Aging and Meat Tenderness

Aging meats improves their juiciness, tenderness, flavor, color, and their ability to brown during heating. This treatment pertains primarily to beef. Hanging aids in the aging process by stretching the muscles. The animal’s species, size, age, and activity before slaughter influence how long rigor mortis lasts. Beef takes about ten days to age, which is about the same amount of time it takes for meat to be transported, packaged, and sold to the consumer. Top quality beef is often aged longer, up to six weeks. Mutton is sometimes aged, but pork and veal come from such young animals that aging is not required to increase tenderness. The fat in pork tends to go rancid quickly, and veal’s lack of protective fat covering causes it to dry out too quickly - further reasons these meats are not routinely aged.

The time required for aging depends on the method used:

• Dry aging. Carcasses are hung in refrigeration units at 34 to 38F with low (70 to 75 percent) or high (85 to 90 percent) humidity for 1.5 to 6 weeks. Specialty steak houses and fine restaurants usually purchase dry-aged meat.
• Fast aging. Warmer temperatures of 70F with a high humidity of 85 to 90 percent lower the aging time to two days, but additional aging will occur during the ten or so days it takes the meat to reach the consumer. Ultraviolet lights are used to inhibit microbial growth. Most retail meat is fast-aged.
• Vacuum-packed aging. Less weight loss and spoilage occur in meats that are vacuum-pack (cryovac) aged. During this process, meat carcasses are divided into smaller cuts and vacuum-packed in moisture- and vapor-proof plastic bags and then aged under refrigeration.