Nah not really. A good general understanding but not an expert. I wish you would stop being so humble on here and put us to shame with your knowlege. I'd love to hear and learn from a real chef.
You covered about everything I know about ageing. The mold is really a fungus that grows via mycelia...a type of fungal root system that penetrates and enzymztically tenderizes (partially dissolves) the meat. Sounds gross, but it is what it is....and aged meat is delicious.
Restaurants used to age the whole sides of beef themselves and when the meat was aged, someone who knew what they were doing butchered the meat in house. Now butchering is a lost art. The meat is almost always butchered at the processing plant and shipped out frozen to the stores as "wholesale cuts" already cryo-vacked (sp) and aged. The meat is shipped frozen because of liability to the processing company during its portion of the chain of ownership. Freezing technology is so advanced now that practically nothing is shipped fresh. The product is chilled to almost freezing before it's subjected to antarctic like temperatures. It freezes instantly and the ice crystals don't have time to grow into long needles or spicules. When meat or seafood is thawed, it's indistinguishable from fresh. Another thing that is done to meat...especially chicken is that it's almost always injected with a brine solution. The salt adds flavor and preserves the moisture by "water retention". Whenever you see the term "water added" to ham for example, you know it's been heavily injected with lots of brining solution. Food technology is amazingly advanced these days...methods of production, preservation and stabilization are nothing like they were 15-20 years ago. I wish someone from LSU food sciences would sign up and post about food technology.
One recent advancement in food technology was invented right here in Louisiana by an aquaintance of mine...Mike Voisin of Motivatit Seafood. He was trying to find a way of killing the bacteria in oysters so people wouldn't contract Vibriosis (The most common type of virulrent bacteria found in seafood. He experimented with high pressures that would kill the bacteria by crushing them without destroying the oysters...and it worked. It's a type of "Pasteurization" for oysters by hyperbaric pressure. The interesting thing that they discovered was that the high pressures also separated the adductor muscle of the oyster from its shell. That's the muscle that live oysters use to clamp the shell closed. That's what you're fighting against when shucking them. So now, after the hyperbaric treatment, they can be opened easily with a butter knife...and the integrity of the oyster membrane is maintained 100%. Usually the oysters get stabbed by the knife when you're trying to cut the adductor muscle away from the shell, and their insides leak out...leaving smaller oysters packed in more liquid. That process yields perfect oysters that are safe to eat raw. Another interesting side effect of the process is that now it's economically feasible to harvest smaller oysters that wouldn't have been worth the trouble to shuck. I used to buy them and put those petite fried oysters on salads.
Look where food technology has brought us !!!!! Zombie cheeseburger? McDonald’s patty, bun, cheese unchanged after one year sitting on kitchen counter WINDSOR, Ont. — Whenever Melanie Hesketh’s kids get a hankering for junk food, all she has to do is point to the kitchen counter. That’s where she keeps an unwrapped cheeseburger that turns one on Thursday, and it looks pretty much the same as the day it came off a McDonald’s grill. Mould, maggots, fungi, bacteria — all have avoided the tempting meal that sits in plain view. “Obviously it makes me wonder why we choose to eat food like this when even bacteria won’t eat it,” said Ms. Hesketh. The meat patty has shrunk a bit, but it still looks edible and, with a faint but lingering greasy, leathery odour, she said it “still smells slightly like a burger . . . it hasn’t changed much.” http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/1...ed-after-one-year-sitting-on-kitchen-counter/ Too dark for Michal Jackson...there's even a miraculous image of Elvis on the bun !!!!
I have toyed with the idea of setting up an unused mini-fridge to age beef in. I figured that the controlled temperature will keep it from spoiling and it will stay controlled since it will be used specifically for that purpose. I'll have to rig up an eye bolt that I can hang it from without weakening the integrity of the insulation. I figure I can swing by Winn Dixie and buy a whole ribeye and hang that.
Let me know how it turns out. I'm pretty sure that ageing is done under refrigeration, but I'm not sure what temp...it may be different from the normal 36-38 degrees.
I think as long as it stays below 40 degrees it's okay. I will need to figure out a way to circulate the air as well.
Sad news... Champion for local seafood dies Mike Voison, one of the best-known peolpe in the local seafood industry, died at a Houma Hospital Saturday. Voisin passed away from complications of a heart attack that he suffered last week. He was the owner of Motavatit Seafood and the former chairman of the Oyster Task Force and the National Fisheries Institute. He founded the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. Congressman Steve Scalise reacted to the news of Voison’s passing. “Mike Voisin was a tireless champion for Louisiana seafood, and the oyster industry in particular,” Scalise said. “Mike was a dear friend, will be sorely missed, and his passing leaves a tremendous void in our hospitality industry. Jennifer and I will keep the Voisin family in our prayers, and gain solace in knowing that Mike is in a better place.”
