Hot weather meat care

[elkrack]

Personally I will not put meat in plastic bags! I would suspend meat above creek where it’s hopefully cooler. 

[Bushcraft]

You can get just about any idea fact stamped here on the interwebs! I wish I had saved the video but water can actually promote bacteria growth. Which will lead to spoilage. Get the meat deboned and in game bags ASAP. Happy hunting 

One thing i feel like i've heard a lot on higher elevation backcountry hunts is putting the meat in garbage bags so its relatively sealed and submerging them in an alpine creek when you're in a pinch. If the meat isn't in contact with the water would this still result in bacteria growth? Doesn't seem like it would but I've never been in a position to have to try it.

For the "plastic is bad" folks...

Take a moment to reflect on why supermarkets wrap display meat in plastic.

Question 1: Do you wrap raw and/or cooked meat (or any food for that matter) in plastic or some other sealed container before you put it in the refrigerator?
Question 2: If the answer is "Yes." to question #1, why wouldn't you do the same for meat in the backcountry for the exact same reasons? 

Exposure to the environment and temps over 40 degrees lead to rapid bacteria growth. The ground, grasses and shrubs are loaded with microbiological life.  The air has stuff floating around in it.  Don't believe me?  Go take a college level microbiology class. 

Try this if you can: 1) Keep the meat very clean while deboning with minimal cuts.  Cuts just introduce more surface are for bacteria growth. Keep the big muscle groups intact whenever possible.  2) Put the boned-out meat in CLEAN game bags. 3) Then, wrap it in tough plastic bags with the air removed, and then dunk them in an ice-cold stream.  If the nighttime temps are freezing or colder than the stream temps, hang it up in a breeze if possible.   Then, once as cold as possible...line your pack with a closed cell foam pad (if you have one) and haul ass for the coolers at the rig.  I've never had anything spoil when I've used this method.

The only time I've seen spoilage is when some "guides" stripped a buddy's mountain caribou down, laid the meat on the tundra brush to cool, left the bones in, and hung it near camp to "crust up" for a couple days.  Even though it's generally not the best tasting meat in the world, it pissed me off that almost half the meat was spoiled before we got it in the freezer we brought with us.  I hate wasting any meat. (I even grind up the silver skin and trimmings to make dog food.)  I warned him that it was a criminally stupid and incompetent thing for them to do, but he went along with what they said to do to keep camp morale up since we were already 12 days into a complete farce of a 14-day stone sheep hunt and tempers were already on edge. 

[elkrack]

To the first question of why do super markets wrap meat in plastic is because they are controlling the temperature and they also wrap with the moisture absorbent pad. I’m by no means a expert in meat care just going with what has worked for me. The only meat I’ve lost was in plastic and it was plenty cold. 100% keeping the meat clean as possible is very important!

[highmuley]

Mines simple. Ice blocks on the bottom of the cooler, a towel on top, quarters on top of that. I open the spout and slightly tip the cooler. It keeps it cold with zero ice/meat contact. But just enough moisture to not dry out the surface of the meat. You can use bags of ice but I like blocks better.

[B4noon]

The real key is complete cool down before putting in any sealed or airtight container even your cooler full of ice, supermarkets are dealing with a animal that has been hanging in open air coolers and completely cooled before they ever wrap in plastic and that’s not to keep them cooler but rather to keep the air from discoloring after making final cuts. Meat needs to be allowed to breath and control humidity if you debone and and toss into a sealed container of ice prior to full cool down you will lose meat once hide is off time is on your side no need to panic getting it in ice, heat needs to escape and to fast of a cool down will ruin meat quality that’s why farm slaughter trucks aren’t refrigerated if you have to go to a cooler or plastic bag leave it cracked for air flow but best to give it a few hours to completely cool before restricting air hide off as soon as it hits the ground and airflow are what gets most

[Dansk]

Lots of methods... many will work.  I've been using this method for 10+ years now on all my big game hunts with great success and zero spoilage.

Gutless method to clean in the field where they lay
Spread skinned/boned out meat on a small piece of painters drop cloth to cool
After an hour or so, into 14x40 4mil fishbags (ULine) - squeeze all the air out - as much as possible & ziptie.
Pack out - only a few hours, so would likely switch to game bag if longer and switch to plastic at truck
Load bags into 100Qt $50 igloo cooler with frozen milk jugs and 11x14 Cooler Shock soft packs (3) on the ice. (Cooler is in the truck)
Sometimes i trim and clean up the meat back in camp or motel and rebag if I've got time.
If it's really hot, i may need to add a bag or two of ice later.

It will keep like this for many days until i get home to trim, cut, grind, bag, and freeze.  I have been using this on 20-30# Kings, Lings, and Hali on NWVI for decades (we camp away from civilization), and I figured if it works for fish, it should be fine for big game.

[huntnfmly]

Thanks again everyone

[Tribal Elder]

I freeze water in old plastic milk jugs ( of the like).  Keeps the cooler cold and the water does not flood when the ice melts.  It keeps the cooler cool, but not ice cold.  Set the game bag(s) on top.  If fact I did this last night with a Turkey

I do the same, easy to handle and you can drink the water as it melts.