George:
>The beef that I come across in the stores that is on or over the "sell by"
>date is usually turned grayish and has - what seems to me - a rancid,
>put-offish odor. I cooked some once, and it tasted awful to me.
>
>Is this what you mean by "aged" meat? If so, it must be an aquired
>taste...

No, that meat has gone bad due to bacterial comtamination.

Storing meat (or fish fillets) in plastic ensures a collection of
moisture/juices and this is what bacteria thrive in--helping the meat to go
bad quickly. If the surface of the meat/fish is allowed to dry (as it does
when hung from paper clips in the fridge--or even just placed on the wire
shelf w/o wrapping) it will not go gray like it does when wrapped in
plastic.

In my experience wild meat/fish age the best and longest w/o rotting (like
weeks at room temp); pastured meat ages well (I recently ate some
grass-only beef hung for 13 weeks in a cooler); and most dry-feed
commercial meats develop off-flavors more quickly (like in a couple days at
room temp).

>I supose if I grew up eating it all the time I might feel otherwise - like
>that tribe in South America that eats meat that's been rotting in the
>jungle for a week or more.

Or the pygmies who crawl inside a rotting elephant carcass and pig out. :)
(Sadly, the pygmies have probably been decimated by now...)

Cheers,
Kirt

Secola  /\  Nieft
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