# Aging Beef



## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

How long do you prefer aging your beef, I am thinking somewhere between 14 and 21 days. I had read that there is not much difference in tenderness when aged longer than 14 days.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Always do 2 weeks.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

All of mine hang 13 days, just how it goes for my processor. Drop off Monday (Day 1), slaughter Tuesday, processed first thing Monday (Day 14). My stuff is labeled for sale so I go first before the 'not for sale'.

I'm satisfied with the quality.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

My butcher hangs the beef around 2 weeks. But they also base it on weight. Light carcass maybe a few days short and heavier ones longer.


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## swall01 (Jun 10, 2018)

i do 10 days. last fall the huricane interupted our butcher due to power loss and him trying to keep freezer and cooler going so i had some go 18 days. customers noticed flavor difference and complained a little. my personal opinion is min 8 to max 14 days is best. beyond that you are getting into "delicacy" teritory.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Around here anymore you have to ask for 2 weeks or they only let it hang 7 days. The one place I prefer its two weeks period, the other place I have some done as they have an inspector on site certain days you also have to ask for 14 days.


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## Swv.farmer (Jan 2, 2016)

For me it depends on carcus weight the bigger the longer 14-21 days


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I had a emergency slaughter yrs ago,all the sudden it couldn't get up like it was paralyzed in back end.The locker didn't have anymore room in aging cooler so told them to save The T bones and ribeyes and grind the rest.Could hardly chew the steaks with no aging.I found out how important aging beef was!

The beef was finished with plenty of fat.They found a small abscess in the spine that caused the paralysis.


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## skyrydr2 (Oct 25, 2015)

21 days for mine and even the bulls are tender.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

I like 14 days, then about 2-3 minutes to a side (aging on a grill preferably ), tossed on a warm plate. 

Larry


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

We took our beef down to be butchered today, but before we did that we got a live weight on her, and we got 3.5 pounds per day gain.


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

CowboyRam said:


> We took our beef down to be butchered today, but before we did that we got a live weight on her, and we got 3.5 pounds per day gain.


Hay must have good genetics in your cows.

On the aging,14 to 21 days depending on how busy the butcher was. Then about 5 years ago I had forgotten about it as they call because there wanting to be payed. It had been 30 days already, so I called. New cooler refrigeration the air is dryer they some that had several that hung close to 60 days,not mine so I don't know. But mine at 30+ was good. Would not say it was more tender than other beef I have raised, but it had not spoiled from being in the cooler a long time.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I've harvested a fair amount of deer and I don't necessarily get into a hurry when processing.

During deer season, I purposely keep half the fridge space available for 'aging' as it can be 70 degrees in November and December. Sometimes I have 2 deer in the fridge at the same time. Often I use Dad's as well. It is as close to a proper aging process you can get by with. Some guys will keep a deer on some combination of ice, salt, and water. Bleh!!!

I quarter a deer into straps, shoulders, hams, scrap meat, or roasts. I carve my roasts out while it's hanging on the gambrel, it's easier than trying to do it on a table. Then I put them in pans and cover with tin foil before putting them in fridge at 36 degrees. I prefer leaving moisture in my meat and ward off browning/graying from air exposure.

I don't believe the alleged myth of aging removes 'gameyness' from the meat. I've slapped meat directly in the freezer, aged 7 days, 14 days no difference in flavor. The only thing that prevents gameyness is how you handle your knife.

The only differences I saw in length of aging is color and weight. The longer it's aged, the less the meat weighs.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I prefer 3 week. That is when the slight mold begins to show up on the outside.

No butcher will give us 3 weeks anymore. They say 2 weeks is all the Health Dept. will allow. I believe they just want the cooler space.

Price has gone up to 65 cents hanging weight, plus slaughter fee, 3 months to book in advance.

Not as enticing for us as it once was.


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## skyrydr2 (Oct 25, 2015)

Here USDA says min. 14 days max 21 days. My slaughter house does a fabulous job of processing! 
If they didn't I would not use them, as they are pricey. .85 a pound hanging weight with a kill fee of $85. 
I have all my meats done in retail packaging as I sell out of my farm stand. I do very well on beef and ok on pork. If I raise the pork myself forget it! Its a loosing proposition, feed is just too expensive here, especially organic stuff! 
Also,( now this sounds crazy but) a lot of my customers want soy free pork?? Yup soy free...
So I raised a group "soy free" let me tell you it was expensive! I feed them corn and alfalfa and fresh produce that was left over from the stand! I had to sell ground pork for $7.99 pound just to break even...and it took 1.5 months longer to get to weight. 
Meat was really lean too in Comparison to a soy fed hog. But they loved it and still get requests for it. 
I will say the meat was sweeter than normal, but the lack of fat made it easy to over cook and get tough! So it took a bit to figure out how to make it less tough. PINK! don't over cook ! 
You might ask who in the world would want that right? Cancer patients! All the folks that bought it were cancer recovery patients.


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