Dry Aging and Beef Tenderness

All of the beef from Bravo Steaks undergoes an extended dry aging period.

Dry aging beef is a traditional, craft way of processing beef.  Modern, commodity beef processing prefers the speed of larger scale efficiency and lower cost, so dry aged beef has become an artisan product.  We are proud to offer dry aged beef and we'd love to explain the difference and benefits of this long-valued process.  The special ingredient in dry aged beef is: TIME.

After harvest, our beef hangs as a whole carcass in a commercial refrigerated room (sometimes called a locker room) for 14-21+ days.  The entire side of beef hangs from the ceiling on large hooked rails. There is no beef cut from the carcass during this dry aging time period.  The locker room is equipped with special air flow and temperatures that hover just above freezing.

During these 14-21+ days, the beef undergoes natural changes and enhancements.  Gravity naturally draws out excess water, resulting in a concentration of beef flavor in the meat.  Naturally present enzymes slowly start to break down muscle fiber connections within the beef, resulting in better tenderness of dry aged beef.

All of our beef benefits from this 14-21+ day hanging period "on the rail," and our customers taste the difference.  Dry aged beef produces amazing steakhouse flavor and tenderness of all cuts -- from premium ribeye steaks to roasts, stew beef, London broil, and ground beef.  YES, all of our ground beef comes from whole pieces of beef that have been through this beneficial dry aging process.    

For comparison, most modern commodity beef hangs for just 1-2 days until it is chilled.  Soon after it is cut into primals or subprimals (large 20-30 lb portions of beef) and vacuum sealed to retain as much moisture and volume as possible in the packaging.  These vacuum sealed subprimals are shipped to their next destination, whether the next distributor or vendor.   From there, it's cut into steaks or roasts to be sold or cooked.  Wet-aging of beef is a process where the beef has remained in this vacuum-sealed package for an extended period of time, but it does not benefit from the flavor concentration (through water loss/moisture reduction) that occurs with dry aging.  Modern commodity ground beef is not aged at all - it comes from the trim when subprimals are cut out, 1-2 days after harvest.