aged beef

[coconinoz]

the butcher in a grocery store 1ce told me that aged beef develops green mold, which is later scraped or trimmed off
i tend to think, though, that only the visible mold is removed, while its roots remain in the 'quality' 'prime' beef; i do not know, however, what the precise effect is of the usual (in the us) practice of washing the carcass w/ chlorinated water or other sanitizing products

(as i posted before on this board, my theory is that since yeast & mold live on carbs, when they find themselves in beef as a result of meat fermentation, they make their own sort of gluconeogenesis so they can eat & be merry; the human eaters of such beef, in turn, benefit from the serotonin effect... until they eventually become serotonin resistant, that is)

here's some relevant info:

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/search/label/Low%20fat%20moods

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/DJ5968.html
http://www.chow.com/stories/10193
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=131586
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dried_beef
http://everything2.com/title/steak
http://www.3men.com/3men.htm

[coconinoz]

the last site listed above, the 3 men butcher shop, not only deals w/ the beef aging issue but also provides a comprehensive, both pictorial & textual, description of all the meat cuts available in the us: of beef, veal, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey

re. where to buy meat in an urban environment, i have found that price-wise the most convenient thing is to buy from a local wholesale meat company that also takes walk-ins

a few things are worth keeping in mind:
~ min order may be 10 lb / 4.5 kilo, although some cuts may be bundled in the box so you may have to buy up to 20 lb / 9 kilo at once
~ you need to know exactly what you're looking for since there's nothing on display
~ even though if you show up out of the blue what you want may happen to be available at the moment, the usual procedure is to place an order at least 24 hr in advance
~ some things are fresh whereas others may be sitting in their coolers for a week or so (random wet aging)

[coconinoz]

the following is from
http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/
by ted slanker:

"The standard for aging beef is not two weeks or even three weeks as many beef people believe. Ninety percent of the tenderness improvement from aging is achieved by day nine. Going beyond that dries out the carcass more than it improves tenderness. Only really fat, super grain-fed critters can be hung longer without excessive shrinkage because of their greater fat cover. From slaughter through processing our meats are aged nine days, then all cuts are frozen and the aging process stops. If you want to age your beef more, you can thaw it out in a refrigerator and wait a few days before cooking it. The aging process takes up where it left off. If you did this, thawed out the packaged meat and left it in the sealed package in the refrigerator, this final process would be called 'wet aging.'

"Folks who brag up their long aging processes don’t have a clue about what they’re doing. There are many dozens of scientific meat studies involving shear force tests, etc. etc. on meats and aging methods and times. We believe our approach best balances overall meat quality from all the scientific work that has been done on it. Also, practical experience has been added to the equation.

"I can add to this that wet aging involves primal cuts and in some cases the final meat cuts. That means the carcass is broken and the primal cuts (and in some cases the final meat cuts) are packaged in plastic vacuumed packs. There is some weight loss (liquid loss),which is actually about the same as dry aging from this process because instead of a carcass staying together (only split down the center) it is cut up in much smaller pieces creating more places for liquid loss. Aging is a factor of temperature and time. The warmer it is above freezing the faster it ages. The standard temperature for aging meats is 32 degrees. Therefore there is no degradation in the nutrional characteristics of the meats. The net difference between wet aging and dry aging for nine day periods is probably nil.

"All beef (and most other meats for that matter) is aged to some degree prior to processing unless it all goes into a grinder the day it is slaughterd and quick frozen. Aging has been with us since {humans} ate the first critter too big to eat at one sitting. It’s a standard function of the entire modern-day meat business so we don’t believe it’s a bragging point. All this 'bragging' about aging processes is similar to car manufacturers bragging about their cars have tires."

[coconinoz]

i do not support any longer the 2nd half of my 2nd post in this thread -- buying from a local wholesale -- as a result of my current understanding:

those of us who are not hunters or ocean gatherers are left w/ 2 choices when it comes to acquiring land or sea meat:
~ prefrozen
~ wet aged

re. prefrozen, there's a thread on freezing meat going on in the general discussion area
re. aged meat, dry or wet, from reading the info i've posted above + any other available online i've concluded that this is the worst option, the levels being as follows:

1st = hunting or ocean gathering
2nd = freezing land or sea meat, keeping it vacuum sealed, & only thawing it just prior to consumption
3rd = so called 'fresh' land or sea meat found in stores, markets, or supermarkets, which is actually all wet aged

(i find frozen fish -- halibut, swordfish, albacore, salmon, etc. -- locally at trader joe's)

[coconinoz]

sorry, can't edit any longer

i meant to add that the frozen fish at trader joe's is all wild caught from various parts of the planet

[coconinoz]

see also
http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/general-discussion/problems-eating-frozen-meat/30/