How to Age Beef
Steak, beef stews, or roasted beef are popular and delicious features on many dinner tables. People like beef for its tenderness, texture, and flavor, but that doesn’t mean that the qualities of beef cannot be improved further. Aging a cut of beef is one way to make it more tender and delicious.
Why Age Beef?
Aging is the secret to tender steaks and flavorful cuts of beef. Beef is usually aged for two reasons:
Reduce moisture. While there’s nothing wrong with fresh beef, some of the more complex flavors in the meat do not stand out because of water and other moisture content. One goal of aging beef is to reduce the amount of moisture in the meat. Aged beef has a more gamey, meaty flavor than fresh beef, which makes it perfect for steaks.
Tenderizing. Many cuts of beef have connective tissue that tend to become sinewy and difficult to eat when cooked. You can cook away the connective tissue, but that will result in very tough meat. Aging the beef allows enzymes to break down the connective tissue, resulting in a tender cut of meat perfect for just about any cooking method.
The Aging Process
There are two ways by which beef is aged:
Wet aging involves packing the products of slaughter in vacuum-sealed containers. The supermarket will then trim aged parts of the beef and discard them, selling the product to consumers. Most cuts of steak sold in supermarkets are already wet-aged.
Dry aging involves storing cuts of beef in a refrigerator, or cooling rooms with controlled levels of temperature and humidity. Some beef sides may take up to 45 days to completely age, and be used to make very flavorful steaks and other dishes.
Steps
You don’t have to wait for 45 days to wait for a cut of beef to be completely aged. You’ll get tender, flavorful results in around three days if you follow these steps:
Prepare at least six pounds of beef.
Place the beef in a container, and put it inside a cool refrigerator.
Let the beef age for about three days. To get rid of the meaty smell, place a box of baking soda inside the refrigerator.
Once you’re ready to cook with the beef, trim the graying portions out with a sharp knife. You’ll lose much of the connective tissue and parts of the beef because of the aging process, so make sure to use a lot of beef.
Like fine ****, beef tastes much better with age. Just make sure to age the beef enough to keep it flavorful and tender, but not age it too long that it will spoil.