At the counter of our shop, some dried meats on display might intrigue you. Does it? Well, this is the first maturation window. It shows you some matured meats that will soon be ready for sale, as well as the time of maturation. The maturation cellar is in the basement.
What is maturation?
Just like wine mellows, meat matures. Maturation (or dry-aged meat) appeals to many meat lovers. The process doesn’t require many operations. However, a real savoir-faire and a lot of patience are essential. In fact, this top-quality meat will mature in an aging room, full of Himalayan salt blocks. These salts will absorb humidity and give to the meat a lightly saline taste. Then we leave the meat there for several weeks to make it reveal its true flavor, specific to each bleed.
Tenderness, marbling, infiltration rate… These have become expressions we hear from time to time without really understanding what they mean.
The marbling indicates on a meat or a cooked meat (for example, Iberian ham) the fat infiltration rate inside the tissues. A marbled meat is more tender, juicier because richer in fat. During a quick-cooking, on a slab of Himalayan salt, a plancha or a grill, the meat feeds from its own fat, preserves all his attributes and reveals an exquisite and unique taste.
The tenderness of the meat is the result of many different factors that take into consideration the beast and its environment. These essentials include the collagen content, the breed, the age of the animal, the raising and slaughter conditions, or even the type of piece, the treatment and cooking method. Therefore, Charly Goeders always looks for farmers and beasts that can fulfill these requirements… to satisfy our customers’ expectations!
We mark on all our pieces of matured beef their maturation time when you buy them. Please remember that the maturation time depends on several elements. Charly always checks each one of them as he receives the meat: its fat quantity, its breed… The master ripener thinks about all of this thoughtfully.
Maturation, how does it work?
Even without maturation, meats always rest in a cold room. This stage remains fundamental in the maturation “dry-aged” process, a natural system discovered a long time ago, when meat was carried on in the open air. Here’s how Goeders deals with meat to make it develop the richest taste possible.
First, the meat rests for a week in a cold room, at the slaughterhouse or at the butcher’s shop. Then it goes to the maturation cellar, full of Himalayan salt blocks that give an exquisite taste to the meat at the end of the maturation process. It’s similar to a cheese cellar, since it isn’t much lit up. The air circulates inside and is purified from any bacterium. The maturation time depends on the type of meat, the fat rate and the result we wish to get. It is now a question of savoir-faire and personal preference! After that, we put all selected pieces in a maturation cell, the one you can see in the shop. When the expected maturation time finally comes, the meat is ready for selling at the shop or on our recent e-boutique. The last thing left to do it to enjoy it!
