A lilliputian age never injure anyone—unless we're talking most our increasingly creaky knees and ever-more foggy retentiveness, or sorer-by-the-twenty-four hours lower backs. Okay, scratch that. For us mortals, historic period hurts, flow. Simply when information technology comes to such culinary delights equally wine, cheese, and red meat, historic period has the power to enhance flavor and deepen our enjoyment.

This is specially the case for dry-aged beef, which is known for a richer flavour and more tender texture—as well as a heftier toll tag—than its fresh-cutting counterparts. But what is it about dry-crumbling that works such magic on meat?

Even if you appreciate what a dry-anile steak does for your tastebuds, the nuances well-nigh how it delivers such a transcendent experience may escape yous. That's why, with the help of food scientists and chefs, nosotros're unpacking exactly what dry-aged beefiness is and how dry-crumbling works.

What is dry aging?

"An unsexy mode to explicate information technology is that dry-aging, in a nutshell, is a controlled decay process," says Katie Flannery, butcher and COO at Flannery Beef. "Y'all're exposing the subprimals to oxygen, which allows natural enzymes within the meat work," she says. "They're aerobic bacteria, and so they need oxygen to survive. They come alive and start breaking down the molecular bonds of meat." This, in plough, alters the flavor and texture of the cut.

What dry aging looks like is literally a room full of moldy carcasses. In the dry out-aging process, meat hangs in a humidity-controlled environment in a style that exposes all of its sides with unimpeded airflow around the entire cut. "And then there's the good mold that finds its way onto steaks, which will slowly outset to break down and increase the amount of evaporation," says Chris Pandel, executive chef at Swift and Sons in Chicago. "You're puling moisture from the meats over time. As that happens the mold volition extend its life and grow. Information technology's like the mold on blueish cheese—it'due south skillful mold not bad mold."

Of course, before that slab of beef makes it to your plate, all of the mold will be trimmed away, leaving just "tenderized, funky, delicious meat," Pandel says. He describes the season of dry-aged meat as having a nuttiness to it that you lot won't make it a wet-anile steak. Likewise, information technology'll be more tender and have a different mouthfeel.

Swift & Sons steakhouse

Steak from Pandel's Swift & Son's Swift & Sons

How does dry-aging change the taste and texture of meat?

Moisture loss is one attribute that changes the flavor of dry-aged meat. "What that does is essentially concentrate the residual of the tissue," says Harold McGee, food scientist and author of Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes. "Meat is near 75 percent water. If you lose a few percent to evaporation … what's left volition be more concentrated, and then the season will be more full-bodied."

For those who know their way effectually a kitchen, Flannery likens the process to reducing a stock to a demi-glace. "You have that pot on your stovetop. Equally more and more moisture evaporates, the flavor of the liquid is getting more and more concentrated. With beef, as h2o evaporates, the natural beefiness flavor intensifies," she says.

But chemical changes besides affect the flavour. "During the aging period, some of the flavor compounds and other molecules in the meat undergo chemical change that will increment some flavour components while reducing others," says Joe Regenstein, Professor in the Department of Food Scientific discipline at Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Muscle cells are made of lots of different materials, and master amid them are the proteins that enable the muscles to contract, and the molecules that fuel this procedure, such as glycogen, Dna and RNA. During dry out-aging, these big, flavorless molecules are broken downwards into smaller, flavorful fragments, explains McGee.

"All of those molecules are relatively large, and when they're broken downward by the enzyme activity, they form fragments that are more flavorful than the original big molecules," he says. "Some proteins become broken down into amino acids. They can exist a piddling bitter, savory, such as in MSG, and the DNA/RNA material can become broken into other molecules that are savory and enhance the savoriness of MSG. And glycogen broken into sugars which are sweet."

Dry crumbling transforms the texture of meat as well. "Meat has a very circuitous internal structure that can be difficult to bite through. By breaking some of these proteins downward, the teeth can now more easily go through the meat," Regenstein says.

What are the best cuts of dry-aged meats?

