Aging Beef

When you go to a fancy restaurant, you may hear that their beef is "aged." Sometimes they may say that it is dry aged or wet aged. They may tell you it was aged for 14 or 21 days, maybe more.

But, what does that mean?

Aging beef has nothing to do with how old the animal was. When beef is aged, it is stored in refrigeration for a set amount of time. The beef is typically not frozen, just refrigerated (29 to 34°F).

Why?

Aging beef makes it more tender.

The protein in an animal’s body is constantly turning over; breaking down and being built back up. One set of enzymes break down the protein and another mechanism builds it. Even after the animal is harvested, those breaking-down enzymes are still active, continuing to work until they are broken down or the meat is frozen or cooked. If meat is stored in refrigerated temperatures, those enzymes will break down the muscle and continue to make it more tender for 4 or 5 weeks, even longer.

Sometimes, the whole carcass is held in refrigeration, but that requires a lot of space and energy. Cuts used for pot-roasts and ground beef typically don’t benefit from aging. So, most of the time, the beef is cut into different parts and pieces, and the tender ones (ribeyes, strip steaks, T-bones, sirloins) are aged, while the tougher cuts are sent directly to market.

Wet or dry aging.

Wet aging - After the beef is cut, the middle meats (ribeyes, strip steaks, T-bones, filets, and sirloins) are packaged in plastic bags and vacuum-sealed. Vacuum packaging protects the beef from bacteria and from oxygen that can cause it to spoil. The beef can be stored in a vacuum package under refrigerated temperatures for 4 to 6 weeks.  

We use the term ‘wet aging’ because the beef is aged in its own juices, not because additional water is added. If you hear that beef is aged without being specified wet or dry, chances are, it was wet aged.

Beef in a dry-aging cabinet in a grocery store in Texas. 

You can see how the edges have dried and darkened.

Dry aging – Rather than storing the beef in vacuum packages, dry-aged beef is aged without packaging in a specialized cooler or cabinet. The temperature and humidity are closely controlled. It is usually a dark room or lit with special UV lights that help control microbial growth. After the aging period, the processor must trim the edges off the cuts because they have dried out or perhaps even growth a little harmless mold (like some cheeses grow mold). This trimming and the evaporation during the aging process cause the beef to lose weight during dry aging, thus increasing the cost.

A rib in a dry-aging bag. This was sent
to me by a friend who was worried
about the dark coloration and mold.
I told them to just trim it off.

Some companies sell special bags that can be used to dry-age beef. They protect the beef from some moisture loss and microbial growth. Some people like to use them to dry age beef cuts at home.

Originally beef was dry-aged as whole carcasses, then with the development of plastics, vacuum bags were used for aging. They cut down on moisture loss and the conditions for aging were easier to control. Now some restaurants and stores provide beef dry-aged in specialized rooms, cabinets, or in bags at a premium price.

Can you taste the difference? Wet aged beef has a more acidic, more rare flavor, whereas dry aged beef has a more brown-roasted, well done flavor. Both will be tender and juicy. I think it’s a personal preference.

Does it matter what grade it is? Aging will benefit any grade of young beef. It doesn't matter if it is Select, Choice or Prime, it will tenderize with aging. Very lean cuts and Select cuts are more prone to developing off flavors when they are aged for a very long time (longer than 4 weeks). 

Does the animal's age matter to aging? Beef from older cattle will age some, but not as well. The toughness of older cattle is more due to connective tissue and it is not largely affected by aging. Tenderizing cuts from older animals usually takes plant enzymes like those from pineapple or figs.

That’s aging. It’s pretty simple. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Bring it home safely

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I was doing some grocery shopping, and I saw some things in other shoppers’ carts that really concerned me. No, it wasn’t their dirty, screaming children. There were food safety issues all over the store.

One particular cart contained fresh, uncooked pork chops with a bag of Clementine oranges sitting directly on top of it. I considered (for a second or two) snapping a secret picture with my cell phone, but decided that might create a scene. Then, I considered recreating the incident and taking pictures, but that would have been so wasteful.

