meat-aging-msg

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meat-aging-msg - 1/10/08

The ageing of meat to tenderize it in period and today.

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From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>

To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Spices and Cooking (oop)

Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 13:44:10 -0500

Leaving the fermenting skate aside, from the description, I would say the

meat may be "aged" rather than "bad." Icelanders may be a little extreme in

the aging process, but I seriously doubt they let the meat get truly toxic,

since that represents a self-correcting error, evolution in action.

In the modern process of dry aging, a carcass with the outer layer of fat

intact is quickly chilled to about 40 degrees F, then hung in a refrigerated

environment between 32 F (0 C) and 38 F (3.3 C) with 85 to 90 percent

humidity and an air flow of 15 to 20 linear feet per minute (to quote U. of

Missouri Ag Bulletin G02209). The carcass is sometimes covered with cloth

to keep off insects, dirt, etc.

During the first 3 days, the internal enzymes soften the meat bringing it

out of rigor mortis. During the next 7 to 10 days, the enzymes soften the

connective tissue in the carcass. The process tenderizes the meat and

increases the flavor. Beef, for example, may be aged as much as 42 days.

Because the process is expensive, dry aged beef is seldom found outside of

specialty meat dealers and fine restaurants.

The considerations on aging are a layer of fat to help keep bacteria from

the meat, cool temperatures, a clean, dry place to hang, and an air flow to

evaporate moisture escaping from the carcass. A farm shed in Iceland in

late autumn just might fill the bill, the same way farm sheds were used for

hanging the deer carcasses in the US in October and November before the

advent of the professional processing plants.

Bear

> Don't know about other countries but here in Iceland, many people used to

> actually prefer meat that had gone "bad". For instance, a common treatment

> of cattle and horse bones (with some meat attached) in the 18th and 19th

> centuries was to hang them in the cow shed for a couple of weeks for the

> desired taste (I'm not making this up); then they were boiled (sometimes

> after a brief smoking) and the meat was eaten. This was called "hraun" and

> the fat rendered from it was eaten with bread and highly thought of.

> I don't know why everybody didn't die of food poisoning but presumably

> people were much more tolerant back then because of constant exposure to

> germs. And cooking will kill most of them anyway. Besides, not all bacteria

> that "spoils" food is harmful to humans - I'm reminded of some very potent

> surface smear cheeses I've had, for instance.

> Here, almost all slaughtering was done in a relatively short period during

> the autumn because in Iceland, it has always been more expensive to feed the

> animal during the winter than to preserve the meat somehow. Fresh meat was a

> rarity, and not neccessarily popular - perhaps because it was thought to be

> bland compared to the usual fare. Fresh meat was more often than not cooked

> in a soup made with soured whey to liven it up and make it taste more like

> preserved meat.

> Spices were rare in pre-20th century Icelandic cooking. Too expensive, and

> we didn't need them because most of our food was fermented, putrefied,

> dried, whey-preserved, soured or smoked, and tasted strongly of it - and we

> more or less preferred it that way.

> Now, something like that sure doesn’t need any spice, and no

> spice in the world would mask the flavor.

> The point I'm trying to make is that not all meat may have been fresh. But

> that doesn't neccessarily mean people felt any need to mask the

> "off-flavor". Some of them may have preferred it; there is

> ample evidence to show that Icelanders often did.

> Nanna

Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 14:34:25 -0500

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

From: Nicolas Steenhout <vavroom at bmee.net>

Subject: Aging meat (was Re: [Sca-cooks] Spices and Cooking (oop)

>Leaving the fermenting skate aside, from the description, I would say the

>meat may be "aged" rather than "bad." Icelanders may be a little extreme in

>the aging process, but I seriously doubt they let the meat get truly toxic,

>since that represents a self-correcting error, evolution in action.

><SNIP>

In French, aging meat, especially wild meat and game is called "Faisander",

from the bird Faisan, which is a Pheasant. My grand father (in Belgium)

told me how is father used to go hunting for pheasants, and to age the

bird, they'd hang it by the neck until the weight of the bird would break

the neck/skin/feathers and the bird would fall down. I have no doubt this

could be a little exagerated. Yet, this tells me that "over" aging of

meats was something likely to be common.

Also, from having worked in professional kitchens on both sides of the

proverbial pond, I can say that French/Belgian tends to keep meat a little

longer, and actually prefer a stronger tasting meat than the American

palate likes.

Nicolas

http://www.bmee.net

From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>

To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Spices and Cooking (oop)

Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 14:28:39 -0500

That depends on how it has been processed and packaged. The sausage got

cooked, the hamburger got tossed.

The problem with refrigerators is they don't have the air flow to keep

moisture from building up on the meat and giving bacteria an environment to

flourish and even if they did most fresh meat we purchase is cryovac

processed (or "wet" aged) which doesn't last as well or have as fine a

flavor as dry aged.

