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Post by cjm on Sept 5, 2016 7:04:20 GMT
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Post by Trog on Sept 5, 2016 19:36:18 GMT
This is for me the definitive KB of steakiness - very scientific as well, with controlled experiments and double blind testing. The Food LabBottom line is that the most important thing you can do for a steak is to dry-age it. 'Dry' being the keyword here - as opposed to the wet-aged steaks you can buy in supermarkets and at some butchers (those that say "matured steak-house steak") - which apparently makes no perceivable difference to the steak when tested. You can do it yourself, but it is not possible to dry-age A Steak - it is a bulk process, you need at least an entire cut of some sort before you even think of doing it. (One of the things I will definitely give a go, sooner or later.) You also need to set aside some dedicated space/equipment: The Food Lab's Complete Guide to Dry-Aging Beef at HomeI have not yet come across a supplier here in South Africa that offers dry-aged beef as a standard product. Maybe there is a business opportunity, here? No doubt, steak ranches such as Spur and top-of-the-range restaurants have their own dry-aging facilities, but they do not sell their meat directly to the public, with good reason, I'm sure. Personally, I suspect that the dry-aging, apart from tenderising the texture of the meat, also develops the same bouquet of aromas and flavours that forms during the process of biltong-making.
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Post by cjm on Sept 6, 2016 7:06:45 GMT
Wow!
That's a mouthful.
I wonder about the pre-industrial outdoor fridges. We had the remnants of one but I never saw it in operation. Essentially the permeable double walls were filled with coke and a water tank on top slowly dripped water into the walls. It was exposed to the governing winds in the shade of a tree. Perhaps our ancestors knew nothing else but dry-aged meat as the carcasses of the animals were hung inside.
The article concentrates on beef. Does it work for other meat as well?
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Post by Trog on Sept 6, 2016 7:43:35 GMT
The article concentrates on beef. Does it work for other meat as well? Well, yes. Although I don't know if anyone ever dry-age mutton or goat and such, maybe because it already has a very distinct flavour to begin with. I believe game is frequently dry-aged as well. The italian version of bacon is something called pancetta stesa - which is essentially dry-aged pork belly. Not to mention stuff such as prosciutto and the salamis - which can be aged for up to a year or longer, although the aging there is only a part of the curing process, which resembles the making of biltong since it also requires brineing with nitrates.
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