croyvac meat storage and wet aging

To all you Top Gun Chefs- please help me with this question. From the time of delivery from the
purveyor, how long can a whole tenderloin in croyvac be stored before it goes bad ? (proper temp storage of course)
At what point does wet aging come into play.?
Thanks in advance for any answers to this.

By Foodpump (Foodpump) on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 09:30 am: Edit

Depends on how long the meat was aged before packaging, usually it's aged 4 weeks before sale, so you should be able to store it for at least another 2 weeks.

If you keep the meat in cryovac, it's wet aging. In order for beef to be tender it has to age, if it ages in plastic, there is no evaporation loss, just a puddle of juices in the bag which you pay for. If the meat is dry aged the moisture loss goes into the butcher's cooler, and the butcher, in order to compensate for the moisture (and weight!) loss will charge accordingly ....

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 01:35 pm: Edit

"how long can a whole tenderloin in croyvac be stored before it goes bad ?"
There are many variables that contribute to this answer, yes, temp. is crucial, also how it was handled after the kill, how long it was not held at proper temp., did the purveyor handle it properly....many of these things you will never know the answer to, so; the answer is always different.

By Tortesrus (Tortesrus) on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 10:50 pm: Edit

Chef Manny- How long would you feel comfortable about holding a croyvac of meat in the walk-in
not knowing the variables that you mentioned? I would really like to know what other chefs routinely do in this area. Thank you and Food Pump for reponding to my question. I appreciate all information
on this.

By Pegasus (Pegasus) on Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - 04:00 am: Edit

Foodpump and after the dry aging is when the butchers water injecting pump comes into play to compensate for said loss of water, the place I was working at last year bought all their meat from a butchery that kept said pump on the bench in clear view of customers, no attempt to hide the that they were injecting water into their meat it.

Same with any frozen s*** added water = money, its all about money.

Tortesrus text book answer is about 2-3 weeks, so if I bought cryo-vac'd meat from x butcher and knew nothing about it, I wouldn't go over 3 weeks and I think the best temperature is 1 degree celcius - 3 degrees celcius not over 5 degrees c though.

If it doesnt seem right though dump it, a 3 week old tenderloins value vs someone getting even minorly sick and the stigma that would come, value of the loin loses.

Wet againg foodpump answered that, starts when you cryovac it.

By Tortesrus (Tortesrus) on Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - 12:53 pm: Edit

Thank you Pegasus.

By Andapanda (Andapanda) on Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - 07:58 pm: Edit

Pegasus,
Quote: "...I think the best temperature is 1 degree celcius - 3 degrees celcius not over 5 degrees c though."

It reminded me of the Holy Hand Grenade in Monty Python and The Holy Grail!:

"SECOND BROTHER: And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying,
'O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade that with it thou mayest blow thine
enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and the people
did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans
and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--
MAYNARD: Skip a bit, Brother.
SECOND BROTHER: And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the
Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shalt
be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be
three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting
that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number
three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand
Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall
snuff it.'
MAYNARD: Amen.
KNIGHTS: Amen.
ARTHUR: Right! One... two... five!
GALAHAD: Three, sir!
ARTHUR: Three!
[angels sing]
[boom]"