Washing out cleaned deer

[Deerhunter30]

I doubt many get sick as the cooking of the meat will kill most things that cause us harm. Now, as far as flavor of the meat.......I have heard so many people say "I don't like venision....it's nasty & gamey". As I have said numerous times, if people treated their store bought meat the way some treat their deer, it would be nasty as well.

[Stolle]

I have always washed mine with water and placed the meat in a cooler on ice. I let it soak and drain once a day for about 4-5 days. The meat has always turned out great. I think it will work both ways as long as you get the guts out in timely manner and get the meat cooled down before it spoils. I'm sure even in meat markets they have to use water to wash meat down from time to time.

[AtTheWall]

Spray them clean any chance I get with hide on and instant chill down and dry. Blood and entrail residual will promote more bacteria vs water when it's allowed to sit on the carcass inner cavity. Cleaning this area with skin on shouldn't affect the prime cuts. Only when you open and expose the meat is bacteria allowed to get in and contaminate. When it's time to skin, it's done dry, double or triple bagged and transported or simply boned and processed for the freezer. I prefer to leave the skin on if I need to transport but Texas weather doesn't always allow this.

[Tex_Cattleman]

Unless I accidently hit guts with my arrow, the body cavity of a deer I kill is never so much as opened up. Spreading bacteria is really not an issue. As mentioned, get it quartered and into the cooler as soon as possible. I keep mine completely covered with ice, cooler tilted 45 degrees with no plug for 5 to 7 days. 95% of the areas that come in contact with the ice or water are covered in silver skin which is trimmed and tossed anyway. The exception is the inner side of the backstraps and pelvis end of the hams that turn light brown. I trim that about 1/8 inch, leaving beautiful red meat. This process has worked exceptionally well for me for years.

Howard - let's have those "several reasons" why water/ice in contact with the meat is the worst thing to do. I'm always looking to further edjamicate myself.

[Texastaxi]

I'm not saying it's wrong, but I've never heard "don't get it wet"!

I only open the torso to get the tenerloins out. Depending how I feel, I may or may not drop the inerts. I've always washed the excess blood off of the meat and even rubbed out entrance and exit holes to get rid of the clotted blood that forms. It's quartered and put on ice. As Tex said, the non-silver meat does turn greyish brown, but it eats just fine!

Here's where I differ. I don't leave the drain open, but instead drain and add fresh ice once a day for 5 days. I've never had any "gamey" tasting meat. This is the way my dad showed me, and just the way I've always done it. It draws the blood out nicely ... you can tell from the red water that drains out of the cooler every day.

My 9th grade physical science teacher had us do an experiment with water and ice. It proved that if there is ice in there, the water and all the contents will be the same temperature as the ice (or pretty close to it), once the meat is chilled, of course. I think this reinforces the 30-40 degree rule.

[tuthdoc]

I'm with TexasTaxi. I put it in the cooler and cover in ice. As it melts, I drain it and add more. I keep it that way until I get home and can get it to the processor or can cut it myself. We've done it for years. I've heard about the "water on the meat" theory forever, but I don't buy it. The venison, pork, auodad, etc. that we've killed have all been handled the same way and they taste GRRRRReat.

As far as contaminated meat, I don't keep it. If I cut a gut or stomach, I chunk that meat. I don't bother washing it. Not because I'm afraid the water will hurt it, but because I don't want the gut meat. Also, blood shot meat is not kept either. Only the good stuff goes in the cooler and in the freezer.

If I kill a deer and it's cold enough to hang it, then I'll wash it out and prop open the carcass and let it cool. I'll skin and quarter it when temps indicate.

[Buck-a-Do]

As we all know water is a bacteria carrier and can grow some weird things in the lab. I always wash my deer but put it straight on ice as soon as I can. This will not kill anything but does slow down anything that could grow on it. But if you would look deeper the deer is dirtier than the water picking up micro organisms of all kind while eating, laying down, drinking and just plain walking around. I will stay with washing mine out, makes it look better when you have it hanging on the tree by camp.

[nsbowhunter]

I think everyone just about covered it. I just want to say that if your going to mount it, then dont get your cape wet. Unless it is going directly into the freezer and even then its better if us Taxi's take care of it.

[Burnadell]

I have heard the arguments that meat should NOT be washed with water; just wiped off. This theory is contradicted, however, by all those proponents of brining their meat before cooking, such as:

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Pork/BriningPork.htm

Also, Howard, I don't understand your point that "water on meat is the worst thing you can do"...yet, you keep putting ice on it as it melts for up to a week? Isn't the melting ice the same as putting water on it?

[Shooter]

I quarter mine and put it in a tilted cooler on ice for a week, draining it daily and adding ice as needed. It has always turned out good for me.

When I grew up in PA if we were at deer camp and it was cold we would gut them, hang them and wash them out real good. As long as it stayed cold we would not quarter them until we got home. Never saw any problem with this method either. I think as long as you are taking measures to preserve your meat there's more than one way to get it done.