Dry Aging Beef: What It Costs and What It Buys

Hang a primal in a cooler for four or five weeks and it comes out smaller, darker and a good deal more expensive. Some men pay double for that steak and never go back. Others cannot taste the difference. Before you put beef in a dry-aging cooler, or buy it that way, you ought to know the trade you are making.

What happens in the cooler

Dry aging means holding unwrapped beef in a controlled room with moving air. Gehring and Savell, meat scientists writing in a column carried by Meat and Poultry, say there is no fixed minimum and that 28, 35 and 42 days are common. Fresh beef is about 70 percent water, so a lot of it leaves. The outside dries to a crust you have to cut off. The same authors say the main reason for doing it is flavor, not tenderness. Water leaves and flavors concentrate. Oxidation and enzymes also change fats and proteins, and the new flavors can run strong. Some compare it to blue cheese.

What it costs, in numbers

A Texas A&M study funded by the beef checkoff put numbers on it. They aged USDA Choice and Select ribeye, strip loin and sirloin for 14, 21, 28 and 35 days, dry and vacuum-packaged.

• Dry-aged ribeye shrank 6.8 percent in the cooler at 14 days, 8.4 at 21, 10.0 at 28 and 12.3 at 35.
• Wet-aged ribeye lost well under one percent.
• Total saleable yield from dry-aged ribeye ran about 72 percent at 14 days and about 63.5 percent at 35. Wet-aged ribeye held around 87 to 88 percent.
• Trimming dry-aged cuts took longer than trimming wet-aged ones.

That is your answer on price. You are charging for the water, the crust, the labor and the cooler space. The whole report is in the Beef Checkoff research library. Read the tables.

What it buys

The older Kansas State work found that 14- and 21-day dry-aged loins beat 14-day vacuum-aged and 7-day dry-aged loins on flavor, juiciness and tenderness, and that dry aging intensified desirable flavors. The Texas A&M consumers were less impressed. Overall liking, flavor liking and beef flavor intensity did not differ significantly between dry and wet aging for ribeye and strip loin, and at 35 days they did not significantly prefer either one. The authors flagged small samples and one location. So dry aging is a taste for people who like it, not a magic fix. Do not promise customers it is better. Tell them it is different.

Why the marbled steers go in the cooler

None of these studies compared Angus to other breeds, so do not tell a customer that science says Angus dry ages best. What the Texas A&M study did show is that consumers rated Choice ahead of Select on overall liking and juiciness in ribeye and strip loin. That fits the old rule that intramuscular fat helps juiciness, and dry-aging pulls moisture out. A carcass with more marbling gives you more cushion against that loss. That is reasoning, not a test result for the breed. It is the reason dry-aging programs lean toward Choice and Prime product, often from Angus-type cattle, and toward cuts with good fat cover.

If you want to understand the grades, read our grade guide, and for what it takes to produce beef with real marbling, farm.fm's page on boosting Angus market value is worth a look.

Should you sell it?

1. Price the shrink. In the Texas A&M ribeye numbers, saleable yield at 28 days was about 64 percent for dry-aged against about 87 percent for wet-aged, roughly 22 points less. Quote your price from the saleable weight, and run your own numbers because every cooler and trimmer is different.
2. Check the rules. Dry aging involves sanitation, temperature, humidity and airflow, and your state or your processor may have requirements. Ask before you build a cooler.
3. Use a processor who knows how. A bad dry-age is a spoiled primal.
4. Label the days. "Dry aged" without a number is a guess to the customer.

A word on safety

Beef sitting uncovered for weeks is not a hobby project. Temperature control, humidity, airflow and clean handling are the whole game, and a bad batch can cost you a customer or worse. If you are selling it, check with your state regulators about what kind of processing and inspection applies, and use a processor with experience. If you are making it at home for your own table, read an extension or meat science source on cooler conditions before you start, and when in doubt, throw it out.

Buying and cooking it

If you are buying, ask how many days and whether it was dry or vacuum aged. If you have never tried it, start shorter. Cook it like any good steak, and watch it, because less moisture on the surface means it browns fast. Our reverse sear guide works for a thick bone-in cut.

Final word

Dry aging buys flavor and costs yield. It is worth it for the right customer and the right carcass, and it will not rescue beef that was ordinary to begin with. The American Meat Science Association at meatscience.org keeps the research. For custom processors and suppliers, try the Agriculture Directory. We are independent and not affiliated with the American Angus Association or Certified Angus Beef.