Grill Maestro

If you’ve ever been to a high end butcher or high end restaurant, you will no doubt hear about how the meat has been “aged.” What exactly does that mean? Aging is the time between when the animal is slaughtered to when it is cut up into pieces to be sold at the counter. The longer beef is aged, the more “gamey” it tastes, that is to say it takes on more flavor. It also becomes more tender as the muscle and collagen breaks down. So, aging beef is good with respect to flavor and tenderness as long as it is performed correctly.

Why does this matter? Well first off, having more flavorful meat and having it be more tender is clearly a bonus, but how can you tell the bogus claims from the legitimate ones?

• Aging: 11 days is ideal for both flavor and tenderness. Aging less than that and you don’t get the full effects of either but aging longer will improve flavor but not tenderness.
• Age of animal: Younger animals are naturally more tender so aging them for tenderness is less useful than an older animal.

What are some other considerations? Aging beef reduces its shelf life because you’re already taking up some of that time for the aging. Also, breaking down the enzymes also destroys some of its protective effects, making it more susceptible to bacteria. Lastly, as the meat ages it will begin to dry out and lose weight. 70% of the lean meat is water so you will lose a bit of that as the meat ages.

That’s only a brief primer on aging beef, more on this in the future.