Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
When choosing a butcher, you want to make sure he or she has room to hang your beef for as
long as you need. Meat needs to be aged after slaughter and before it is cut.
Aging
means let-
ting the sides or quarters hang in the freezer for several days so that natural enzymes can
break down connective tissues that make meat tough.
There are two ways to do this:
•Wetagedmeatisstoredinvacuumpackagingandallowedtoageinitsownjuices,usually
for about seven days. Most mass-produced beef is wet aged. It is a cheaper and quicker
process than dry aging. Unlike in the dry-aging process, you do not lose meat volume to
shrinkage. Some niche producers also prefer wet aging because it preserves many of the
meat's juices.
• Dry aging is the preferred method of most small farmers because those who do it consider
this process to produce a more intense flavor. Dry-aged beef is hung in the open air.
Toughmuscletissuesareallowedtobreakdown,producingtenderermeat.Dry-agedbeef
usuallyhangsfortento14days.Fatonthecarcassdetermineshowlongithangs.Ifthere
is not much fat, it cannot hang as long. Beef shrinks about 15 percent in the dry-aging
process.
Many grass-fed beef farmers complain about laws they must follow to cool their meat. Laws
require meat to be hung in the freezer within an hour of slaughter. But for a couple of hours
after cattle are slaughtered, their muscle tissues release an enzyme that keeps their tissues
from tightening up, which essentially tenderizes the meat. Meat that cools down soon after
slaughter does not reap the benefits of this enzyme. This is not as big an issue for grain-fed
meat because these carcasses contain more fat, which insulates the meat and prevents it from
cooling so fast the enzyme does not work. Grass-finished beef does not have this protective
layer of fat, so the enzyme is rendered ineffective, and the meat becomes tough.
USDA grades
You can pay the USDA to assign each animal's beef a grade that indicates the tenderness and
flavor of the meat. The grading system is based on age (younger beef is tenderer) and marb-
ling (fat that grows between muscle fibers, which is a factor in flavor and juiciness). Under
this system, the greater amount of marbling and the younger the beef, the better the grade.
Grass-fed beef shows less marbling than grain-fed beef, even between two products that are
comparable in tenderness. The grading system usually favors grain-finishing, so many grass-
