Food - Drink
Why Steakhouse Beef Usually Tastes Better Than Grocery Store Beef
By KAREN GRECO
There's nothing quite as decadent as eating a flawlessly cooked steak, but even if you have the grilling chops, it's nearly impossible to replicate the flavor that comes from a prime steakhouse at home. It all comes down to how that meat is aged, and there are two ways to age meat — dry aging and wet aging.
When you walk into a steakhouse and see unwrapped carcasses hanging in special humidity controlled refrigerators, that’s dry aging. Wet aging is a newer process in which portioned meat is packed in vacuum-seal bags and refrigerated for 10 days. Most steaks found in grocery stores are wet-aged.
You can dry-age a beef steak in your home fridge by wrapping it in a triple layer of cheesecloth and leaving it in the refrigerator for up to seven days. After the meat ages, just sear it on the stovetop in a hot pan and finish it in the oven. The lack of moisture in the steak helps impart a perfect, restaurant-quality crust.