Unabridged primals, rather than unmarried steaks are dry-anile, simply to exist a adept candidate for dry-crumbling requires a good protective covering of os or fat. This ways there'south less surface area that needs to exist trimmed away subsequently. "Filets tend non to exist anile because there'southward no os or fat protecting it, Flannery says. Dry-aging is wasteful considering every single side of meat that is exposed to air will be breaking down faster than the meat on the within." Os-in New York strip or ribeye are good contenders for dry-aging, Pandel says.

45-day dry aged rib eye steak

Ribeye is a great cut to dry out age. Photo: Kevin Marple

What's the ideal time to dry-age meat?

The ideal length of time for dry-crumbling meat really comes down to individual gustation. For Flannery, the sweet spot is around 30 to 35 days. "For retail customers, we go 35 days, but for restaurant customers we get xviii to 20," she says. "That's because in the eating house manufacture, if a diner isn't familiar with dry out-anile beef, their first reaction might be to think that something is off."

Pandel says he likes meat that's been anile around 45 days. "You tin tell information technology'due south been aged, but it'due south not unpleasant," he says. "Nosotros've gone further. In running a steakhouse it's personal preference. Some folks similar information technology actually funky, but for some people it'due south too gnarly."

And the longer you lot go, the funkier the flavor will get. "Dry out-aged meat does take a unique smell and flavor. Funky is a skilful way to describe it," she says. "It'due south a more than rich flavor upwardly until the 30-day betoken. When you go further than that, and if yous go actually far out, like 60 to 90 days, y'all develop a serious blue cheese funk to it. It will smell remarkably similar blue cheese."

Why Is Dry-Anile Meat More Expensive?

With a dry-aged descriptor comes a steeper price tag—but it'due south for more than just the fancy moniker. "There'southward a reaction to higher prices without fully understanding why dry-anile meat is more expensive," Flannery says. "We're not slapping another l percent to the cost because nosotros feel like information technology. It'south a more costly product to produce."

Between whittling away the moldy parts and the moisture evaporation, you tin can lose up to 50 per centum of the primal's original weight, Flannery explains. That ways if your butcher bought ten pounds of meat, she might only have v pounds left to sell by the time it'due south been aged, essentially doubling what she paid for it.

steak beef aging room

Adam Perry Lang in his aging room. Photo: courtesy Josh Telles

Dry out-Aging Vs. "Wet-Aging"

Occasionally, you may also hear the words "wet-anile" used draw a piece of meat. Wet-aging describes meat that has been anile in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag. "The meat is held for weeks or months enclosed in a plastic handbag that prevents evaporation from taking place, so you don't get the same loss of water and don't get the aforementioned concentration of season," McGee says.

"I'll merely say it: Moisture-crumbling is bullshit. Information technology's basically to get the give-and-take "aging" on a product without incurring the massive loss of dry-crumbling," Flannery says. "Because dry out-aging so expensive is one reason people push wet-aging. There's no trim loss and no moisture loss. But yous have that cool cache of it being aged."

Wet-aging won't evangelize the nutty season or same mouthfeel as a dry-anile steak. "You can't false dry-anile. You tin't condense fourth dimension. It'southward a really unique production," Flannery says.

Dry aging at home

Most professionals will tell you to not dry age at home, but what else would professionals say? Even so, they make a very compelling case when it comes to flavour and even safety. Dry aging is a controlled fermentation, which René Redzepi and David Zilber of Noma  showed yous tin do at abode, but with necessary precautions and equipment. With dry out crumbling steak, the trouble people run into is that they don't realize the home fridge doesn't really work, for a couple reasons. You desire your dry out-aging fridge to have a more consistent temperature and air menses than your domicile fridge offers. Likewise, yous don't want anything else in the fridge, because over time the steak will start arresting the flavors of the other food inside the one-time icebox with it. So when the steak really has fourth dimension to undergo the enzymatic reaction that makes dry-aged steak so delicious, it will start to take a muddled, dried flavor because of what it has captivated in the fridge. That doesn't mean you tin't dry out age at domicile. The key is getting a dedicated dry-crumbling fridge that will eliminate all the aforementioned challenges. And instead of getting individual cuts, by large slab that allows yous to trim the meat before slicing into individual steaks. Then over again, you could always merely order the beef already aged by an online purveyor and save yourself the time.