cooking

[Fen Farm Dexters]

We've just sold 3 steers - in either 1/4 or 1/8th boxes.

Two families/friends shared one quarter box from the same animal, hung for 17 days.

They've been pleased with the meat so far, but both families each cooked a topside joint on sunday - one said theirs was really tender, the other said their's was lovely flavour but quite chewy textured. (I tasted a bit of theirs cold last night and thought it gorgeous).

They both roasted them quickly for one hour because they like their meat rare. I don't know whether they both rested it afterwards or not. They both eat round each others a lot, so know how they like meat etc.

I'd have thought that the one whose topside was tender was lucky because I thought topside is best cooked slow and long or pot roasted? Can topside from the same animal vary, or is it more down to the cooking/thawing/resting?

Would hanging for another week make it better next time we kill some?

[Jac]

We've just sold 3 steers - in either 1/4 or 1/8th boxes.

Two families/friends shared one quarter box from the same animal, hung for 17 days.

They've been pleased with the meat so far, but both families each cooked a topside joint on sunday - one said theirs was really tender, the other said their's was lovely flavour but quite chewy textured. (I tasted a bit of theirs cold last night and thought it gorgeous).

They both roasted them quickly for one hour because they like their meat rare. I don't know whether they both rested it afterwards or not. They both eat round each others a lot, so know how they like meat etc.

I'd have thought that the one whose topside was tender was lucky because I thought topside is best cooked slow and long or pot roasted? Can topside from the same animal vary, or is it more down to the cooking/thawing/resting?

Would hanging for another week make it better next time we kill some?

There appears to be a division of opinion with experts on the real benefits of hanging beyond a fourteen day period in terms of tenderisation and as the meat was from the same carcase I wouldn't have thought it significant. I take it you didn't cut the meat yourself and wonder whether the one that was more chewy was a piece of top rump in disguise?
See link here http://www.mbmeatpacking.com/Aging.html

[Rob R]

IMO hanging is way overrated. It's quite often portrayed as the 'traditional' thing to do to hang a beast for weeks on end but in reality it's only become common since we've had reliable refrigeration. Cooking and personal taste is far more influential on taste and texture than we care to admit and a few weeks in a fridge at the end of an animals life is not going to significantly change the influences on the meat of the previous two years on the hoof. However, the customer, of course, is always right.

Last year I had a customer return some lamb that was 'inedible' to them after they'd cooked one joint. They'd already thrown away the cooked joint so I wasn't able to try it but we ate the remaining lamb and, to us at least, it tasted pretty damn good. I contacted other customers who had lamb from the same batch of animals, just to check, and responses varied from it being fine to the best they'd ever had. I'd retained a leg joint for the taste awards and it came back as a winner. Unless you start receiving consistent feedback I don't think there is a lot you can do and certainly don't beat yourself up or change anything.

[Jac]

Slightly off topic but we have invested in UV germicidal this time round. After conventional cleaning blasted the cold room before the carcase went in and noticed a very 'clean' 'brand new' smell after the unit had finished its work. Did not go for the model that is on all the time when the cold room door is shut as I felt this would interfere with the aging process. Carcase hanging currently been there for 10 days now with no visible deterioration other than a beefy odour. Quite fascinating watching a carcase age day by day.

[Rob R]

Ooh, now that sounds good! Which model did you go for?

[Jac]

Ooh, now that sounds good! Which model did you go for?

Portable model. I can do everything - coldroom, meat transport trailer, cutting room.

Link here: http://www.uvc-lightproducts.co.uk/prod ... terilizer/

The only downside to this model is that there is not a cover on the bulb so you cannot use it where food is present in the event of a breakage. The vendor has said that she believes the units are quite robust as she accidentally got her foot caught in the wire and pulled the unit onto the floor during a demonstration and the tube didn't fracture but I still wouldn't risk it.

