Dry Aging Question

Mattman3969

I see threads on here all the time about dry aging beef but I don’t remember anyone ever posting about dry aged pork. Why is that?  

 I was watching a episode of Bon Appetit where they dry aged beef and a cut of pork. They seemed to be most impressed with the final pork.   Can someone with more dry age knowledge drop the deets for me to better understand?  

WeberWho

WeberWho

I want to say @Sea2Ski was going to age some pork at one point? I could be wrong....

Mattman3969

I should clarify as to smaller cuts of pork like bone in whole ribs loins and such.  But honestly prosciutto did skip my memory. Lol

WeberWho

I wonder if a big portion of it has to do with the pig itself? I know with top quality jamon it's a certain breed of pig that they raise on a really strict acorn diet. I wonder if the typical US raised pig is too fatty for dry aging?

I really have no idea....

Mark_B_Good

WeberWho said:

LOL ... yup! And it tastes damn good!

PigBeanUs

yes, you can age pork.  without curing it.

a bone-in pork loin is basically a rib eye.  chops are steaks, etc.

treat it the same way you would rib eye.

there were restaurants that jumped on the aging train a few years back that offered aged pork.  Maybe people can't wrap their head around it for some reason... same people that think pork can't be served pink, rare or medium rare like beef can.

keep the fat on the exterior. helps slow the drying down.

nolaegghead

I dry aged a rack of pork ribs.  Let them dry out too much, left them in the garage fridge just as a prank until they were mummified.  They were much smaller than a typical beef rib roast.  My advice would be to get something large or put them in a cooler that has humidity control.  Typical refrigerator humidity is very low.  That creates a crust that protects the inside from drying as quickly, but this seems to only work on large cuts, in my experience at least.

PigBeanUs

exactly.

i wouldn't go 45 days

SGH

Mattman3969 said:

I see threads on here all the time about dry aging beef but I don’t remember anyone ever posting about dry aged pork. Why is that?  

Pork doesn’t benefit from aging near as much as beef. While there are a few benefits they are not significant enough to justify the trouble for most people. Here are a few reasons why pork does not improve as much as beef does when aged. 

1. Pigs are almost always slaughtered at a much younger age than cows. Therefore, more often than not, they are already reasonably tender. 

2. Size for size pig muscles contain far more water than beef muscles. 

3. Pork lacks some of the enzymes that beef contains. 

The exception would be is if you had a really old hog that you or someone raised. It would definitely benefit from a few days of aging. But 99% of pork that you buy already processed will be from a fairly young pig. Hence the reason that most folks don’t trouble themselves with aging pork. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze to most folks. 

Mattman3969

Thanks for the explanation guys.  My inquiring mind just needed to know.  

SGH

Mattman3969 said:
 My inquiring mind just needed to know.  

Its always good to ponder 🤔. I find myself doing it intensely when I am crapping. 

Sea2Ski

@WeberWho has a great memory. 

@Mattman3969 if you are thinking of doing it - think no more. 

I have done dry aged pork, and it is fantastic. I hope this link works since I am doing this on my phone.  It is worth the read.  While that was posted a while ago, I have done it several times since. 

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1185826/30-day-dry-aged-pork-for-mother-in-laws-birthday-dinner/p1

I have also upped my curing game.  I cut into this guy after curing in 2019 and starting to hang early 2020. 

The story behind this leg was that the pig that this leg  belonged to, we knew we were going to cure for prosciutto. So while mostly free range all its life in a 5 acre fenced in wooded yard eating roots, berries and table scraps, we heavily supplemented it’s diet with grain in July through September, then isolated it from the rest of the pigs and brought in buckets and buckets and buckets of acorns from my yard. (My property is very wooded and has lots of oak). We fed this pig all the acorns I could find for about two months before we slaughtered it. If you look closely on the knife (which I got at an iberico pig farm in Spain) you can see the fat. I am/was extremely happy with the final product. 