Bear

> From: ruadh [mailto:ruadh at home.com]

> >and you worry about week old meat in the fridge >???

> A farm shed in Iceland in late autumn just might fill the bill, the

> same way farm sheds were used for

> hanging the deer carcasses in the US in October and November

> before the advent of the professional processing plants.

> Bear

From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at simnet.is>

To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spices and Cooking (oop)

Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 23:40:05 -0000

Bear wrote:

>Leaving the fermenting skate aside, from the description, I would say the

>meat may be "aged" rather than "bad." Icelanders may be a little extreme in

>the aging process, but I seriously doubt they let the meat get truly toxic,

>since that represents a self-correcting error, evolution in action.

True, but what is rather well-aged meat to one person may be totally spoilt

to another. In Icelandic, and some other languages, there is a special word

(k=E6sa, related to cheese) to describe food that has been intentionally let

go "bad"; I've used fermented, and occasionally putrefied, to translate this

but it isn't really correct. "K=E6sing" is not really the same as "aging" and

in some cases, fairly warm weather is preferred or the meat or fish will not

be properly "k=E6st".

For instance, I was reading yesterday about Faroese "r=E6st kj=F8t" (they are

even more extreme than us Icelanders); the meat is usually left to hang in

an airy outdoor shed from October until maybe February and the weather

mustn't be too cold, or the meat will not be properly cured, but not too

warm either, or there will be too many maggots. I've heard the Faroese

describe this as the delicacy that is "ready exactly half an hour before the

wife and children move out of the house". My ex-husband once made some k=E6=

st herring that smelled exactly like that (much like Swedish surstramming, I

suppose). I said "either that herring goes or I go". In retrospect, I wish

he had kept the herring. Oh well.

>The considerations on aging are a layer of fat to help keep bacteria from

>the meat, cool temperatures, a clean, dry place to hang, and an air flow to

>evaporate moisture escaping from the carcass. A farm shed in Iceland in

>late autumn just might fill the bill, the same way farm sheds were used for

>hanging the deer carcasses in the US in October and November before the

>advent of the professional processing plants.

Yeah, but the "hraun" I was describing didn't have a fat layer (quite a lot

of fat but also quite a lot of exposed meat), the cow sheds weren't always

cool (although that depended more or less on the number of cows), they were

very far from being clean, they weren't dry (a mud hut never is clean or

dry) and as for air flow, I can personally attest that an old Icelandic cow

shed in winter has about the stuffiest, stalest air you can find anywhere on

earth. I never tasted "hraun" made in this manner - my mother simply hung

the meaty bones to smoke for a couple of weeks - but it must have been

pretty potent. And definitely "k=E6st", not "aged".

Icelandic rock ptarmigan, on the other hand, can safely be left to hang

outdoors in an airy place for up to eight late autumn/winter weeks and will

develope a strong, gamy taste, but it is not considered "k=E6st".

But I realize that yes, us Icelanders are probably a bit extreme here. I was

merely trying to make the point that even though there was an "off" taste,

even something people nowadays might consider "rotten", others may not

neccessarily have seen it that way, or thought there was any need to mask

the flavor.

Nanna

From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>

To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Spices and Cooking (oop)

Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 09:23:13 -0500

> There has to be some kind of difference between the way meat is aged properly

> and meat that has been in your fridge for a week.

> Kiri

The meat in your refrigerator tends to be wrapped in plastic but not vaccuum

sealed and pooled in it's own blood, which allows aerobic bacteria to attack

the meat. "Dry aged" meat is hung in a cool and relatively dry room with an

air flow to remove the moisture which provides the primary environment for

the bacteria. "Wet aged" meat is vaccuum packaged (to keep aerobic bacteria

from multiplying) at the slaughter house in a cool room, then allowed to age

in the package as it is transported and stored under refrigeration. The

"wet aged" process is the most common in the U.S. today.

Bear

From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>

To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Spices and Cooking (oop)

Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 12:54:00 -0500

> How long does it usually take for the

> meat, once packaged, to get to the retailer?

> Elizabeth

Most meat is delivered from the packing house to the retailer within 4 to 10

days. Carcasses with little fat should not be aged more than 5 days and for

the rest, 7 to 10 days is considered optimum for normal production. As long

as the meat isn't frozen, it is aging, which means that it can be aged in

transit. In terms of storage requirements, it is uneconomical to hold meat

beyond 10 days, with the exception of retailers specializing in high quality

dry aged cuts of meat.

For short distances to retailers who will butcher the carcass, sides and

quarters may be hooked and hung, although you will often find quarters

sealed in plastic. For cuts of meat and longer distances, the meat is

almost always vaccuum packed. It is worth noting that once aged, cuts of

meat can be flash frozen for up to a year of storage with negligible

degradation of taste.

