Dry-Aged Ground Beef
As the proud owner of a Dry Ager DX1000 aging cabinet, I experiment a lot with different dry-aging processes. Here, ground beef is, of course, no exception.
I have previously tried a combination of beef brisket and beef chuck, but especially the brisket is not ideal for dry aging as it has a small surface area and therefore a lot of waste.
After discussions with my local butcher, I decided to try veal shoulder as the fat content is around 10% (which I want in my ground beef) and it has a relatively large surface area.
The experiment was divided into two versions as I bought 2x 5.5 kg cuts. The meat was, of course, freshly slaughtered.
One cut was aged for 35 days and the other for 70 days at 1.2 degrees and 84% humidity.
35 Days Dry Aging of Veal Shoulder
Unfortunately, I forgot to weigh the meat after 35 days, so I can’t “document” the moisture loss of the meat.
The crust was trimmed off, and I made a stock from it.
Tendons, fat, and the “ugly” meat were trimmed off and ground into mince.
The rest was cut into small pieces and used, among other things, for this Boeuf Daube one-pot.
The meat was incredibly intense and tender. I actually didn’t think I could improve it further by aging it longer.
70 Days Dry Aging of Veal Shoulder
After 70 days, I took the other cut out of the cabinet.
The crust was rock hard, and when I trimmed off a bit of the crust, I thought the meat had almost dried out all the way through.
It certainly wasn’t, even though the crust was thick.
The meat was again divided into three parts:
- The crust was used for a beef soup
- Meat trimmings, fat, and tendons were ground into mince.
- The finest meat was used for small cuts.
The mince was fried as patties and got one of the nicest crusts I have ever seen. The meat was full of flavor and super delicious.
The small cuts were, among other things, used for this goulash recipe and again got a super nice and delightful crust.
The meat was better after 70 days than after 35 days, so I think I’ll try 100 days next time.
