I have never even gone as long as one full week aging venison, so 14 days definitely sounds a little scary to me!
That said, there is a fact to remember that would make most health-department types die from shock. That is, spoiled meat will hurt you in one of two ways: either the excessive numbers of germs infect your body and cause you to become ill (perhaps very ill), or, if the meat has become very spoiled with some of the worse types of microorganisms, it may have toxins (poisons) already in it (botulism, for instance). If it's the latter, there's nothing you can do to it to make it safe to it. If it's the former, and you kill all of the germs before consuming it, you should be none the worse for it. Since the vast majority of micro-organisms give off odors and or bad flavors as they grow and reproduce, I just toss any meat that smells bad or is particularly discolored. If it doesn't taste or smell bad, I don't worry about it. If it smells only faintly "off" but not enough to say, "Yeah, it's spoiled," then I cook it REALLY, VERY well (best way to do that is by boiling, in stew for instance, or frying in ground beef), making CERTAIN it has reached sufficient temperature to kill all bacteria and viruses. If it tastes bad though, what's the point? Toss it.
I like my steaks well-seared on the outside, but dark pink and juicy on the inside, so I make sure that roasts and steaks smell like nice, fresh meat when I cook them.
Around here, it is rarely cold enough during hunting season to just hang a deer. So, I skin and quarter it the night I shoot it. I get a large Coleman cooler and put a layer of ice across the bottom, sprinkle salt on the ice, then fit a couple of shoulders or hams to make one layer of meat.
I then sprinkle salt liberally over the meat. It shouldn't look like it has snowed (we're not pickling it), but there should be enough that it won't just be rinsed off immediately by melting ice. I then completely cover it with another layer of ice and add the remaining quarters/backstraps/neck, etc., sprinkle with salt, and cover with ice. (I use approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of a regular old Morton salt box with the flip-up metal pour-spout per deer/cooler of ice.) Tenderloins are cut up and frozen (or hopefully eaten) the same day.
Put the cooler in the shade in a spot where it can drain. Leave the drain plug open so the bloody water never accumulates. Check it at least once a day (preferably twice a day) and add ice enough to make sure that all pieces of meat stay surrounded by ice. Sprinkle with salt anytime you add ice.
Just like your ice cream maker on the Fourth of July, this will keep the meat right at or even just below freezing. Bacteria will have a hard time growing very much
as long as you keep all meat SURROUNDED by ice.
The salt will create a saline environment that hinders (I did not say stops) bacterial growth (like the ocean or a jar of pickles). Just as importantly, you are using osmosis to draw blood out of the outer layers of the meat where bacteria is most likely to be growing. That more-bacteria laden water will then be drained away with the melting ice water.
Using this method, my venison typically stays in teh cooler for 4 to 5 days--mainly until the hunting weekend is over and I have time to get down to the business of butchering. Sometimes the wait is a little shorter; occasionally as longs as just shy of one week. Now, I once had some family and work emergencies come up and left one rear quarter in the cooler for two weeks; it wasn't edible. :wink:
The most important points of processing your own venison are to remove ALL fat and ALL the connective tissue and sinew that you can. That thin slimy tissue between the muscles should go as much as possible. "Silver skin" should go unless you're grinding it. I will sometimes leave one internal vein of "silver skin" in my stew meat, but that means it will need to cook longer. Any meat that is discolored should go (dark reddish-brown is probably okay for grind or stew, as long as it doesn't smell bad; anything green, purple, or other colors should go). Anything that smells bad should go. Bone out all of your meat.
Also, IMO, it's far easier to fully trim it cut it into individual steaks, roasts, stir fry, kabobs, or stew chunks now, instead of having to trim on it a little more when you thaw it to cook with.
If you do it right, there should not be ANY gamey taste. I have never once served venison, even to people that supposedly HATE it, without having them exclaim that they can't believe that it's not farm raised beef filet minion. Most of my venison you can cut with a fork, even off of 2.5 and 3.5 year old bucks. It just doesn't get any better than that. As long as you've got mashed potatoes to go with it, of course.