[Rob R]

Thanks - I might get one in the new year

[domsmith]

I have to disagree a litle with my esteemed colleagues!

aging is everything and will turn your 2 years work into the perfect end product.

my examples:

veal loins aged for 10 days. upset a chef or 2 when i first started. aged them for another 10 day and they were totally diferent never a complaint since.

just had some wagyu. rumps were as tough as old boots. what should be a premium product has been ruined by no aging. the owners are gutted because they thought they had this super tender animal why would hanging improve it. the answer was evident.

i persoanlly think thinkk beyond 21 to 28 days will see a deterioration of flavour which can be pleasant in the loin but not on any other cut.
i had a 42 day aged rump steak in a restaurant. they had wasted their time if it really was aged for that time. i think they werre pulling the wool to be honest. it was rubbish.

breed, feed, age, fat, hanging al things to consider.

back to he original question. hang longer. topside can be served rare. peopled opinions of teender vary.

i also wouldnt worry.

dom

[davidw]

Earlier this year, I visited a catering butcher that specialises in supplying high end restaurants. They have invested heavily in cold-rooms for dry aging their beef, and the stock they hold in the cold-rooms is itself worth a significant amount. They wouldn't go to that amount of trouble and expense if they didn't think it was worth it, they would just take the supermarket route and sell it as quickly as possible to turn over their money.

[Jac]

Earlier this year, I visited a catering butcher that specialises in supplying high end restaurants. They have invested heavily in cold-rooms for dry aging their beef, and the stock they hold in the cold-rooms is itself worth a significant amount. They wouldn't go to that amount of trouble and expense if they didn't think it was worth it, they would just take the supermarket route and sell it as quickly as possible to turn over their money.

I don't think anybody is saying that it shouldn't be dry aged but I do agree with the American chap that hanging is a skilled job and it is not a matter of rigidly saying I hang for x no of days. In effect you are decaying meat and you have to watch what you are doing.

[Rob R]

Earlier this year, I visited a catering butcher that specialises in supplying high end restaurants. They have invested heavily in cold-rooms for dry aging their beef, and the stock they hold in the cold-rooms is itself worth a significant amount. They wouldn't go to that amount of trouble and expense if they didn't think it was worth it, they would just take the supermarket route and sell it as quickly as possible to turn over their money.

I don't think anybody is saying that it shouldn't be dry aged but I do agree with the American chap that hanging is a skilled job and it is not a matter of rigidly saying I hang for x no of days. In effect you are decaying meat and you have to watch what you are doing.

Yep, they do it because that is what their customers demand and therefore it is worth the investment for them. The very best (tender and tasty) beef I have ever tasted was a home killed entire animal hung for a week in a barn in a fairly mild winter. It had turned green in places, and had a 'fruity' smell about it when raw but was absolutely delicious. Had it been in a chiller the enzyme activity would have been slower and it would have taken longer to mature. As Jac says, there is no formula that can be applied to every beast and hanging for 28 days as a rule will not iron out inconsistencies between different beasts any more than hanging for 7 days will. 28 days is an easy marketing tool though and it is associated with quality because it costs more, as opposed to saying that the beef is aged to it's optimum quality.

Putting my logical hat on, the topside joint in question was from the same animal so you couldn't hang one of them longer than the other which suggests very strongly that the hanging time wasn't the factor causing the inconsistency here. And the only way to eliminate the cooking bias from the equation is to test the steak or joint in it's raw form.

ETA - just seen a reference to Dexter being hung for 10 weeks.

[davidw]

Thankyou Jac, yes the catering butcher has close control of what they are doing and there is no comparison with "just hanging it in a barn".
But, some years ago I ate some beef in a restaurant in Kosovo. I commented on its taste and texture to a colleague who was an experienced butcher. He smiled and said, no other restaurant would sell beef like that, it had most likely been smuggled into Kosovo in the boot of someone's car and was just on the good side of rotting. It really tasted good!!

[Rob R]

Prompted by an article in the Yorkshire Post this week; this is the traditional week of the Christmas fatstock markets which shows how modern the long term hanging trend is! If they hung it for three weeks that'd take us right up to butchering it on Christmas eve.