Dry Aging Lamb in the new Smart Ager®

The time to discover new ways to build and enhance flavour and texture profiles is now, and dry aging is how you achieve this.

Standard lamb is already so delicious, so we have been keenly interested in how we can improve on perfection. So the question was, how much could we better it?

This was the first trial we conducted with our new range of Smart Agers® – which made the process simple, illustrating the ease of the plug & play functionality.

Using the DRY AGER Book, we were able to carefully select a setting and flavour intensity that we were after, and select the controls for our trial.

For our trial, we were seeking a pronounced dry aged flavour and so for this purpose, we used Program 11 for a duration of 21 days.

The DRY AGER Book, along with your Smart Ager® provides you with all the tools you need to achieve perfect dry aging results, in a plug & play format.

No need to worry about what temperature or controls to set, with the DRY AGER Book provides you with a full array of dry aging programs for each protein that can be aged in the DRY AGER Smart Ager®

The Trial

As the days went by, changes in the lamb were visually evident, from the red of raw meat, the aging process brought out true, beautiful dry aged colours, enhancing the reds, whites, and darkened shades of age began to show on the lamb’s surface.

During the aging process, the fat began to break down as a crust developed on the meat.

The transformation all took place at our Melbourne Office, on show for customers entering our showroom daily.

The Finished Product

Minimal weight loss as a result of pre-set dry aging conditions.

Starting Weight: 9.068kg

Finished Weight: 8.14kg

Cooking the Dry Aged Lamb

Preparation is key to completing the dry aging process, to cook up these cuts of lamb, we split the rear quarters in half and trimmed off the legs. We then trimmed the fat and black crust layer.

The lamb was then seasoned well with olive oil, salt, garlic & onion powder, rosemary flakes and pepper.

To achieve  a medium-well cook, we cooked the lamb on a charcoal Weber for over 2 hours.

The Findings

The flavour was remarkably enhanced, the cooked product was firm, yet very juicy.

A common misconception of dry aging protein, is that the finished product will leave you with a dry piece of meat, which is definitely not the case.

During the dry aging process, moisture evaporates from the muscle, this creates a greater concentration of flavour while simultaneously the protein’s natural enzymes break down the connective tissue, which, as a result, leads to more tender meat.

So after the dry aged lamb trial, it left our team craving more.

Is dry aged lamb worth it?

We highly recommend dry aging lamb, in fact, it has a guaranteed spot on our dry aging calendar because of its intense flavour!

If you love lamb, it is guaranteed that you’ll appreciate the stronger flavour, juiciness and tenderness of an aged cut.

Lamb, as a protein, responds well to the aging process, silently aging a day at a time.