How does dry aged meat not go bad?
In: 177
It will eventually go bad but not from bacterial infection like raw meat. It’s too dry and too salty and preserved with salts that have anti bacterial action to support bacteria. The flavor can eventually oxidized and start to taste old.
The smell of aged beef is disgusting. It permeates the whole restaurant where it is served. It’s rotten/rotting meat.
Bacteria makes meat go bad
Bacteria love water
Squishy meat has water
Squishy Meat therefor creates bacteria and goes bad
Dry, non-squishy meat doesnt grow bacteria as fast and thus (technically) stays edible longer.
Think of it this way
If you have an apple on the counter , it’s probably fine for a week right? Put it in the fridge and it’s fine for longer.
But if you cut that apple open the inside oxidizes and goes all brown and can rot faster , that’s because apples have a skin on them to act as a protective outer layer
When meat is dry aged it’s usually coated or salted heavily on the outside , it makes the outside utterly useless but it’s like a protective shell to keep organisms out , couple that with low temperatures and a dry environment and bacteria doesn’t have much of a chance to even start
If they can’t get in , they can’t run amok and make stuff go bad for human consumption , all this leaves is all the natural cells and enzymes in the beef which also can break stuff down but in a much slower fashion and one that isn’t dangerous to us and can actually enhance the flavour. Not to mention a lot of water also evaporates, like a lot so the meat gets concentrated.
So overall bacteria get locked out, the environment isn’t beneficial to them and a protective layer that is discarded is formed
I have seen a bag of beef jerky get mold because there was a hole in the bag so it’s not that it never goes bad at all it just greatly slows down the process..
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