>How does one safely age raw meat?  Is there a concern about bacteria?
i age meat for 10 years now and only for 2 years with a fridge, before i was
not owning one, so i was hanging the meat inside a screened box left in the
wind . The surface dry out and permit the inside to mature .
with the fridge it is in some way no so easy specially if it is full of wet
foods ( too much humidity) it is good to hang it so the air can circulate
around . the advantage of the fridge is to allow to keep the meat for weeks
before drying out completly ( it mostly depends of the thickness of  a
piece).
when the environment is saturated with water, a mucussy cream is forming on
the surface, i just scraped it off with a knife and allow the surface to dry
out again and the meat is fine tasting.
>I am still "fearful" of raw meat.  Will the smell or appearance reflect
>something wrong with it?  Has anyone ever gotten ill from raw eggs or meat
they
>thought was safe?  How do I assure it is safe?

Sometimes it happens when drying by heat  a too thick piece of meat that the
surface  is drying  too quickly stopping further evaporation of  water from
the inside and the meat spoil smelling very unappealing ( it is specially
risky if there is lot of fat recovering the piece. This is the only time
that i had to vomit a piece that was fermented that way and i ate it despite
it was not good tasting at all . ( never eat if it doesn't taste good), it
was a rack of ribs with lot of fat on the outside
>
from my experience , it is enough to assure me that it is safe ,that it
smell attractive .
Note that i observed that commercial meats that i rarely buy are more
subject to fermentations than grass fed meats .
I buy sometimes organic beef in a sealed plastic bag. It is a different kind
of maturation that are allowed in this wet environment deprived of air. the
meat eaten right  after opening the bag taste metallic ( because of the
blood that is not drained) it is not tasty , but if i hang a piece of meat
after opening tha bag,  in the fridge and let it ripen for days, it taste
wonderful .


 In the archives I think I read
>that all meats are safe to eat raw and trichinosis is a myth, salmonella
and
>e.coli  is not to be worried about, is this true?  Can I eat meat from
grocery
>store raw?
i will be very prudent with commercial meats, but organic (grain fed) or
grassed fed are very safe to me.
The taste is so much better anyway.
but  i know peoples eating commercial meats raw without any problems.
>
>If it is not denatured by freezing or searing and left in the refrigerator
for a
>few days to a week, is it still safe to eat raw?  I was raised, as everyone
else
>I know, to cook meats thoroughly.  I have never had food poisoning but do
not
>want to get it either.  I have a 14 month old and can't really be bed (or
>toilet)-ridden due to contaminated meat or eggs.  Are my fears unwarranted
and
>based on scare tactics that I can overcome if I give it a chance?
i have a 2 and half year son who eat aged meat and is very clear if he want
it or not. One day he will  eat a lot of lamb and someday will not touch it.
I trust his still intact instinct. he is not in a place where he eat
something because it  is healthy to do so. he eat what taste good. We as
trained socialised eater are not so in touch with our real needs.
Note that we eat raw meat unseasonned so we can't cheat with the real taste
of the food. If you eat seasonned, make sure that an unseasonned piece taste
good to you before you eat your seasonned one.
Jean-claude
>
>Kendra
>NeanderTwin