Yeah, dry aging means you're eating old beef! After the animal is slaughter and before the beef is cut into individual cuts, the carcass is hung (like shown below) so natural enzymes in the meat have a chance to eat away some of the muscle tissue. Like a good cheese maker, butchers watch the beef and give it time to "mature."
Most of the time, butchers only dry age the primal cuts (which are the high end steaks) but we dry age the whole carcass because we believe that your family deserves more than just high quality steaks, but high quality roasts and ground beef, too! Ideally, dry aging takes place in a climate controlled room where the humidity and temperature is carefully watched to make sure the conditions are perfect for the natural enzymes!
Because of the extra time the meat has to mature, dry aged beef is a darker red color and not the cherry red you see in the grocery store. Most grocery store meat is given 7-10 days to "mature" but experts say that dry aging makes the most difference between 17-28 days. We dry age all of our beef between 21-28 days. At the top of the page is a picture of dry aged beef versus beef you buy in the grocery store.
Dry aging is a laborous process, but truly makes all the difference in the taste of your beef! We make sure to take the extra steps to give your family the best beef possible
We get asked a lot how the whole process of Oak Barn Beef works! How fun it is to dive in and answer that question. If you want to read how our family farm produces premium beef, that is dry aged by a local small town butcher, this blog post is for you! Here's a summary...