The store is responsible for keeping meat products in a clean environment and at safe temperatures, but as soon as you select a package and place it in your cart, it’s all on you.  Only you can control how safely that package is handled from the time you select it until it is served to your family.

To get things started, the folks at www.foodsafety.gov have a blog about keeping food safe while shopping called Start at the Store. It also contains a video. They talk about inspecting cans to make sure they are not dented and fruit to make sure it is not bruised.

A friend of mine sent me this picture. Se was extra careful about
keeping her fresh meat away from the rest of her groceries.

When you are shopping for groceries, you should always wait to buy milk, meat and eggs until last. They are perishable and you want to minimize the time they spend outside of refrigeration. You want to observe the “2 hour rule.” This simply states that refrigerated food should not be stored at room temperature for more than 2 hours. When it’s hot outside (above 90°F), you should have your refrigerated foods home in the fridge in an hour.

Also, when you are selecting that perfect cut, try to handle the packages by touching only the packaging. Don’t poke on the meat with your fingers. Even though they are wrapped in plastic, it is not a perfect barrier, so when you handle the meat, the germs from your hands could still transfer to the meat.

You have every right to examine every package in the case to find that perfect one, but when you find it, put the rest of the packages back where you found them. Don’t leave them stacked up on each other. Those coolers can only keep the meat cold if it is below a certain point within them. Most stores only stack their packages three deep so the coolers can do their job efficiently.

At most grocery stores today, there are plastic bags close to the meat counter for you to place the packages in. They will be just like the ones you’ll see in the produce section. You should use these to keep juices from the meat from dripping onto other foods in your cart.

Remember that sandwich meats and hot dogs are already cooked. They need be refrigerated, but you don’t want to get raw meat juices on them. Don’t put them in the bag with the raw meat.

When you put your raw meat packages in your shopping cart, keep it away from other food items. Do not set it on top of other foods. Do not set other foods on it. Remember those Clementine oranges? They were potentially contaminated. You will cook your meat to kill any bacteria that is on it, but fresh fruits and vegetables may not be cooked before they are eaten.

But, don’t oranges have a thick peel? Even if they have a thick peel, the surface could carry bacteria that could be transferred to your hands when you peel it and then to the interior of the food when you eat it! Just keep it separated!

After you go through the check-out line, make sure that raw meat packages are bagged separately from other foods. I think store employees are being trained in food safety and many of them will bag your raw meat items separately without you even asking.

If you like to use those environmentally-friendly, reusable shopping bags, use a disposable one for your raw meat products. The juices from your meat could drip onto the reusable bag and allow bacteria to grow in it between shopping trips. Then, it would contaminate your food on the next trip to the store.

If you are going to make it home and get your meat products in the fridge in less than two hours, everything should be ok without a cooler or ice pack. If it’s really hot outside (greater than 90°F), you should have it home in one hour and put your meat products in the front of the car in the air-conditioning rather than in the trunk.  If you can’t make it in an hour, you should put your meat, milk, eggs and other perishable items on ice.

Once you get home, get your perishable meats, milk and eggs unloaded and in the fridge.  Double check all your shopping bags for everything that needs to go in the fridge.

Enjoy this crazy Christmas season. I love it! I would also love some comments or questions for topics for my next blog. Thanks!

The Big Turkey Day!

