Wet aging

By JOE O'CONNELL, cbbqa Past President
Posted March 17, 2002

Aging beef can be accomplished in two different ways:  dry-aging and wet-aging.

Both types of aging take place at a temperature of about 36° F (cold, but above the freezing point).  During the aging process, natural enzymes in the meat are released and soften the connective tissue in the muscles. 

In dry-aging, the beef is maintained in a low-humidity environment, and the meat loses a substantial amount of moisture -- up to 20% of the meat's weight.  This evaporation concentrates the meat flavor, but it also increases the cost of the meat.  If a New York strip weighs 20 pounds before dry-aging and cost $15.00/lb, and if it loses 20% of its weight during the process, then after aging the meat will weigh only 16 pounds, so the price will have to be increased to $18.75/lb, just for the weight loss.

Wet-aging avoids this moisture loss and thus is a much less expensive process than dry-aging.  When beef is processed, the producers seal the large, sub-primal beef cuts in cryovac vacuum packs, which are placed in boxes and shipped to butchers.  (Thus the term "boxed meat", which is used in contrast to hanging meat.)  Some butchers will age the meat by leaving it in the vacuum packs.  This is wet-aging. 

Wet-aging will tenderize the meat by the same enzymatic process as dry aging.  However, because wet-aging involves no loss of moisture through evaporation, the flavors do not become more concentrated, as they do with dry-aging.  Moreover, some scientists maintain that the enzymes do not react as well during wet-aging to tenderize the meat.

Because wet-aging does not concentrate the meat flavors, butchers will use dry-aging to age their finest beef.