Hanging meat

[mollykins]

How come butchers ect hang meat for several days or weeks without it going off?

[beejay1124]

wot sort of meat are you talking about - molly ?

[theonlyone]

It's hung in a cold room not a chiller that is why butchers meat looks dark brown
and tender when cooked , much better than supermarket bright pink meat ...

[Clanad]

A couple of things from beef country, here in the western U.S.... There are two types or methods of aging beef... dry and wet. Dry aging is the method that produces the most flavorful and tender beef... however, the method causes the beef to shrink or lose about 18% to 22% of it's weight, therefore, it's not popular with meat markets. They prefer the wet method, where the beef is cut into smaller pieces, rather than sides or quarters as in dry aging. Those smaller pieces are then vacuum packed and then cooled for a shorter period of time and, therefore lose much less weight... which you the customer pay for.

Dry aging is done in, as already suggested, a cool room... at least 34 to 38 degrees F and moderately low but constant humidity. Takes about 21 days, during which time enzymes break down connective tissues in the muscle mass producing the tenderness and flavor so cherished by true beef lovers. We have an old converted cooler from a transport truck (ya'll call it a lorrie, no?) that will hold two or three whole beeves as well as several deer and elk from the fall hunting season. Game animals age just as well as beef. However, ironically, you can't take several steaks or roasts and try to age them and achieve very good results...

[mollykins]

So how come it will go off in a fridge after a few days then? i'm not good at farenheit - is 34 colder than a fridge?

[Clanad]

A properly dry aged cut of beef will stay useable for at least a week or better if stored in the fridge. The 34 F is equivalent to almost 0 (zero) C... 32 degrees F = 0 degrees C.

A wet aged steak or even roast will bleed out when stored in the fridge, whereas the dry aged variety won't... at least not nearly as much. The wet aged meat tends to "go off" much faster than dry due to the blood.

If we store a steak in the fridge, we always hang it on one of those banana hangars one sees since we don't want it laying in the blood. Obviously we place a shallow dish under it to collect the drippings. Additionally, your fridge is a pretty humid place, whereas the cooler we use has only about 30 to 40% humidity. I imagine your fridge is closer to 60 to as high as 80%...