Did you know that according to records, the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people shared beef and (undisclosed) fowl at the first Thanksgiving? No one is sure why the large bird has become so closely associated with our National Day of Thanksgiving. I know that my turkey-farmer neighbors appreciate it.
According to the National Turkey Federation website, 88% of American’s eat turkey on Thanksgiving. It is estimated that American’s consumed 46 million turkeys last Thanksgiving. In fact, Benjamin Franklin wrote to his daughter that he preferred the turkey over the eagle for the Official National Bird. Hmmm… Maybe Virginia Tech is on to something.
There is A LOT of information on the internet about cooking your meal on Thanksgiving Day. Some good websites include www.foodsafety.org, the USDA, www.eatturkey.com, www.butterball.com, the Honeysuckle White Company, and the Food Network. Be careful if you just Google “Turkey”, unless of course you are interested in a trip to Istanbul. You can also search the twitter for #turkey, #turkeytweet, #Thanksgiving, #trkytips, or #turkeychat. I think you could read about Thanksgiving food safety and holiday meal preparation on the internet from now until… Valentine’s Day… really. There is no way I could cover it all in one post, so I’m trying to hit the high points and give you lots of resources if you have more questions.
So, you are planning to cook a huge meal for friends and family this Thursday? Hopefully you’ve already cleaned out your fridge and bought all your ingredients.
You want to make sure that your family is healthy for the long holiday weekend. You don’t want food poisoning during your big shopping trip on Friday. A couple of months ago, I wrote a Food Safety Post and talked about the 4 simple steps for food preparation and storage. Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill. Be sure to keep those in mind all day.

Preparation.

First, wash your hands with soap and warm water before you get started. Make all your helpers wash their hands. (On a side note, if anyone has the sniffles, send them to watch football. Letting them help you cook is an ideal way to spread their germs to everyone else.) Be sure to wash your hands after you’ve handled any raw meat or eggs.
Use a soap and warm water to wash down all the counter tops and cutting boards. Be sure to wash all your utensils with soap and warm water after you’ve used them. If there are lots of helpers in the kitchen, be sure to wash utensils that have been used on raw meat or eggs right away. You don’t want anyone to accidently reuse them on something that’s already been cooked.

The bird.

Thawing. The best way to thaw a turkey is in the fridge, but remember it will take about 24 hours per 4-5 pounds of turkey to thaw in the fridge. That means a 16 to 20 pound bird will take 4 or 5 days. Here is a link to estimated thawing times. If you really need to thaw you turkey in a few hours, you can use cold water. You will still need about 30 minutes per pound and it is suggested that you place the turkey in a plastic bag and change out the water every 30 minutes. When I was a kid, my mom and dad had a microwave that was big enough to thaw a turkey, but I haven’t seen one that large in a long time. Still, if you really want to and it will fit, you can use a microwave to thaw your turkey… chuckle.
Keep all raw meat in the fridge until you are ready to cook it. It should be in something to catch any juices and separated from other foods.

Marinating. Some people like to marinate or inject their turkey. You should let it set for a little while after you marinate it, before you cook it. Let it set in the fridge. You want to keep it cold. I found a video from USDA food safety about brining (marinating) a turkey for Thanksgiving.
You can put your turkey directly into the roasting pan to get it ready to cook, usually on a small rack. Remember, everything in the roasting pan will be roasted, so it will be safe when it comes out of the oven.

Stuffing. I am not a fan of stuffing in general (don’t tell my dad). Most food safety experts suggest that you cook your stuffing separate from your turkey. But, if you really want to stuff the bird, you need to stuff it immediately before you cook it and check that the middle of the stuffing reaches 165°F before you take it out of the oven. The uncooked juices from the Turkey will mix into the stuffing and you want to make sure that everything gets hot enough to kill any bacteria. USDA also offers a whole fact sheet on stuffing.

Roasting. The traditional method for cooking a turkey is roasting it in the oven. The USDA has also provided a fact sheet for safely preparing your turkey called … wait for it… Let’s Talk Turkey. They are so funny at that government agency. Basically, make sure the oven it set above 325°F, allow enough time for cooking based on the size of your turkey and your own oven. The table below is from a turkey roasting page on the www.eatturkey.com website and gives time estimations for cooking a thawed turkey.

Weight	Unstuffed Turkey	Stuffed Turkey
8 to 12 pounds	2 3/4 to 3 hours	3 to 3 1/2 hours
12 to 14 pounds	3 to 3 3/4 hours	3 1/2 to 4 hours
14 to 18 pounds	3 3/4 to 4 1/4 hours	4 to 4 1/4 hours
18 to 20 pounds	4 1/4 to 4 1/2 hours	4 1/4 to 4 3/4 hours
20 to 24 pounds	4 1/2 to 5 hours	4 3/4 to 5 1/4 hours
24 to 30 pounds	5 to 5 1/4 hours	5 1/4 to 6 1/4 hours

You can cook a frozen turkey in the oven, but it will take at least 50% longer.

