Proper Meat Care for Antelope

[seeth07]

If you want the best meat possible, then cool the meat as quickly as possible.

I'll add onto this just a bit more. Cooling meat down has nothing to do with quality of meat. The purpose of cooling meat quickly is to prevent spoilage due to bacteria growth. Theoretically if you take a hunch of meat off an antelope immediately after a kill and tossed it in a perfectly sealed airtight bag, it won't spoil for a very long time.

 

[WyoDoug]

Here is my original intent on cooling meat quickly. I have experienced meat related food poisoning by eating antelope that a few of my friends shot and carried around in their pickups for an hour or two in 90 degree weather. Two things they didn't do that I would of done: (1) get that hide off quickly, and (2) get the meat cooled down. Sooner you do that the better the meat is but the main benefit is not improving taste of meat, but in preventing spoilage. Your best quality meat comes if you are able to age the carcass before you process it and remember to remove the glands, fat and that.

However, nothing in my posts says to process the meat immediately. You should never begin butchering until the rigor process is passed. The muscles are going to want to contract and the meat will be tougher than hell if you detach it from the main skeleton. I generally quarter the meat if I don't immediately have a cool place to hang the carcass or a huge cooler like I got now. If the temperature is in the 70s all this is negated and all you really should do is remove the hide and keep it out of the sun and keep insects off the meat.

I got engaged in some sparring on this with nay sayers that dispute the need to cool the meat as "misinformation". That is unfortunate and we don't need to do that here. Some people may be hunting mostly in cool climates and maybe they don't. My antelope hunts are typically in the August to early September time frame and temps are generally still above 80 and sometimes into the 90s still. It all depends on what the weather is.

But because I have been sickened from bad antelope meat that was spoiled, I am pretty religious on skinning, quartering and cooling the meat quickly. I also refuse to accept meat from friends and family if I do not know how they take care of it because of the time of the year it is hunted. Meat related food poisoning can turn deadly quick and I refuse to take that chance. I have been sickened from bad meat four times, specifically antelope. I am not going to take a chance on it being more serious the next time.

If at all possible though, you should keep the carcass whole and put it in a game bag with the skin removed and NOT process the meat until the rigor phase is over and the muscles are relaxed. But sometimes you have to quarter it and put it in the cooler in order to cool it. I got a large cooler that once I remove the front and back hocks the carcass will generally fit nicely and I just keep it cool with frozen bottles of water.

I spoke from my own experience when I started this post and I stick with it. Other's disagree but you know that's OK. They don't have relevance to the way I do things. That does not necessarily make them or me wrong. If they got a method to keep the meat from rotting before it gets processed, that is good enough. Letting meat get or stay warm seriously affects the way it tastes, but that is because of rot or meat that is not correctly processed. Some may not know that because they have done it the way they have for years and never had issues. To me, they are just lucky. I was not lucky and sickened four times from bad antelope, I was shown by a fellow hunter who knew that to remove the hide immediately and get it cooled. Since I have done that, I have never had a gamey tasting antelope and had people eat it and say it can't be antelope. I grew up doing the opposite and carried antelope in the pickup while we tried to fill the other tags. But never again.

 

[MTLabrador]

Judging from what I’ve read here, producing edible antelope meat takes a serious combination of science and voodoo..

I’m grilling some antelope loin as I type this, and the meat never saw a cooler.

 

[WyoDoug]

I should add though, experts are torn on this, but antelope should not be cooled quickly, but it should be cooled, just gradually. Antelope that is cooled slowly and then processed when cooling process is complete is best in my experience. I have never seen a true benefit of aging antelope like there is with deer and elk. You also do not want to freeze antelope until after the rigor phase has passed or all you do is toughen the meat.

 

[brockel]

Judging from what I’ve read here, producing edible antelope meat takes a serious combination of science and voodoo..

I’m grilling some antelope loin as I type this, and the meat never saw a cooler.

We don’t do anything special with our antelope. Guess I’ve been lucky as I’ve never ate a bad one or I’ve got a garbage gut. Probably both. It’s our favorite meat.

 

[MTLabrador]

We don’t do anything special with our antelope. Guess I’ve been lucky as I’ve never ate a bad one or I’ve got a garbage gut. Probably both. It’s our favorite meat.

I should have hit the sarcasm harder. Same here, it’s my favorite and I’ve been eating antelope since I could eat solid food. I treat it like deer, elk, or any other meat.

 

[brockel]

I should have hit the sarcasm harder. Same here, it’s my favorite and I’ve been eating antelope since I could eat solid food. I treat it like deer, elk, or any other meat.

I knew you were being sarcastic. Now I’m not saying I leave it in the back of the pickup all day and then stop off at the bar for dinner and drinks but I don’t do that with any animal

 

[NEWHunter]

72 more - we can do it

 

[chuckchili]

I think it’s not rocket science. Get it gutted and the hide off within the hour after it’s killed and you’ll be fine. I kill, gut and skin within that hour and then hang it in the shade (most often a garage) for a day or two until the hunt is done. I’ve let it it hang for a week to dry age after that without ever seeing a cooler. I’ve never had a bad taste of meat or any issues. This is Colorado, early October- anywhere between 60 and 80 degrees.

