frozen deer
 

Hey Guys, I need some help! I got 2 deer near the end of the season and both froze solid within a day. I butcher my own meat and was wondering what is the best thing to do with them. Leave them hang till it warms up so they can age, or just thaw them out and butcher them now. Any thoughts would be a great help.

Frozen
 

Mine were froze also and i just let them thaw enough to cut them up no problem

We've had frozen animals and all we did is unthaw them, cut them up, package and refreeze the meat. Won't do any damage to the meat if done once just don't do it many times.

Go buy a space hearter from princess Auto $100 defrost them dont let them hang frozen for too long the meat will dry and burn if not wrapped!!!

This was explained to me by our butcher.
If your meat is frozen, you MUST defrost it slowly.
We had a Calf moose last year that was frozen solid and we put it in a heated shop.
It came out like crap!!
I asked him what the problem was and that is what he said.

He suggested defrosting on a cooler of sorts.
Good luck
Jamie

Yes what jamie said defrost it slowly dont bring it into a shop thats 20+ degrees thats why I sugested a heater set it on low and let it defrost for atleast 24 hours 10 degrees is good ....the reason for this is the same as why you want to "flash freeze" The cells are frozen at a fast rate they dont have the time to expand and rupture when you defrost the opposite happens and if things get hot to quick they expand too quick and rupture therefore leaving you with dry tough meat.

as indicated before you need to warm it up slowly. if you have a furnace in the garage invest in an HVAC thermostat that you can set from -5 to normal ranges. first bring it to -1 or 0C. then just above freezing and begin cutting even it is a bit crispy still. when meat freezes it wont age but the water in the meat expands abit and break down tissues, so in essence its gonna be aged to a certain degree. when in doubt make sausage.

wthby

When meat freezes slowly, the water inside the individual meat cells form ice crystals that grow to a large size and rupture the cells causing a deterioration in flavour. Flash freezing results in small ice crystals and no cell rupturing. I'm not sure if the same thing happens when the meat thaws though, it might. (Also, it drives my wife crazy when I say unthaw. She always points out that means FREEZE, the proper term is thaw.)