Thread: Goat: Plentiful, Tasty but often Stringy

Thanks for all the good comments.

Although I can see the wisdom in doing so, I seldom split the pelvis, but I do take care to open up the pelvic cavity so that there is a 'chimney' that air can flow through. I cut away all the flabby bits around the bum. I also generally hang with the skin on. I figure that while enzymes are naturally present in the meat, the bacteria that cause rot generally have to come in from outside. Also, if the odd fly or two makes its way through a hole in the sheet, there is less exposed meat to lay eggs on. Sometimes prior to hanging, I might spray any exposed meat with vinegar then wipe the worst of the gunge off with paper towels. I've also rubbed salt and/or pepper on to exposed flesh in the hope it will slow rot and deter bugs.

Wetting the sheets is a good idea. At one place where I've stayed we kept our food in a sheetmetal box in the shade. The box had a cotton sheet draped over it, and on top of the box we had a big plastic bottle with a small hole drilled through its base. The bottle was filled with water and it slowly trickled out over the sheet.

I do hang pigs, but I am cautious about it. Dunno why really, but they instinctively feel like a whole different thing to venison which seems to survive a long time hanging unrefrigerated. I'd happily hang a pig in the shade for maybe four days in a Nelson winter, but I go past it regularly and have a sniff.

I don't know for sure if I've ever experienced bone taint.... but I'm pretty sure I've noticed 'gut taint' on animals that either weren't gutted when shot (like possums brought home after spotlighting), or when recovered a day or so after having been shot but not found at the time in poor light conditions etc.

I figure it can't be too bad though seeing our reasonably recent ancestors allegedly used to hang game birds and hares for days until they 'turned green'.

Hanging meat, especially venison, is something I generally strive to do nowadays no matter what the season...even for a short time. And it seems that it does improve it. Have to say though, over the sixty odd years I've been eating it, I've also enjoyed a lot of wild meat that was never hung... although there was often quite a bit of time between killing it and getting it into the freezer.

I've been a bit of a 'clean freak' for a while now, and the time I spent working at a fish processing plant made me very aware about food safety. And while I would always urge people to be clean and careful and follow the guidelines, my life experience has shown me that some people survive perfectly happily while dealing with fish and meat in a way that could get a restaurant shut down. Sometimes folks don't have refrigeration and even cooked meat is kept for a day or two in a safe. And my elderly mother horrifies me with the food she leaves in the microwave or on the bench and she is still ruling the roost at 89.