 

[Bob-WY]

Last fall was our first in WY and our first with multiple animals processed. 4 pronghorn in the freezer. All hit the ground, then skinned and taken apart using gutless method. So quarters on the bone, Backstrom, tenderloins, neck and scrap meat off bone. All in a backpack. Into a cooler with ice bottles rotated daily for 3 to 5 days until we butchered.

All the most tender nicely flavored meat.

Only tougher meat we've had in the past was one that hit the freezer the same day it was shot. Wont do that again

 

[HandgunHunter]

No matter what the game animal I like to get it quartered and in meat bags in a reasonable amount of time.

Meat bags in the shade seem to do well for me.

 

[Rodzilla]

No matter what the game animal I like to get it quartered and in meat bags in a reasonable amount of time.

Meat bags in the shade seem to do well for me.

What BcGunworks said; after taking pictures and capturing memories, I like to use the gutless method on Antelope bucks. In 30 minutes you can have the entire antelope quartered bagged (Alaskan game bags) and ready for transportation. Any grown man can carry a whole antelope quartered in a decent backpack. Last year my wife carried the head to the truck while I carried everything else in my backpack; within 45 minutes cooling in an ice chest. Dare I say meat rivals Elk (for sure deer meat) =).

 

[WyoDoug]

What I do depends on where I kill the animal. I am one that loves heart and liver if I don't damage them so I do not do the gutless method. I also love ribs and brisket big time so I clean out the guts immediately and if I am close to running water, I rinse the cavity out and put the heart and liver into a small game bag. I then take the quarters off the carcass and put them in game bags. The ribs I cut through the middle of the brisket and then saw the ribs off the spine and put them into a game bag. All that plus the skull plate of a buck fits nicely in my pack. Once I am at my pickup they go into a large 100 qt cooler I have and I keep about 6 frozen 1 liter bottles of water in. That is enough to keep the meat cool enough. Now if the temp is below 70, and I am close to a two track or a county road, I go get my pickup and load the whole carcass in the pickup minus the viscera and head home and hang it in my shed then I butcher it the next day. I only live 20 minutes from where I hunt so I have that advantage. One thing you don't want to do is let the meat freeze until it is processed or while it is in rigor especially. That toughens the meat up.

 

[thusby]

....1 year, 8 days later.

 

[WyoDoug]

My antelope hunt this year starts last week in September instead of August. Looks like I don't have a ton to worry about since weather then is on the cool side typically. Average high is 66 and low is 41. In this scenario, all I do is gut it, remove the heart and liver if good, haul to pickup which should be typical 100-200 yards with number of two tracks, put it in back of pickup then haul to house and hang it then go back to fill rest of my 3 antelope tags.

 

[nemeth8]

Good stuff here... learned a lot.

 

[arthurpete]

Any issue with dry ice and sealed coolers?

 

[WyoDoug]

Any issue with dry ice and sealed coolers?

No, not really. If you ship them via UPS or the airlines, they must be labeled for CO2. Sealed containers with dry ice will keep the meat frozen for at least 3-4 days, sometimes more. Use dry ice if you want to freeze the meat but do not do that before the rigor phase passes usually in about 12 hours or so from the kill. If you freeze meat, be aware the aging process is interrupted if you dry age at all. Put dry ice on top separated by a couple layers of newspaper. Wear gloves doing this and wrap the pieces of dry ice in newspaper also.

Only real caution you need with it is DO NOT store it in a trunk or enclosed area where passengers or people will be staying long. It emits CO2 which displaces oxygen. Keep it in a trailer, back of pickup or something that does not carry animals or passengers. If you do it at camp, put it in shade and cover it with a tarp or something to keep the sun off it. When you open an enclosed trailer at home or something after transporting it, let the trailer vent before you enter. Probably not really deadly, but CO2 will give you a nasty headache from displacing the oxygen.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Any issue with dry ice and sealed coolers?

In addition to what Doug said, DO NOT put dry ice in a completely sealed or air-tight container. The gas has to be able to vent or it can explode. People have been seriously injured by dry ice explosions actually. We always have to be careful about it when we ship biological samples on dry ice. If you use a cooler just don’t seal around the lid with tape or something, or don’t lock it down if it’s one of those high-end types.

 

[WyoDoug]

Here is an article you might read on transporting dry ice in coolers. I have transported wild pig from Texas several times now through American Airlines. Coolers are locked with TSA approved locks (ones they can open to inspect). You do lock down coolers to keep lid shut but down at the bottom is a drain plug. If the cooler is pressured due to CO2 buildup from the dry ice, then the drain plug will blow out and relieve the pressure builduip. If you do not have a drain plug on your cooler, do not use dry ice with it or do not tape the lid down. If you are transporting it home yourself in back of the pickup or in an open trailer, you really do not need to tape it down at all if it is a good cooler as the latch is sufficient to shut the lid and if the cooler needs to vent pressurized CO2 it will lift the lid just enough that the CO2 will escape. Do not completely tape down coolers.

As far as packaging in cardboard boxes, read up on that because that is how I shipped a batch through UPS not too long ago. They make boxes just for that.

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