Anyone aging their meat beside me?

[Oldman]

I only age choice grade or better. I wet age for the following reasons.
1. better texture
2. better flavor--not as good as dry aging.
3. so I can grind up the meat and have a rare to med-rare hamburger with no worries. *
4. better pricing.  When I get 3 or 4 whole pieces I get a discount over the cut meats.

WARNING If you purchase Black Angus Beef look at the coloring. Some of it is already pretty aged. If there is blood water in the package and it is purple looking I don't suggest aging it more that maybe 10-14 days. Believe me you over age a loin and you will only do it one time.

*cough cough* I've have never over aged a loin...are you kidding me? Momma, the babies (our dogs) are going to eat good this week... LOL!

*I use a combo of a whole chuck and either a whole sirloin or whole top or bottom round. About 50-50 percentage.

Ok anyone out here aging there beef?
Olds

[manxman]

I don't age meat myself as I am lucky to have a "family butcher" at the end of my road.

At the local butcher I get to see the carcass hanging and know exactly how long it has hung for. This meat is dry aged, I never buy beef from the supermarket as it is simply not in the same league IMHO.

Depending on carcass fat content and size the hanging can be anywhere between 3 and 6 weeks, occasionally longer. All his meat is locally produced so we even know the farm it has come from! ;)

His ground/minced beef is all done fresh and he will do specific requirements to order, the ground/minced steak makes wonderful burgers and I have no worries cooking them med-rare, even for my two young boys.

I would rather pay for quality, not quantity. :D

[Habanero Smoker]

I haven't yet, but reading your previous posts have gotten me interested in this. Also JJC got me interesting in thinking about buying my meat for local farmers. I looked into it, and learned that there is a coop of about eight farms, within a 20 mile radius, that raise and butcher their meat locally. One farm is one mile north of me, and another is 3 miles south. The local company that butchers (fabricates) the meat; ages the beef for up to 3 weeks. This fall I will visit a few of these farms, and may purchase my beef and pork from them.

[manxman]

That sounds like a great idea HS, "farmers markets" are becoming very popular on this side of the pond which in effect are coop's..... good quality local produce at an acceptable price.

Suppliers seem to be squeezed so tightly by supermarkets that more and more are looking for alternative outlets to get a fair price for their produce. And the quality seems to be generally much higher too! ;)

[Bassman]

I have never aged meat. It just never seems to be around long enough  ;D

[Oldman]

I have never aged meat. It just never seems to be around long enough 

Planning Son, Planning is all it takes.  ;)

[DarrellS]

Can anyone tell me how I can tell how old the meat is if I were to buy a cryovaced brisket flat from someone like say Sam's Club. I've been wanting to try it but have been a little leary of it if I don't know the approximate age to begin with.

Thanks

Darrell

[BigSmoker]

you should be able to ask the people from Sam's/Costco to pull the product you want to age from the case it came in.  The case will have the packaging date on it.  Most of them are glad to help if you tell them about your BBQ'ing .

[whitetailfan]

I was thinking the same about packaging date, but prior to the date of package, would there not be any hanging time?  Would the meat dept people have a slaughter date?

[asa]

"Ok anyone out here aging there beef?"
Olds
*************************
I've dry-aged several tenderloins and a top loin roast (my favorite cut, the "strip") in the basement fridge (which isn't opened often or at all during this time) on racks for ~4 days. Enzymes break down tasteless proteins into tasty peptides and amino acids, and tenderize the meat even further. At the end, the meat has lost some weight and developed a firm slick surface (I think I've seen it referred to as a pellicle on this forum). Then, after letting it sit for several hours with a salt and pepper rub and bourbon splashed onto the surface, I sear the meat on all sides, turning every 15-20 seconds so that I caramelize the outside to develop flavor, but don't cook the meat. Finally, it goes in a low and slow oven, say no higher than ~200 degrees, with a probe in the thickest part. I'll sometimes turn it down to 170 or so if it seems to be cooking too fast. When it reaches about 110 degrees internally, I'll turn the oven off and let it come up to 120-125. What you get with this technique is a tasty outside and an inside that, from edge to edge, is uniformly cooked the way you want it (rare to medium-rare by the above technique). I'm still experimenting with this technique but it seems to have worked well so far. If, as others have suggested, the pellicle is particularly good at picking up a smokey flavor, this should be a great way to prepare, say a top loin, for smoking. I'll let you know if and when I try it.

Low and slow is the way to go!

     asa

[Oldman]

asa,
Very nice.  Here is a link about dry aging at home that you might find of interest.

Dry Aging

Olds

[iceman]

Nice link Old's. That's a keeper.

asa,
Very nice.  Here is a link about dry aging at home that you might find of interest.

Dry Aging

Olds

[manxman]

Yes, I agree..... good one. :)

[asa]

asa,
Very nice.  Here is a link about dry aging at home that you might find of interest.

Dry Aging

Olds

Thanks, Olds. I've just discovered this site in the past 4 days since I've been an active BSer. (You know they must be authnentic and credible because they use and recommend Forschner knives). In addition to that link, the rest of their stuff on aging is also informative. It seems to me that the use of the towels adds a lot of work for not much return. I'm trying to think of what it does. Probably prevents pellicle formation, which is usually trimmed before roasting but which one might want to keep for smoking (if the claim I recall about pellicles and smoking from this forum is correct). I would guess it probably doesn't prevent microbial contamination and is not done for safety issues. But I've only done it for, as I previously said, about 4 days for tenderloin (which did not form pellicles as I recall) and the top loin roast (which did). I think that on one occasion I didn't even trim the latter with no untoward negative effects since I sliced it thin for party food. Another time I believe I did trim it. What is your take on the superiority of a pellicle for absorbing smoke and flavor?

Regards,

     asa in ch

[Oldman]

I'm trying to think of what it does.

Moisture removal.

Check out this link University of Minnesota

This is a link to a sirlion I aged for 30 days or so:My Aged Sirloin