The cow is great, but the pig is king to me. 

Mattman3969

Thanks for the link.  That was an awesome journey for sure @Sea2Ski

PigBeanUs

I dunno where SGH is getting his info. 

At the very least, dry aging any meat, including fish and chicken or duck or ANY MEAT, will cause it to lose water. 

Regardless of whether it contains the enzymes required to break down flavorless protein (it does), it would *still* benefit from condensing the flavors already present. 

Dry aging is two entirely separate things. 

Aging. (Enzymes breaking down flavorless protein into flavorful components).

and

DRYING. Losing water. And only losing water. This improves overall flavor (think condensed soup vs adding water), improves caramelization (the surface begins browning almost immediately), and firms texture without too much loss of tenderness. Too much drying makes jerky. 

So even if pork was too young or had no enzymes or whatever. Drying it would improve it. 

And then since it actually *does* benefit from aging (see dry cured pork), you can’t lose. 

Like NOLA said though. The cuts are smaller. So you can’t go quite as long. 

nolaegghead

Looks like all the stuff SGH was saying is the same thing this guy said.  Not inferring that was his source or anything, but it was one of the top hits on the googlez.

https://theorganicbutcher.com/blogs/news/dry-aging-at-the-organic-butcher

from that:

"

Pork can definitely be dry aged, and we do that often – if you haven’t tried it you’re missing out. Just ask one of our butchers for it at the counter. About dry aged pork, Herring explains it’s “not the same as dry aging beef. You don't have the enzymes that break down the texture as much, so you don't get much more tenderness, [though] you get a little bit.” Pork can’t be dry aged for as long as beef because of pork’s higher water content, which makes aging riskier when it comes to spoilage and meat loss.

But, according to Herring, even a week of dry aging an apparently unmarbled pork chop can work miracles. “Suddenly all this marbling blooms out of it… The texture gets a little firmer. It gets juicier… It blows people's minds the first time they have it.”

Doing 10 seconds of research after that, I'm not so sure there are less enzymes as a major tendorizing process in the dry age is:

"The lactic acid produced during anaerobic glycogenolysis is important for the success of maturation. The structure of the muscle fibers is resolved by the action of protein-cleaving enzymes, the proteases. The resulting lactic acid loosens the cell bandage so that cellular proteolytic enzymes can act on the muscle tissue and can break the hardened muscle gland. This makes the meat tender again."

Seems to me that, and if you are familiar with the Japanese guy that reportedly has the best sushi restaurant in the world, this is a concept unique to animal meat.  As the sushi guy also ages his fish, a concept that probably seems like heresy to our modern "Western" ways. 

Sea2Ski

@nolaegghead ever since you posed about dry aging fish back in the fall, it has been on my mind like a deep splitter in my thumb. I have done more research on it. This summer if we get into the tuna, I am going to set aside a 4-5 lb chunk of the loin and dry some for about 2 weeks and see what happens.

PigBeanUs

Sea2Ski said:

@nolaegghead ever since you posed about dry aging fish back in the fall, it has been on my mind like a deep splitter in my thumb. I have done more research on it. This summer if we get into the tuna, I am going to set aside a 4-5 lb chunk of the loin and dry some for about 2 weeks and see what happens.

Dried cod is sold in wood barrels here. 

It’s salted, which is a different wrinkle. And it’s rehydrated before serving. But far from it being a last ditch effort to preserve all the extra fish, it actually changes the texture and (according to some Chef-chefs), improves flavor

I’ve said something before which always got me into trouble with Mr. Stickers, erstwhile forum denizen: He was one of those who liked to toss around the word “protein” i stead of just saying what the hell he was cooking. “The protein tonight is chicken”, like he was on Master Chef or something. 

Here’s the thing. Protein has no real. flavor of it’s own. Chicken does, beef, fish, etc. yeah. Those are “proteins” which definitely have flavor. But the PROTEIN WITHIN THEM is virtually flavorless. 

