carcass evaluation course

[rusty1]

nerves - I missed your response to me on the 3 days. Maybe a dumb question but - how come you can and should hang a carcass for 28 days, but can't when the packers breakes it and shippes it in less than 5 days to the store?

[nerves]

Rusty thanks for reminding me. I will try to keep this answer short. You have to ask yourself why age beef, the reason is that over time the muscel fibre starts to break down and loses it toughness. To age an animal 28 days is alot we find that the carcass will lose alot of moisture or dehydrates. If dry aged 28 days we would age an animal that is leaner a fatter animal the most we would age is 21 it is a matter of preferance because the fat animal is usally tender to start with. Over time in a cooler the carcass will form a bit of a cover or skin over the meat that helps to keep air out. As soon as you cut up the carcass you expose the meat to bacteria. The meat is also exposed to the air resulting in more dehydration. Lets put this meat in a display case how many people walk by it in a day? how many have colds? or how often have you seen kids poking at the plastic the hamburger is wrapped in? What other meats do they cut up in the back ie chicken, pork, how well do they clean the cutting boards ban saws after they cut up other meats? The meat is exposed to alot of differnt bacteria. I believe by law 3 days is the max for cuts of meat to be displayed and 24 hours is the max for hamburger. Most carcasses are shipped halfed in reefer vans to the stores, the stores then cut up the meat in the back. The big packers will also process meats as well. They are also looking at irradiation to kill bacteria in the meat. We prefer to have our beef crovaced as soon as it is cut up then frozen solid untill the consumer takes it home. I hope this answers you question? Health saftey is the main concern.

[cswilson]

Most of the top end steakhouses want their beef aged 28 days.

[nerves]

wilson alot of them do it is a matter of preferance. I was refering to dry aging were there was dehydration over 28 days you can lose up to 8% moisture. An animal that is AAA or better you can cut with a fork after 21 days so why go 28 and just to lose moisture. We get our butcher to cryvac the prime parts of the animal and age them in the sealed bag so there is no moisture loss. The hamburger parts we have done right off because it does not matter how long it hangs for hamburger. There is a debate as to if ageing in a bag is really that effective. All I can tell you is that we get compliments from people saying they have never tasted beef as good as this in thier lives. So I wonder where does our good beef go? Do the best graded carcasses go south and we get the poor grades in our stores? Or is it all in the way it is aged? As long as the consumer is happy then I am happy. There is so much to learn from the genes these animals carry then to the plate that the rancher or cattleman needs to be involved through the whole process to get rewarded in the end with thats the best beef we have ever tasted. And thats good enough for us.

[nerves]

Cryovaced primals work for us as well. The restaurants we deal with that want dry aged, get dry aged (primals) but pay for the weight before shrinkage. "Always give the customer what he wants", is a very good motto, but remind him that special requests cost more.
I would tend to argue the hamburger aging. Once again trim aged in cryovac will give a better product than cut and frozen.

[nerves]

rpkaiser I agree with 100% we age ground meat on older cows and it does seem to make a better taste. The younger animals depends on how backed up the processor is. If there is room in freezer end we will age it but as of lately the processor has very little room. So grinding early makes him happy so we do it.