Bleeding out meat after freezing?

[Kdog]

Nothing wrong with thawing it out, processing it the refreezing. I would not worry about "bleeding" it out.

[Dirtymike]

Plug open here. If you are doing sausge and burger thaw and refreeze is not a big deal. Steaks the meat will start to get mushy. Liquid expands when it freezes. Which if it expands inside the meat it rips and shreds the muscle fibers resulting in mushy meat. If you are grinding for burger or sausage no worries. But freeze that freeze will change the over all texture of a steak. Reason most steaks are "never frozen"

[TexasTiger01]

I bleed my deer out for at least a week.

[Younggun1996]

For the people who are against freezing, thawing, and then refreezing what is the big deal. I've done it for years and I'm fine.

Just want to know if I'm doing something wrong.

[DOUBLE.A]

i bleed mine out for a few days but i woudnt totally leave the plug off. Flies can get in that way. When you get ice that melts just drain out the bloody water and add more ice.

[careybirdwell]

When you do this, leave the plug in. You want that little bit of water, it helps to pull more blood from the meat. You drain it daily and will likely add a little ice each day unless it's cold outside or you're using a super cooler.

I and most of us that process our own will freeze then thaw later in the season to make sausage, jerky and such.

The proper order would be; Kill it, quarter it, soak for several days up to two weeks in fresh ice draining daily. After soaking is complete, De-bone all 4 leg quarters cutting into steaks roast and cubed meat. Then do a final wrap or vac seal on your steaks while freezing your cubed meat in large freezer bags.

Tip-if using the large 2 gallon bags, don't completely fill them up only put enough to make them about 2 inches thick while pushing all the air out of the bag. This will allow them to freeze faster and thaw faster when you get ready to process.

I like to process in the late season after I've killed all or most of my deer. I usually work alone or with minimum help so l do burger and sausage on different weekends. Once complete, re-freeze and enjoy the benefits of your hard work.

Are you allowed to De-Bone a deer when your cleaning it or does it have to be at final destination?

[Buckwheat]

I put a deer in chest on top of 3-4 2L frozen bottles of water and then cover with ice. Let sit for 3-5 days adding ice daily. Enough to keep chest full and meat covered. Haven't noticed a big difference in flavor but the blood while cooking or after thawing out is a lot less.

[JonW]

Ideally my meat doesn't sit in water. I question the effectiveness of "bleeding" dead meat that way.

If I were to go to a meat market to pick out steaks I doubt I would pick one (or find one) that's sat in ice water for two weeks.

[35remington]

I used to always soak my venison in ice and water for a week, but now that people are talking about air chilling, that seems like a better idea. I might have to keep an eye out for an old fridge on CL. I dunno.

[huntindude]

Are you allowed to De-Bone a deer when your cleaning it or does it have to be at final destination?

at "camp" you can debone only for immediate consumption. Have to debone the rest at "final destination"

[banzai]

I used to always soak my venison in ice and water for a week, but now that people are talking about air chilling, that seems like a better idea. I might have to keep an eye out for an old fridge on CL. I dunno.

Be careful with the air chilling. Refrigerator air is very dry. Some venison I had last week was exposed directly to the fridge air a little too long and it dried out and became hard as a rock and I had to trim it off. The meat underneath was still good.

[RaginCagin]

I only leave mine in an ice chest 5-7 days bc i dont always have time to process it right away. I've killed and processed a lot of my own deer and have noticed absolutely no difference in processing right away without keeping on ice or letting sit on ice for a week. It wont be gamey if you cut off the blood clots and take all of the innards out properly. I surely would not defrost it just to let it soak on ice and water.

[35remington]

Be careful with the air chilling. Refrigerator air is very dry. Some venison I had last week was exposed directly to the fridge air a little too long and it dried out and became hard as a rock and I had to trim it off. The meat underneath was still good.

Well damm! I can't win for losing.

[banzai]

Well damm! I can't win for losing.

You will be a winner if you fill the new fridge with beer!

[meshmover67]

I don't particularly like to let my meat set in/on water/ice. I like to dry age my meat either by hanging outside in cold weather (I hunt in the Northeast so getting a week below 40 is common and perfect for hanging) I have also hung deer in walk-ins and what not. The hard layer that you get on the outside is a good thing it protects the meat that you are going to consume and a lot of that is what you trim anyway when removing silver skin at least if you leave the deer fairly whole during the process. You can always use your cooler the same way quarter and use plastic to keep your meat off the ice/water.

to each their own there isn't really a wrong way, ive had it still twitching, ive had it 20 some days hanging, and ive had it after an ice water soak. I think you are doing whats best, experimenting to see what you like. hard to mess up a high quality protein like venison!