How long can I hang a deer for?

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How long can I hang a deer for?

The time you hang a deer for is a matter of taste.

By Barnaby Dracup

Thursday, 20 November 2008

Assuming a deer has been properly gralloched, how long can you leave it in the larder before you skin it? And what happens if you leave it longer than that?

Stalking
GEORGE WALLACE says:
The skin protects the meat and helps prevent it from drying out too quickly so I like to leave it on until I am ready to butcher the carcass.

How long that may be depends on the temperature in your larder, the age of the animal (older beasts need longer to tenderise the meat) and your or your customers’ taste.

The longer you hang the carcass the more tender it becomes and the better the flavour.

Up to a point!

In a proper chiller you can hang a deer for three or four weeks but don’t forget that in this context ‘hanging’ is just a polite word to describe the early stages of rotting and decomposition; so it’s important to stop the first before it becomes the second!

As the bishop said in one of his famous conversations with the actress, “It’s just a matter of taste.”