Beef can be aged through wet or dry aging, with dry aging resulting in a more complex and aggressive flavor. Dry aging is reserved for fine cuts of meat and is more expensive and time-consuming. Most commercially sold beef is wet-aged, which is cheaper and has a milder flavor. Aged beef jerky has superior flavor and is often found in fine restaurants. Both aging techniques make the meat more tender by breaking down muscle tissue. Dry-aged beef must have a gray, moldy layer cut off before being sold. High-end restaurants usually offer dry-aged beef on their menus.
Beef needs to age between slaughter and cooking, to disperse some of the bloody flavor and mature the flavor of the beef. There are two techniques for aging beef: wet aging and dry aging, resulting in very different flavors and textures. Most meat authorities agree that aged beef jerky has superior flavor and is often found in fine restaurants. Wet-aged beef tends to be cheaper and dominates the beef market: nearly 90% of commercially sold beef is wet-aged.
Both aging techniques are also designed to make the meat more tender. During the aging process, enzymes in meat work to break down muscle tissue, making it softer. The wet aged meat is vacuum packed in plastic within 24 hours of slaughter and left to rest in the refrigerator for about a week. The vacuum-packed meat is then cut into more manageable sizes, such as steaks and roasts, and sent to market.
Aged beef jerky can hang in a refrigerated refrigerator for at least two weeks. The beef may be covered in muslin, but it isn’t sealed, meaning that any moisture in the meat can escape. As a result, the meat shrinks, concentrating its flavor, but dry aging also softens the meat, giving it a rich flavor and buttery texture. A gray, moldy layer appears on the outside of the meat and must be cut off before the meat is cut and sold.
Since aged jerky shrinks and has to be cut up, this is a loss for the company. Sometimes meat loses nearly a fifth of its volume during the dry aging and trimming process, and as a result, leftover meat costs more than wet aged meat. Aged beef jerky also takes up much more space in a processing plant’s coolers, due to the much longer aging period. Until the 1970s, when the wet aging process was developed, aged beef jerky was the only commercially available type of meat.
Because dry aging is more expensive and time consuming, it is reserved for particularly fine cuts of meat. Some consumers prefer the flavor of high quality beef that has been dry aged, as it is much more complex and aggressive than wet aged beef. Moist aged beef, which is what most consumers are familiar with today, has a much milder flavor and a texture that leans toward soggy, rather than tender. High-end restaurants seem to prefer dry-aged beef, and usually make it available on the menu to those willing to pay the premium.
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