Most importantly, USE A MEAT THERMOMETER to make sure the thickest part of breast has reached 165°F! I know that most turkeys today come with a pop-up thermometer to let you know when it’s done. Those were developed in the 60’s. Use a thermometer. I know there are lots of questions about thermometers; the Eat Turkey website has also provided a thermometer guideline page.

Frying. I wish I knew how many people deep fry their turkeys now. I’ve tried it (eaten it, not actually fried it), and it was quite tasty (then again, it was made by my cousin Pauline, and everything she makes is tasty). Anyway, lots of people like fried turkey, including William Shatner, of Star Trek fame. I would definitely recommend watching his video about turkey frying safety. The New York Daily News wrote an article about Shatner’s turkey frying video, and included the following tips concerning safety when deep frying a turkey:

1. Avoid spillover: Don’t overfill the pot (with oil).
2. Turn off flame when lowering the turkey into the oil.
3. Fry outside, away from the house.
4. Thaw the turkey before frying.
5. Keep a grease-fire approved fire extinguisher nearby.

Even when you are frying your turkey. USE A MEAT THERMOMETER! Make sure the breast reaches 165°F. Never fry a stuffed turkey. Be safe and you will live long and prosper.

The leftovers. Just like it takes a long time to cook a turkey, it takes a long time to chill turkey leftovers. Cut up the leftover turkey and place it in shallow containers in the fridge. That will allow the turkey to chill faster and keep it out of the Danger Zone. You want to get it in the fridge within 2 hours of your meal.

What about ham? I really think ham is neglected on Thanksgiving. Our family usually has a choice of turkey or ham. The USDA has a nice fact sheet about hams. Most people buy smoked, cooked hams, so essentially all you are doing is reheating it for your meal. Cooked hams should be heated to 140°F, warm enough to get it out of the Danger Zone. The package will say whether or not it’s cooked. Some hams are smoked and uncooked, labeled ‘cook-before-eating’ and some people choose to buy fresh, uncooked hams. For those, you want to heat it to an internal temperature of 145°F and allow it to rest for 3 minutes. Just like turkey, you want to cut up your leftovers and get them in the fridge in shallow containers within 2 hours.


Everything else. In my last post, I talked about keeping foods separate by getting different colored cutting boards for raw meat and ‘ready-to-eat’ food that won’t be cooked (fresh fruit and vegetables). Make sure everyone in the kitchen knows which cutting boards are for what. If you have a large kitchen, it might even be good to prepare raw food in one area and ready-to-eat food in another.

I also worry about gravies on Thanksgiving. It should be treated like a meat product. Make sure it gets hot (165°F) before it’s served and get it in the fridge within two hours of the meal.

Don’t forget, you should throw out all your Thanksgiving leftovers on Sunday night.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Please feel free to comment on my blog or the Mom at the Meat Counter Facebook Page if you have any questions or comments. I will keep an eye on it all weekend.

Remember the Food Safety Hotline will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Thanksgiving Day. Call them toll-free at 1-888-674-6854. Or check out their Ask Karen page or app.

Getting the kitchen ready for the holidays

Now that we’ve switched back to the ancient, standard time, and we all get home after dark; we seem to be stuck in the house for endless hours every night. (I really don’t see much point in switching back to standard time every year; except that it makes us all appreciate day-light savings time when it comes around again in the spring.)

So, what to do with all those extra hours trapped in your house with your family?

One great idea is to clean out the fridge! Yay!


With all the ‘hustle and bustle’ of the holiday season, it’s easy for your fridge to get packed in just a few short, crazy weeks. So, the week or two before Thanksgiving (right after we fall back) is the best time to clean out the fridge and get it ready.

