What is wet aging for meat?
Nearly all wet aging uses the “Cryovac” process. It involves tightly wrapping and hermetically sealing the meat in polyethylene bags. Though this modern technique hardly tenderizes the meat, the mass-market meat industry favors it over the old-fashioned method because less shrinkage occurs and because the so-called aging can conveniently take place as the meat is shipped across the country from the slaughterhouse to your butcher’s refrigerated walk-in storage locker. Another wet-aging disadvantage is that moisture is trapped inside the wrapping. This can give the meat a relatively mushy texture compared to the firm texture of a traditionally dry-aged meat.
