Number of days to hang ??

[thegoodag]

Taking the 1st Dexter to the chop shop tomorrow or next week and the place I've been recommended can only hang for 10 days due to the abundance of deer comming through right now. Last market steer I did hanged for 21 days. Do you think 10 is enough or should I shop around some more?

[kansasdexters]

Our minimum number of days for dry aging our Dexter beef is 14 days. Our processor normally hangs our beef for at least that time and usually longer, up to 21 days. If you have other processors around that can hang your properly fattened Dexter steer for more than 10 days, I'd check into those options.

The only reason to shorten the hanging time to less than 14 days is when the steer (or cow or bull) does not have a sufficient layer of fat on the outside of their carcass to permit the 14 to 21 days hanging time. That can happen when animals are "grass finished" on inadequate pasture or for an insufficient number of days on good pasture. If the carcass is too lean, then the hanging time must be reduced in order to avoid excessive trim losses. Bison are typically only hung for 7 to 10 days because of this reason -- that's because bison don't usually have a nice 0.25 inch uniform fat layer on the outside of their carcass like grass fed/grass finished Dexter cattle.

Patti

[copperhead]

I'm with Patti, you need at least 14 days to get a good age on the beef. 21 is great if you can get it done, but a lot of processors won't do that or the layer of fat is not sufficient, The aging is what helps with the tenderness of your beef.
P.J.

[Clive]

Same here, we do 21 days. Chefs did a taste test on the TV last year and compared beef from not hung at all through to 12 weeks!!!!

The conclusion was that after 4 weeks it was a waste of time or they didn't like it.

[copperhead]

I'd think after 4 weeks it would start to be rancid,