Welcome to a whole new world of meat. Similar to aged cheese or wine, dry-ageing improves the quality of the beef — adding a more complex flavour, and also, making the meat much more tender.
This sought-after steak is brought about through an age-old technique where moisture is drawn out of the meat through time in an extremely controlled environment. It is a process where the butcher controls decomposition and allows the natural enzymes to break down connective tissue. Sounds gross, but it makes the beef outstanding, creating an almost nutty, yet distinctly more “beefy” flavour.
Think of it like the reduction of a sauce, slowly reducing the water content and increasing the rich taste and texture. You can find a steak that has been dry-aged from just a few days to well over a hundred. The longer the time ageing, the stronger the flavour and due to the loss of moisture, the smaller the size. For us, our magic number is usually between 40-50 days. This range is very popular as it allows the beef to develop a pleasing texture with just a little nutty funk, but also only losing around 18 percent of its starting weight.
Because we all love a juicy steak, dry-ageing may sound counterintuitive on the surface, but the steak will actually be juicier as the proteins are broken down. Another win for science!
A WORD OF WARNING – if you take the time and properly prepare your dry-aged steak, it will ruin ‘regular’ steaks for the rest of your life. You are about to join an exciting, and delicious, new world.
