For this Meat Tip Monday, we will be focusing on how to dry-age beef. First, you want to stop by either The Meat Market or Local Source foods and pick up a boneless beef loin roast. To learn how and why to dry-age your beef please follow these tips:

Why Should I Dry Age?

Even before you buy fresh beef off of our shelves it’s already been aged for a few days to allow the enzymes naturally inside the beef to break down some of the tough muscle tissue. This results in a better textured and flavored slice of beef. The process of dry-aging is when the beef is exposed to air which allows dehydration to enhance the flavor of the beef. It does tend to be a bit more expensive in the long run because the dehydration causes the beef to lose some of its weight, but the flavor is definitely worth it!

How to Dry Age Beef

First, you want to unwrap your beef, rinse it and dry it off with some paper towels. Next, loosely wrap your beef in 3 layers of cheesecloth and set it on a rack over a baking tray. Then, refrigerate the beef for 3 to 7 days. (The longer the beef ages the better tasting it will be.) After one day of the beef sitting in the fridge unwrap the cheesecloth and then rewrap it. This will help the cloth fibers not stick to the beef. Whenever you decide to cook your beef make sure to unwrap it and with a knife cut off the hard dried out layer of beef.

Safety

Make sure before you dry-age any meat that your refrigerator is set below 40°F. Also, cook or freeze your meat within 7 days of beginning the dry-aging process.

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