that it’s ready for whatever meal I am making. In the good old days, freezer paper was the only thing available, but now a vacuum sealer will keep meat fresher, longer.

Just as with my gardening and canning, processing my wild game is a good way to remind me that food doesn’t come from the supermarket.

You’ll find recipes to prepare using the meat and fish that you’ve harvested yourself in every issue of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.