Hi, Jana,

Richard has given a more comprehensive answer to your question than I could
have overall, so I'll just add a few tidbits.

The custom processing plants/packing houses around here typically ask how
long you want your beef hung.  They don't recommend anything less than 11-13
days.  In the grocery stores, when you can still find such meat,  the cuts
labeled "Heavy Aged Beef" always command premium prices.  The longer a beef
is hung, the more distinctive the flavor.  "Ripened," I guess, would be the
word.  LOL.  But the taste is not at all disagreeable.

Which brings me to a related point.  The "preferred" taste of meat is
largely culturally defined.  I have a friend in Ft. Worth who is married to
a man from France.  He will not eat cuts fresh from the grocery store.  She
further ages their meat in the refrigerator--PHEW!--to the point that most
of us would toss it out as completely rotten.  As far as I know she doesn't
age poultry, but it's my understanding that hung poultry is a high-priced
delicacy in certain parts of France.

Pork is not hung.  However, the old fashioned, down-home-type smokehouse
used for curing hams and bacon fairly well accomplished something on this
order.  The meat dehydrates and mold has to be scrubbed off, and the meat
soaked to rid it of concentrated salt, before it can be eaten.

BTW, I'm a city girl, too.  Got transplanted to the country back in 1980.
It's been a learning curve, straight up!  <g>

Theola


-------snip------------
> Aging tenderizes muscle tissue. Enzymes in the meat break the meat down.
It
> is the reverse of rigor mortis I guess. For some reason, you can age beef
> and lamb, but pork and chicken do not benefit from much aging.
>
>