I always try to clean out my fridge on the night before the trash man comes, because room-temperature, out-of-date fridge contents can get pretty stinky sitting in the trash can. Check the dates (sell-by, freeze-by, or use-by dates) on all your deli meats, hot dogs, and cheeses. This is also a good chance to double-check your mayonnaise, salad dressings, and salsa, pretty much anything that’s perishable.

I know that the dates are sometimes hard to find, so I took some pictures to give examples of where dates may be found. I can’t tell you when or where I took these pictures (for my own protection).

Dates may be found on the back of the package or the bottom of the label. Sometimes they are on the lids of jars or the bottoms of cans. Sometimes they are not on the label at all and are printed directly on the plastic of the jar, bottle, or package.

Mustard, barbeque sauce, frozen foods, pickled things. These all have a ‘best-by’ date. Notice that some of my examples are out-of date and some have dates that go almost two years into the future. These dates are mostly to help insure the quality of the product. If you eat them after this date, they may not taste great, but they won’t make you sick. Now, remember that this is dependent on how the food has been handled. If it has been allowed to reach room temperature after it was opened, it may not be safe, regardless of the date.

 

The next set of pictures represents use-by dates, and I thought they were some good examples of where to look for dates. Again, they probably won’t make you sick if you consume them after the date expires, but it probably won’t taste very good at all. Cool whip and margarine are usually used in other dishes, so you want to make sure that their ingredients are in the best condition. If you use them after the use-by date, your final dish may not be as good. The oil in ketchup will separate out as it gets older. The artificial sweeteners in diet drinks lose their sweet flavor after a few months, so that Diet Coke may taste like bitter, fizzy water. Salsa and picante sauce may fall in this category, too. I have found that they are prone to mold growth, even in the fridge. Ick….

 

In this last group of pictures, some of the dates say “best-by” and some just have a printed date. These pictures are meats or foods largely made with milk and egg products which are good places for bacteria to grow. So, for meats, mayonnaise, yogurt, cheese sauce, and those types of products, I would stick with the dates. Throw out anything that is past the date on the package. I would put ranch dressing in this category, too.

Ok… back to cleaning out the fridge.

Toss out any left-over’s older than 3-days old. I am guilty of keeping leftovers until they would make good science projects, but we never eat them. We just make funny faces as they go in the trash.

Remember that you are trying to make more room. Sometimes I find two opened packages of the same food and condense them. Empty the shelves all the way to the back. Check the date on everything in the door.

This is a good chance to wash the refrigerator shelves and the drawers with hot, soapy water. You might also want to put in a fresh box of baking soda.

Are you planning to thaw some large meat items in your fridge on Turkey day? (You know… a turkey.) Get a big space cleaned out so you can put it on the bottom shelf. Make sure you have a tray or plate big enough to put it in to catch the juices while it’s thawing. Also, double check that the shelf above is not too low and that your turkey won’t be touching it. Most refrigerators today have adjustable shelves, so you can make the space above the bottom shelf as big as you need it.

You will need to allow 1 day of thawing for every 5 lbs of frozen turkey. So, be ready to share your fridge with a large bird for three or four days before Thanksgiving.
Remember that you may have to store large casserole dishes in your fridge for a while, so make sure there is room for those too. Also, they are not very tall, so you can adjust the upper shelves closer together to save room.

Double check that your refrigerator is cold. (Remember that the temperature will rise if you have the door open, so be sure to check the temperature after the door has been closed for 20 or 30 minutes.) I like to keep mine as cold as possible without freezing my milk, but it should be set no warmer than 38°-40°F. You want to make sure that it is 40°F or cooler in every area of the fridge, so setting it lower may be necessary.

