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Walked into a butcher in Nashville that hangs all their beef for 45 days and the smell hit me before I even saw the case
I was down in Nashville two weeks ago visiting my sister and she dragged me to this little butcher shop off a side street near her place. The second I walked in, that smell hit me, deep and funky and almost sweet, and I knew before I even looked at the case that they were doing long dry ages. Sure enough, the owner had a little whiteboard taped up behind the counter listing each primal and how many days it had been hanging, and most of them were sitting between 40 and 45 days. I stood there for a while just watching him break down a short loin, and he was trimming way more than I would at my own place, but he said the crust was so hard it was basically jerky and there was no saving it. What got me was how calm the whole shop felt, no rush, no pressure to move product before it turned. He told me he only buys two or three whole animals a week and when they're gone, they're gone, and people just come back the next week. It made me wonder if I'm leaving money on the table by pushing everything out at 21 days just to keep the case full. Anyone here doing longer ages at a small shop, and how do you handle customers who think the funk means it's spoiled?
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wyatt5216d ago
There's a reason most shops settle on 21 days, because 45 day beef tastes like a barn smells and you lose half the weight to trim, so that "charm" costs him money on every single animal. A case that runs empty half the week and turns away regulars who just want a decent steak is not a business plan I'd copy.
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