So, you’ve experienced the great quality of dry aged beef at the restaurant and thought to yourself – how do I re-create it without the price tag? Here’s how dry-aged beef differs from your store-bought varieties.
If you’ve tried dry aged beef, you’d know of the intense and rich flavour that the meat would have as opposed to meat from a plastic wrap, this is known as wet-aged beef that you would typically pick up at your supermarket. In this process which is sometimes referred to with cryovacing, there is no weight loss on the meat cut because there is no dehydration in the process. The enzymes in the meat have time to break down the muscle tissue of the meat, but in wet aging, not for as long.
Why does dry aged meat differ so?
As opposed to wet aged meat, the dry aging process allows the meat to dehydrate further and intensify in taste and texture – further strengthening the flavour of the meat.
Although there is a weight loss on the meat from the dehydration process, this is summoned back through the heightened flavour of the meat.
The tradition of dry aging beef stems as far back as the 17th century, where many would hang a carcass with a hook and leave it to age. Unfortunately, due to insufficient technology, the air temperature couldn’t be controlled all too much and this did all things to the meat.
Since the 17th century however, controlled temperature meat cabinets have been developed to age meat and ensure that the flavour is heightened.
