What is Wet Aging Beef?
Commercial meat is wet aged almost immediately after the meat is harvested by cutting the meat and placing in retail cryovac packages and sometimes adding water. These are the packages you purchase at most retail stores. Meat from a commercial feedlot has been wet aged. This means that the carcass is not hung, but is cut up right away and vacuum sealed. No real aging occurs. This meat is then shipped to the store and is put in the meat freezer only being 3-5 days aged at most. Then you are paying a premium price for water…..in dry aging the moisture evaporates from the meat which gives the meat its flavor and taste. Dry-aged vs Wet-aged Beef Wet-aged Beef has 20% to 40% water added. Suppose you find ground beef in the store for $2.40 per pound. Assume 30% of it is water from wet-aging, since moisture was not allowed to evaporate with this process. The beef really costs $2.40 per 0.7 lbs, so it costs $3.42 per pound. Dry-aged beef has no water added. What is Marbling? Marbling is whit
