The History of Dry Aging
It's been decades since butchers first discovered that beef carcasses, left hanging for several days, ended up more tender and palatable as natural enzymes in the meat broke down proteins and connective tissue.
The dry aging process takes special care and requires a relatively large inventory. It is very time consuming and expensive, requiring extra effort, storage and high-quality beef. Up to 20% of the original weight of the loin is lost during the dry aging process. This is why dry aged steak is offered only in fine restaurants, upscale grocery stores and gourmet steak companies.
Forty years ago, most of our beef was dry aged. In the early 1960's the process of vacuum packing beef became the norm for most processors. The advantage of this process was that they could "wet age" the beef in the bag and not lose any of the weight of the beef. Wet aging was much more cost effective for the processors so a weaning of the consumers' taste buds began to occur. Slowly, the consumer forgot what the real taste of steak was.
Dry aging process begins with the finest premium choice loins, hung in a climate and humidity controlled room. The beef is aged for a minimum of 21 days. During this process a crust forms on the outside of the loin, very similar to the texture of beef jerky. This layer is trimmed away, leaving steaks that are superior in tenderness and flavor. During the dry aging process, the juices are absorbed into the meat, enhancing the flavor and tenderizing the steaks. Research from major universities, including Kansas State University, indicates the enhancement of flavor and tenderness occurs in this Dry Aging process. Dry Aged Steaks are very popular in the fine, white linen steakhouses on the coasts.
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What Aging Does
Richard J. Epley
Copyright © 1998 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
Cooked, unaged beef has been described as "metallic" and lacking in typical beef flavor. Aging gives beef a flavor that has been described as "gamy." True beef flavor is fully developed after about 11 days of aging. The aged beef flavor increases with increasing aging time.
Aging also increases tenderness. It has been shown that during the aging process certain changes take place in portions of the structure of collagen and muscle fibers. Currently, it is thought that enzymatic-caused changes in the structure of muscle fibers are largely responsible for the increase in tenderness. It is known that tenderness decreases immediately after slaughter while rigor mortis takes place (taking 6 to 12 hours to complete); then tenderness increases gradually. Tenderness continues to increase up to 11 days, after which there is no increase in tenderness.
During the aging process, one can also expect a loss of weight of the product. Because the lean (exclusive of trimmable fat and bone) is approximately 70 percent water, it's easy to see why there is a weight loss. The weight loss is caused by dehydration of the lean and fat. The weight loss occasionally occurs at tremendous proportions depending on relative humidity, amount of air flow and temperature of the aging cooler. During chilling of the hot carcass immediately after slaughter, the carcass will lose 2 to 3 percent of its weight because of moisture loss. Aging the carcass beyond this time will result in additional tissue shrinkage of 1 to 1.5 percent for each seven days. Carcasses with a thin external fat cover will lose more moisture than carcasses with a heavy fat cover. One study observed an 18 percent trim and shrink loss from loins aged 14 days in a 36 degrees F cooler.
Summary
Aging of beef is practiced to varying degrees in the meat industry. Your personal preference for the aged beef flavor strongly dictates how long you would age beef or how long you would recommend a processor to age a side of beef that you are purchasing. Keep in mind that as the length of aging time increases, so does the aged beef flavor, the tenderness, and the weight loss. The processor must use valuable cooler space to age your beef, so you must expect to pay a higher price per pound because of the additional expense involved.
For most consumers, aging beef 7 to 10 days will result in acceptable tenderness, desirable flavor and modest weight loss of the carcass. Carcasses with little or no fat cover should not be aged beyond 3 to 5 days
But if you have ever had dry-aged beef, you know the cost is worth it!
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