This is a good chance to look over your shopping list for Turkey Day. Figure out the things that you need and the things that you already have. Make sure you have a meat thermometer! Food costs are going to be high this year, so you don’t want to buy ingredients that are already in the fridge or the cabinet. For example, I think I have enough salt for thirty years because I mistakenly thought I needed salt when I was planning a big meal … maybe it wasn’t me…

I don’t have much counter space in my kitchen, so I have to spend a little time clearing off my counters before I take on a big cooking job. You also want to wash your countertops with warm soapy water. Double check that your roasting pan and casserole dishes are clean. Sometimes, if they aren’t used for several months, they can collect dust. Make sure you have at least two good cutting boards, one for food that is going to be cooked and one for food that will be eaten without being cooked. I like to use different colored cutting boards for ready-to-eat and pre-cooked foods. I also want to remind you to keep the knives and other utensils separate for ready-to-eat and pre-cooked foods.

Or… you could spend your evenings watching TV and go to someone else’s house for Thanksgiving. Let your Mom (and, in my case, Dad) do the cooking. That’s my plan, but I still need to clean out my fridge. ;)

My meat is FROZEN! What is the best way to thaw it?

This is probably one of the most common questions I hear as a meat scientist. If you Google ‘thawing meat’, the first hit that comes up is a fact sheet from USDA cleverly named "The Big Thaw.". It will tell you that there are three ways to properly thaw meat. 1. Refrigerator, 2. Cold water, 3. Microwave. Those will all work, but there are pros and cons to each. Here are my thoughts:

1.       Refrigerator. Thawing meat in the fridge takes longer than the other two methods, but it requires the least work on your part. My biggest problem is remembering to put the frozen meat in the fridge in the morning on my way out the door. Steaks, chicken breasts, packages of ground beef, and things of that size will probably be thawed by the time you get home in the evening, but larger cuts like roasts or whole birds may need to be thawed overnight.

It’s best to thaw uncooked meat on the bottom shelf so that the meat juice won’t leak down onto other things in the fridge. In my fridge, the bottom shelf is the hardest to get to and is usually the hardest to find a place to set something new, so I set my meat on a plate to catch anything that may seep out of the package. I find that a nice glass pie plate is best because the sides are taller than a dinner plate and it will hold in the leaking meat juice. (and, I never, ever make an actual pie, so it makes me feel good to get use out of the pie plates my dad gave me.) Then you can just run the dirty pie plate through the dishwasher and its ready to make more pies (yeah, right). One nice thing about this method is that if you decide to go out to eat after work rather than come home and cook, the thawing meat is fine to wait until tomorrow or even a couple of days. (I'm always looking for a good excuse to eat out).

2.       Cold water. Getting all three of us out the door, clothed and fed is really more than we can handle most mornings, so I usually don’t remember to set something in the fridge to thaw for that night. So, the cold water method is the one I use the most to thaw meat.

Why not hot water? Well, hot water would thaw the meat, but it would also start to cook it and it could cause parts of the meat to get above 40 degrees. That’s the temperature where microbes can start to grow.

Cold water, right out of the tap works great. I just plug up the sink and set in the meat until it’s covered with water. Heat is transferred faster through water than air, so it goes faster than on the counter. (That’s why all those people that went in the water on ‘Titanic’ were screwed).

If your meat is in a vacuum package (a sealed plastic bag with no air) you can just stick it directly in the water. If it’s wrapped in paper or one of those foam packages with the overwrap from the grocery store, I would take it out and put it in a plastic baggie. The baggie will contain the meat juice and allow the heat from the water to thaw the meat.

If I’m really in a hurry, I will let the meat set in the cold water for a while, then let that water drain, and run in another batch. The frozen meat cools the water (stick your hands in it, it’s a lot colder than it was), so the water from the tap will be a little warmer and will help the process go a little faster.

3.       Microwave. Most microwaves have meat thawing settings, and I have been known to use them for ground beef or sausage. Usually those are packaged in chubs (little sacks) with clips and I am in a big hurry to get them cooked. I don’t like the microwave method for steaks or roasts or anything ‘intact’ (that means not ground). I think it thaws unevenly and part of your meat gets cooked, while part of it is still frozen. Always put your meat on a plate (another great use for pie plates) when you thaw in the microwave. You don’t want meat juice all over the rotating plate in the microwave.

Now remember, it’s ok to cook from frozen. It just takes a little longer and it’s hard to get spices on frozen meat.