Aging allows the enzymes to break flavorless protein into amino acids and other more flavorful components. 

Oxidation too (that sword cuts both ways)

so properly controlled aging in theory should improve flavor

nolaegghead

PigBeanUs said:

Sea2Ski said:

@nolaegghead ever since you posed about dry aging fish back in the fall, it has been on my mind like a deep splitter in my thumb. I have done more research on it. This summer if we get into the tuna, I am going to set aside a 4-5 lb chunk of the loin and dry some for about 2 weeks and see what happens.

Here’s the thing. Protein has no real. flavor of it’s own. Chicken does, beef, fish, etc. yeah. Those are “proteins” which definitely have flavor. But the PROTEIN WITHIN THEM is virtually flavorless. 

Aging allows the enzymes to break flavorless protein into amino acids and other more flavorful components. 

Right, that's called "autolysis" and gives us the umami flavors.  Soybeans are mostly flavorless.  But through autolysis we get soy sauce, miso, etc.  Fish sauce is another good example.

fishlessman

nolaegghead said:

PigBeanUs said:

Sea2Ski said:

@nolaegghead ever since you posed about dry aging fish back in the fall, it has been on my mind like a deep splitter in my thumb. I have done more research on it. This summer if we get into the tuna, I am going to set aside a 4-5 lb chunk of the loin and dry some for about 2 weeks and see what happens.

Here’s the thing. Protein has no real. flavor of it’s own. Chicken does, beef, fish, etc. yeah. Those are “proteins” which definitely have flavor. But the PROTEIN WITHIN THEM is virtually flavorless. 

Aging allows the enzymes to break flavorless protein into amino acids and other more flavorful components. 

Right, that's called "autolysis" and gives us the umami flavors.  Soybeans are mostly flavorless.  But through autolysis we get soy sauce, miso, etc.  Fish sauce is another good example.

reminds me to check on the back of the fridge top, theres some worcestershire sauce i started about a year ago.....theres also a duck prosciutto still wrapped in cheese cloth in the fridge, wonder if its dry enough to grate it on something

PigBeanUs

nolaegghead said:

PigBeanUs said:

Sea2Ski said:

@nolaegghead ever since you posed about dry aging fish back in the fall, it has been on my mind like a deep splitter in my thumb. I have done more research on it. This summer if we get into the tuna, I am going to set aside a 4-5 lb chunk of the loin and dry some for about 2 weeks and see what happens.

Here’s the thing. Protein has no real. flavor of it’s own. Chicken does, beef, fish, etc. yeah. Those are “proteins” which definitely have flavor. But the PROTEIN WITHIN THEM is virtually flavorless. 

Aging allows the enzymes to break flavorless protein into amino acids and other more flavorful components. 

Right, that's called "autolysis" and gives us the umami flavors.  Soybeans are mostly flavorless.  But through autolysis we get soy sauce, miso, etc.  Fish sauce is another good example.

yes.  you are correct that i am correct.

nolaegghead

PigBeanUs said:

nolaegghead said:

PigBeanUs said:

Sea2Ski said:

@nolaegghead ever since you posed about dry aging fish back in the fall, it has been on my mind like a deep splitter in my thumb. I have done more research on it. This summer if we get into the tuna, I am going to set aside a 4-5 lb chunk of the loin and dry some for about 2 weeks and see what happens.

Here’s the thing. Protein has no real. flavor of it’s own. Chicken does, beef, fish, etc. yeah. Those are “proteins” which definitely have flavor. But the PROTEIN WITHIN THEM is virtually flavorless. 

Aging allows the enzymes to break flavorless protein into amino acids and other more flavorful components. 

Right, that's called "autolysis" and gives us the umami flavors.  Soybeans are mostly flavorless.  But through autolysis we get soy sauce, miso, etc.  Fish sauce is another good example.

yes.  you are correct that i am correct.

You are welcome.