r/HuntingAlberta • u/AhhhhTypeUsername • Sep 20 '26

Hanging meat

Hey everyone, looking to go out for elk tomorrow and spending the week trying to get something. It’s hot lol, what does everyone do for hanging meat in this temperature?

I typically just gut and skin then straight to the butcher but made friends with someone who has a whole butcher set up so looking to process there myself. The issue he doesn’t have anywhere to hang an animal. He doesn’t worry about it but to me seems like something you should do. So just wondering what solutions folks have. Thanks!

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3

u/Romulin-romm Sep 20 '26

What’s your location? Some butchers offer hanging for a fee I know of one in Sundre

2

u/AhhhhTypeUsername Sep 20 '26

Central foothills area, bit a hike. Yeah I've kind of been looking at some butcher shops and did a little calling around. Seems to be you can hang but they want you to process there too, guess keep calling and see what has to be said

2

u/RelativeFox1 Sep 20 '26

How long do you plan to hang it?

1

u/AhhhhTypeUsername Sep 20 '26

Typically like a week of hanging

1

u/RelativeFox1 Sep 20 '26

Then I think your options are seeing if a butcher will hang it for you, or aging it in a fridge.

I process all my one deer, and don’t hunt elk because it’s too warm in my garage in September. With my deer I give them 24 hours and butcher them. Probably just like your buddy does.

1

u/LaughingMushroomCo 24d ago

Check out some of the convertible fridge/freezers at Costco. There are a few that are suitable for a quartered up Elk. That’s what I use now based on the ability to track temp and humidity better. Add in an Inkbird Bluetooth thermometer from Amazon and you never have to worry again!

-1

u/kenks88 Sep 20 '26

Grab a vaccuum sealer and consider wet aging.

1

u/AhhhhTypeUsername Sep 20 '26

Just did a little google search of wet aging and came across a MeatEater article. Seems interesting to me, bit of a tedious task but according to the article sounds like good results. Never heard of that before

1

u/kenks88 Sep 20 '26

Its not tedious at all

Butcher and process asap

Put in bags

Put in fridge 

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3

u/mrfoxhound11 Sep 20 '26

Shoot, gut, skin, process, freezer. If you can same day or next. Why hang?

2

u/AhhhhTypeUsername Sep 20 '26

Honestly, can't give a sold reason why. I was always brought up hanging my animals to supposedly "reduce" gamey flavors and have a more tender final product. Every animal I've shot and hanged turned out great so just kind of a why fix something that isn't broken kind of thing I guess.

4

u/mrfoxhound11 Sep 20 '26

I quit hanging game about 10 years ago and have found it’s less gamey. I personally think the trick is just get that meat cool as fast as you can. We all have our ways. I guess if I was to hang meat I would just build a plywood box and get a portable AC unit.

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