Packing houses use the "wet aged" process is because it retains the moisture

in the meat, lowering the per pound price at the grocery. It also allows

greater packing density for shipping, since you don't need to maintain the

seperation between the carcasses for air flow.

Bear

Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:07:35 EDT

From: Devra at aol.com

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] lamb vs. mutton

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

When we were at the Oxford Symposium this month, they had a banquet

at which they served mutton, 2 yrs old. It was also hung for 5 weeks, rather

than 2. They had a gentleman from 'The Mutton Renaissance' (no cracks please) to

talk about the meat, and how promoting mutton is one of Prince Charles'

projects. The meat was delicious.

Devra

Devra Langsam

www.poisonpenpress.com

Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 21:00:21 -0500

From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] aging meat

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

A lot depends on the hanging conditions and the quality of the carcass.

Proper aging requires near freezing temperature, proper humidity and

constant air flow. Depending on the size of the carcass and the quality of

the meat (and its fat layer) a commercial processor can age meat up to about

six weeks. The less mass the shorter the time.

Outside of a commercial environment meat can be hung below 50 degrees F

without special equipment for around 2 to 10 days. This tenderizes the

meat, but often makes the taste gamier. Given England and wartime, I would

place my money on farm butchered and hung meat without quality commercial

processing (commercial aging is expensive).

Bear

> My American mother married an Englishman in 1939 and lived over there for

> 5 years, mostly with her inlaws, because it was wartime. She never cared

> for hung meat, but perhaps it was hung longer in those days.

> Cordelia Toser

Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 11:50:29 -0700 (PDT)

From: Carole Smith <renaissancespirit2 at yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] aging meat

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I'm pretty sure that this was not commercially hung meat, partly

because Mom said it was really gamey to the point she didn't eat much

of it. Everybody else seemed to think it was delicious that way. Of

course they had rationing because of the war, and meat was one of the

major things rationed.

Even at late as 1952 in England they were still rationing meat

(personal experience). You didn't get very big pieces of meat for

meals.

Cordelia Toser

Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 16:04:08 -0400

From: "Saint Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fwd: [PSG] Preservation & Preparation of Meat

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Just picked this up from the primitive skills group. Thought it was a

very interesting take on aging meats.

----------------------------

HANGING/ AGING MEAT is something I have experimented with a lot but

still cannot give rules about... Books will tell about standard aging

of slaughtered dressed beef, wrapped in a wet sheet or plastic or

kept in high humidity, hanging for a week at least at 40 degrees,

basically refridgerator temp. This is certainly sound practice for

larger livestock. To begin with it lets the rigor mortis wear off the

meat before you freeze it, which makes a huge difference in the

tenderness factor.

However there are other forms of aging: In Europe hunters hang

pheasant, hare or other small game WITH THE GUTS STILL INSIDE until

the feathers start to fall off or the belly turns blue. Yes I l know

this sounds gross but I tell you when you cut that animal open tall

he guts come out in one package and the meat has the most heavenly

smell---- ! Enzymes inside the flesh of intact unskinned small game

are gradually digesting it as it ages, just like ripening fruit.

However, the drawback to this degree of aging is that enzyme

activity cannot be stopped by a freezer--- therefore once you age

meat like this you have to cook it within a few days of when it gets

good and "high" I have put a bunch of rabbits in the freezer, cut and

warpped after they had "aged" till their bellies turned blue, and

they contuned to "age" in the freezer and were pretty much purple six

months later and not tasty, not good, but like over- ripe fruit. The

enzymes basically "cook" it, break it down. This happens to some

degree even in standard aging as above. But I am a great believer in

hanging your fresh WHOLE kills in an old fridge for up to two weeks.

Try it and discover amazing flavors, like fine wine. No

Kidding. Hanging is an art and you have to use your own judgement

with it, like cooking.

A third alternative, which I have done a lot, is indeed to wait

for cooler weather and then let my sheep carcasses sit for up to two

weeks at 40- 50 degrees outside. Its okay if the weather creeps up

to 60 for a day or down below freezing. Yes they do get moldy, a thin

white layer just along the spine usually. I do indeed gut these

first, but I don't skin them, and I don't really bleed them out all

that carefully. They just lie around the garage until one by one I

get them all cut up and wrapped and frozen. If the legs get a little

purple and stinky where exposed to air, I cut that off. Everything

covered by skin will be perfect, sweet and tender.

Now there is a traditional Skandinavian way of building a windy

shed like a corn crib in which to keep carcasses all winter, and into

spring--- just shaving off the mold and eating the somewhat dry,

somewhat chilled meat as you need it. This aged lamb is called

"skerpigjot" but I have never found any info on it except a photo in

an old National Geographic about Norway !

Saint Phlip