TASTINGS Early meat transport

It is astonishing that we had refrigerated boxcars before home freezers. By 1875,

the railroad was using ice, replenished at stations along the railway route from

Chicago to East Coast cities. The real boost to meat transportation started in the

early 1900s when mechanical boxcar refrigeration became available.

Unfortunately for meat connoisseurs, aging is an expensive process—it takes both time

and costly storage space. There are two types of aging. In dry aging, they hang the meat in huge

refrigerated rooms at temperatures just above freezing, 34°to 36°F (1°to 2°C). Wet aging is

similar, but they pack the beef in vacuum packages as a protection against oxidation. This is even

more costly. Every day of aging adds to the price the consumer pays for the meat. In dry aging,

every day the meat loses more moisture for which you would ordinarily pay at the checkout

counter. They only age the very best quality beef for several weeks, and these cuts are not

available in an ordinary supermarket or butcher shop. Upscale restaurants, caterers and exclusive

private clubs buy them. These types of businesses can add 50 percent extra to their meat costs

and not hear any complaints. The cost of supplies for such establishment isn't a big part of the

total bill, while a supermarket shopper balks at paying $10 instead of $7 for a pound (half a kilo)

of meat. For the very best aged beef, visit your favorite restaurant or club.

U.S. and Canada also export well-aged beef. The Japanese are particularly fond of the

superb American beef, and the people of several Southeast Asian countries are just as fond of the

excellent pork.

To keep the price reasonable, meat processors age ordinary supermarket meat (and even

butcher shop meat) for the shortest time possible, about 10 days. Even though a home

refrigerator is not the ideal place to age meat properly, many cooks suggest buying beef and

lamb several days in advance and letting it sit in the coolest part of the refrigerator to further

improve its quality with the few extra days’ aging.

While it is mandatory to age beeffor at least ten days, a week for sheep and only a day or

two for lamb provide the needed benefit. Veal, with its very low fat content and minimal

connective tissues doesn't benefit from aging at all. Pork is not aged at all though the process

would tenderize this meat, too. One reason is that pork is marketed especially young when the

meat is fully tender and has little connective tissue. The slight improvement aging would give

doesn't justify the extra cost. Another reason is consumer preference. Americans and Candians

are used to the flavor of fresh, unaged pork.

Does red mean it is fresh?

Raw meat is red, or at least we think it should be. And if it has began to turn brownish,

we assume it is no longer fresh. This isn't necessarily so. In a living body two red pigments,

myoglobin in the muscle itself and hemoglobin in the blood carry oxygen. The meat of fresh-

killed animal is bright red. These red pigments slowly oxidize into a third pigment,

metmyoglobin, which is brownish in color. Even though this change is slow, the pigment

oxidation happens more quickly than the deterioration of the meat. This means that a perfectly

fresh meat may have already turned slightly brown.

But consumers want their meat red. If the color is not bight red, most consumers will pass

that meat in the display case. It is the oxygen in the air that changes the red pigments into brown

so keeping oxygen away from the meat retains the red color. Packagers have a choice of

Serious Kitchen Play