Deer meat in cooler

[Bsktball55]

Shot a deer yesterday morning (Saturday) butchered it and put it on ice yesterday morning. Today, I cleaned all the meat up, cut the silver skin, fat, and damaged meat off of it and put it in gallon zip locks. Next Saturday I am planning on taking it to have sausage made and I'm going to make some jerky with some of it as well. If I keep it packed on ice in ziplock bags, do you think it will be fine till then, or should I freeze it? It will need to be thawed for Saturday, so I have to freeze it and probably pull it out of the freezer on Wednesday so it can thaw for Saturday.

[catchatoad]

I would freeze it.

[BARRY J]

My butcher always told me that a week in an ice chest is not only ok, it helps tenderize the meat. Just don't let it soak in the ice water.

[RANGER487]

Will it fit in your fridge by any chance

[T Dub]

Will be fine on ice. Deer processors usually let them hang for a week in the cooler around here unless they are slammed with business

[okhawg]

Deer needs to age, put it in a fridge if you can, delay freezing it if you can.

[CaymasMan250]

Take the advice from the previous post.