“Aged 21 days,” “Wet Aged for 30 Days,” “Dry-Aged Up to 6 Weeks.” You might have seen these labels before from beef producers. Ever wondered what that means? There are big differences.
Most producers sell their beef based on “hot hanging weight.” This is how much the beef weighs right after processing by an abbatoir (slaughterhouse). What happens next is where the differences begin.
Wet Aged
Wet aging is when you leave the meat in a plastic bag in refrigerated storage. The longer beef is allowed to age, the more tender it becomes. This is why some supermarket beef is tough because it hasn’t been aged for enough time. The real reason is it costs a lot of money to store large inventories of beef and some suppliers are not able or willing to wait. It comes down to economics.
There are government inspected facilities that process large amounts of beef, sometimes to the tune of over thousands of cattle a day. These facilities use wet aging, because, going back to economics, that amount of cattle cannot be kept stored for very long to keep up production and there are space limitations.
Now it is important to note that if you see your beef has been aged for a certain period of time, without mentioning wet or dry aging, it is safe to say it has been wet aged. Most of the beef you find at all major supermarkets and restaurants is wet aged, unless clearly otherwise noted.
Dry Aged
It’s probably pretty obvious then, that dry aging is the opposite of wet aging. Dry aging works by exposing the naked beef to a carefully controlled environment with precise temperature and humidity levels. As you can imagine, this requires a lot of extra space. This is why smaller abbatoirs don’t process as many cattle per day.
Dry aging impacts the beef in tenderness and flavor. The more you dry age, the more tenderness and flavor. This occurs because when you control the decomposition of the beef (doesn’t sound appealing we know but stick with us), you are actually breaking down the collagen that holds the muscle fibers together. Collagen is what makes your steaks or roast tough. With dry aging process, by the end, you are left with just the protein which is soft and has that tasty dry aged flavour.
Why Dry Aged Beef is More Expensive
Ok, remember when we said beef is priced at its hot hanging weight? This is before dry aging. When you dry age beef, the process results in upwards of 50% weight loss. After all, it is being dried and the water loss and breakdown of collagen is a major part of the overall weight. Also, the more dry aging there is, the more dry parts of the animal need to be cut and discarded because it is inedible. This means you will pay more per kilogram of dry aged beef because, according to mathematics, you are getting less meat in relation to the total hot hanging weight price. That’s why dry aged beef is typically 30-50% more expensive than wet aged which has more water and collagen content.
So how long should beef be aged? It depends upon your preference. General rule of thumb is 21 days is what beef needs to tenderize (some supermarket beef is wet aged for only 7-10 days). But of course, the affects the price. There are speciality producers age up to 40 days or more and charge a premium for the discerning beef connoisseur.
Ask Your Farmer
Now you can see why many farmers are very upfront about where and how their beef is processed. If you were charging up to 50% more for a product, it just makes sense to be very clear why. If this isn’t clear, it never hurts to ask. Most regenerative farmers are more than happy and proud to talk about how their beef is processed.
Something you may encounter however, is that sometimes even organic beef producers use large industrial processing facilities and their meat is wet aged. This definitely makes pricing complicated as you can imagine. Again, it never hurts to ask.
Don’t Be Afraid of Frozen
Another easy way to tell dry versus wet aged is if you buy the beef fresh or frozen. If it is sold fresh, the beef has most likely come from a factory farm where their beef output if so high, they have no choice but to use a large abbatoir with wet aging. This again applies to organic and natural producers, which although are certified organic, process meat like other factory farms.
Smaller farms that dry age their beef simply cannot sell fresh meat because they don’t do enough volume and the logistics of this are incredibly difficult for the small scale farmer. However, the taste and tenderness of dry aged beef more than makes up for the fact it was frozen. And your beef should be vacuum sealed for protection. This gives all dry aged beef a pretty long shelf-life up 6-12 months, depending on the actual product and if it is cared for correctly.
As you can see, whether your beef was wet or dry aged, for how long and where all makes a difference. Understanding how your beef is processed is valuable knowledge to have when eating Farm to Table.
We hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!