DRY AGED BEEF – FREYBERGER LEAVES NOTHING TO CHANCE

MEAT MATURATION
from Dry Aged Beef & Meat

Historical Background

The development of meat maturation is linked to the evolutionary inclusion of meat in the human diet. Even indigenous peoples tried to tenderize tough game meat mechanically, by "softening" it in the saddle, or enzymatically, by covering it and applying herbs.

Meat maturation in modern times

It is only in the last decade that meat aging has become increasingly important for meat producers, manufacturers and end consumers. This is due to the ever-increasing demand from the grill and BBQ scene in Europe for special, very well-aged meat.
Today, there are many different ripening methods that have been newly developed or rediscovered. Legal requirements are lagging behind developments and have not yet established clear consumer expectations.

Process of maturation before and after slaughter (1st phase)

The process of blood withdrawal and the resulting death of the animal does not immediately end the biochemical metabolic processes in the cells. The glycogen supply in the cells determines whether the ripening process is correct or incorrect (incorrect ripening: DFD and PSE meat). The fattening and the circumstances during transport and the slaughter process have a significant influence on the glycogen content of the cells; if incorrect ripening occurs, the quality of the product suffers considerably. The glycogen still present in the muscle cells of the slaughtered animal maintains the degradation processes in the cells even after slaughter and produces lactic acid as a degradation product, which leads to a drop in the pH value from 7.2 to 5.5 and hardening of the myofibrils. As soon as the glycogen is used up - under normal cooling conditions this happens after about 36 to 40 hours in cattle and after about 6 to 8 hours in pigs - rigor mortis sets in, the state of maximum toughness.

actual maturation (2nd phase)

The actual process of meat maturation begins at the moment of rigor mortis. Protein-splitting enzymes in the myofibrils, the smallest muscle cell units. These intramuscular processes tenderize the pieces of meat. Meat maturation can only change the structure of the muscle cells, not the connective tissue that surrounds them.
The harder and longer a muscle group is used, the more the connective tissue in the muscle becomes interconnected. You can see a very visible difference between a calf and a T-bone steak.
From this it can be concluded that heavily stressed muscle groups or meat parts from older animals can only be tenderized to a limited extent through orderly meat maturation, since these have too pronounced connective tissue which is hardly changed by meat maturation.

Detailed studies on beef have shown that the length of maturation is closely linked to the tenderness of the beef. The following results emerged from these series of tests:

minimum ripening period of 2 weeks

This is the minimum time required to achieve a level of tenderness that consumers consider good.

The peak of tenderness in beef is reached after about 6 weeks. From this point on, a longer maturation period leads to a decrease in tenderness.

The term maturing method includes all measures to make meat tender and tasty after slaughter. The following list provides an overview of the most common and best-known methods. Anaerobic and aerobic maturing processes differ from artificial maturing methods in that the environment in which the meat is maturing is influenced, but no additives that are not contained in the meat (acids, plant enzymes, etc.) are added or mechanical influences (maturing box) are applied.

Aerobic ripening methods (dry ripening or dry aging) Air ripening (dry aging)

Dry aging is a rediscovered maturing method that has been replaced by wet aging and is becoming increasingly popular. It mainly involves maturing the backs of animals with bones in cold rooms in an optimal environment. The maturing time must be tailored to the type of animal and its qualification (fat coverage, age, etc.). Beef reaches its maximum tenderness (7 Velik) after around 5 to 6 weeks. The special thing about dry aging is the unique and characteristic buttery-nutty taste.

Special taste of dry aged

The special taste of this maturation is caused by several processes during the maturation. On the one hand, maturation in the air enables oxidation processes of the fat on the surface and intramuscular fat. On the other hand, the taste is concentrated and intensified by a very high loss of maturation (evaporation and drip loss).
Fat also plays a very important role in protecting the muscle meat from drying out and bacterial contamination. For this reason, dry aging is often combined with tallow aging, and pieces of meat without sufficient fat coverage (inner loin muscles - fillet) or cut areas of the back are coated with tallow during aging to enable these to mature for a long time.

Freyberger has the best dry-aged beef and meat!