Why You'll be Glad We Dry-Age Our Beef
"A key factor in beef tenderness is the aging process. Most experts agree beef becomes more tender when it is aged about 21 days. However, according to a number of meat industry experts - including the University of Minnesota Extension department - most of the beef offered for sale as retail cuts in the supermarket is wet-aged five to seven days. Rarely is beef in the retail case aged more than 10 to 14 days."
Aging beef can be accomplished in two different ways: dry-aging and wet-aging. Both types of aging take place at a temperature of about 36° F (cold, but above the freezing point). During the aging process, natural enzymes in the meat are released and soften the connective tissue in the muscles.
In dry-aging, the beef is maintained in a low-humidity environment, and the meat loses a substantial amount of moisture -- up to 20% of the meat's weight. This evaporation concentrates the meat flavor, but it also increases the cost of the meat. If a New York strip weighs 20 pounds before dry-aging and cost $15.00/lb, and if it loses 20% of its weight during the process, then after aging the meat will weigh only 16 pounds, so the price will have to be increased to $18.75/lb, just for the weight loss.
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Wet-aging avoids this moisture loss and thus is a much less expensive process than dry-aging. When beef is processed, the producers seal the large, sub-primal beef cuts in cryovac vacuum packs, which are placed in boxes and shipped to butchers. (Thus the term "boxed meat", which is used in contrast to hanging meat.) Some butchers will age the meat by leaving it in the vacuum packs. This is wet-aging.
Wet-aging will tenderize the meat by the same enzymatic process as dry aging. However, because wet-aging involves no loss of moisture through evaporation, the flavors do not become more concentrated, as they do with dry-aging. Additionally, most scientists maintain that the enzymes do not react as well during wet-aging to tenderize the meat.
30 years ago, dry-aging was the standard when aging beef. Today, 90 percent of the beef sold is either not aged at all or is wet-aged.
There is reason the finest steak houses in the world insist on dry-aged beef. So should you.
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