When you’re buying meat, there’s always a “sell by” date on the package, but I’ve been in some steak houses where they claim that their beef has been aged. What’s up with this? Does beef not go bad if it’s refrigerated? It changes color from a nice pinkish red color to a brown, so is that part of the aging process or is that it going bad? I’ve always thrown away beef like that, but have I been throwing away “aged” beef or is it just a big lie.
Aged beef is cured at near freezing temperatures in order that naturally occuring enzymes in the meat may begin a process of breakdown that makes the meat more tender.
Your cut of steak from the market has already been exposed to innumerable bacteria and other organisms by the time it reaches your refrigerator. It will not have the ability to age without the other micro-organisms getting a leg up in the process and turning your cut of meat into a science fair project. The cut of aged beef that you buy has remained intact (in the carcass) and well chilled while hung to age. This prevents anything but the enzymes from doing their work.
If you have never had well aged beef, try it sometime. Look for correctly aged Black Angus beef if you want to taste the genuine article.
Warning: You may find other steaks tasting like fast food after you have sampled the real thing.
To me it tastes like the streak has been around too long (which it has for my taste). I have had it a couple of times and given a choice I’d pick non-aged beef in every case, but like I said “it is probably an acquired taste”.
Aged beef is better, that’s the deal.
Take a 1000 lb steer and slaughter it. After you remove the head, skin, and internal organs you will have about 700 lbs left.
Hang this 700 lb carcass at near freezing temperatures for a few weeks and wonderful things start to happen. The weight of the carcass and gravity will tenderize the meat while that same carcass will lose about 1% of it’s weight per day in the form of water. After two weeks the 700 lb carcass will now weigh a little around 600 lbs.
Have you ever purchased a steak from the store, thrown it on the BBQ and had it shrink by a quarter? Have you ever tried to brown stewing beef and had it boil in it’s own juices? This is what you get when you buy beef that hasn’t been aged sufficiently.
For beef to be aged it needs to be hung whole for at least two weeks. Three weeks is even better. Cuts of beef should be a deep red rather than bright red, the brightness is an indicator that the meat has not been cured sufficiently.
This comes from the guy who spent a dozen years in the restaurant business who has thrown meat salesmen out the door for trying to pass off second rate cuts of beef.
My advice is to find a dependable butcher, you may pay a little more for good quality aged beef but it will be well worth the price.
I can throw my two cents in here and verify that properly cured and grilled “21-day dry aged beef” is the most utterly sensuous piece of meat you can put in your face.
Yes, that includes the other thing you’re inferring.
I lost my dry aged beef cherry at the Metropolitan Grill in downtown Seattle, but the best piece I’ve been served was in Kansas City, MO (I wish I could remember the name of the place, but it’s not easy to be served bad beef in KC so don’t worry about it).
It’s something no meat eater should die without trying at least once.
That was exactly what I wanted to find out…now I’ve got to get my hands on a good cut of this stuff. I’m drooling all over my keyboard just thinking about it.