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Does meat need to be hung up after it’s slaughtered?

by · August 23rd, 2007
Health, Meat

While deciding whether or not to schect (slaughter) a goat at the Hazon Food Conference has created controversy, the question of how to schect a goat for quality meat also seems to be a cause for debate.

Yesterday Nigel wrote on The Jew & The Carrot: “The first thing we found out (and this surprised me): meat has to be hung up for a few days before you can eat it.”

Later that day, a blogger at The Failed Messiah countered with:

“Meat does not need to be “hung up” for a few days before you can eat it. Think back to the Temple, Nigel, and the sacrifices offered there…Nowhere in [The Torah] is a command to “hang up” the meat for a few days before consumption. In fact, quite the opposite is true.”

I think there was a bit of cross-conversation confusion – it seems that Failed Messiah was referring to halacha (and he’s right, there is no specific law about “hanging up” meat after an animal is slaughtered), whereas Nigel was talking about hanging up meat for taste and health reasons.  Regardless, Failed Messiah’s counter post inspired me to look deeper into the logistics of schechting from my perspective as a registered dietitian who now works for Hazon. 

There are a number of factors that influence the quality of the meat – the most commonly cited being whether cows are grass-fed or grain-fed (but that is a topic for another post).  In terms of hanging, there are two main ways to age meat: wet and dry aging. Dry aging, which is what most people think of when we talk about aging meat, is when the meat is hung in a clean, temperature and humidity controlled cooler for a period of time. When the meat hangs, it goes through rigor mortis, giving enzymes time to break down some of the protein strains in the muscles which results in a tender cut of meat and more concentrated flavors due to moisture loss.

Wet aging is just another example of how food processing has changed with our industrial food system. Wet aging occurs when meat is butchered, vacuum packed in plastic and boxed for distribution. The meat ages while in transit even though it is not hun up. The meat is sealed and no moisture is lost. While the meat does tenderize, the flavors are not concentrated in the same way as with dry aging. This to say, industrial meat is aged even if it is not hung up.

Assuming we wet age the meat at the conference before serving it, how long does meat need to hang/dry age? While most of the recent research is done on USDA certified non-kosher cuts of beef, the evidence is still strong enough to state that generally, the meat will get increasingly tender as it ages.  The Journal of Animal Science published articles in December 2006 and June 2004 that reviewed the influence of the aging period on the quality of the meat. Research showed that hanging the meat for 21 days provides a more tender cut of meat than 7 days and hanging meat for 14 days provides a tender cut of meat than 7 days, respectively. However, the majority of the enzymatic action occurs within the first 7 days. 

My vote (and granted, I don’t not personally eat red meat), is that two goats get schected: one a week prior to the conference in order to produce higher quality meat and one during the conference as an important step in reconnecting with where our food comes from.

If you want to learn more about meat aging or other interesting elements of animal husbandry, the Iowa State University, Department of Animal Science is a great resource.

Hazon and The Jew & The Carrot will continue to post updates on this process as we learn more.

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5 Responses to “Does meat need to be hung up after it’s slaughtered?”

  1. Shmarya Says:
    August 23rd, 2007 at 7:16 pm

    Actually, before vacuum packing and refrigeration, most meat was not aged at all. It was slaughtered, butchered and sold within a day of slaughter.

    Not only that, the aging you refer to causes shrinkage and meat loss (due to necessary trimming), and substantially raises the price of meat – which is why most meat sold today is not aged in any way. (In fact, a large portion of it is frozen soon after slaughter and sold upon thawing.)

    So, not only does meat not need to be hung, it *rarely* (no pun intended) is hung or aged in any way.

    The best cuts of meat cost more because they are the most naturally tender and the most flavorful. Cheaper cuts like chuck and shoulder are much tougher and historically were prepared as stews or ground because of this.

    Anyway, the point of my post was not just the point about hanging meat – it was the idea that a Jewish organization that deals with food from a supposedly Jewish perspective and has done so for many years has seemingly little if any understanding of basic kosher food production.

    The slur historically hurled at hazon and other left-of-center Jewish food organizations like JVNA is that these organizations make up a Judaism to fit their non-Jewish or non-historically-Jewish outlooks. In other words, intentional or not, the mold Judaism to fit their needs rather than mold their needs to adapt to Judaism.

    While I often reject this claim, there are times when it seems to have some merit, and this seems to be one of those times.

  2. Shalom Says:
    August 23rd, 2007 at 8:22 pm

    I can only tell you from personal experience that if the goat(s) are young enough the animals can be grilled or roasted right there on the spot with absolutely no aging process. While studying for my shechitah certification I had the opportunity to shecht several goats on a moshav and the youngest were grilled that evening and were quite tender and delicious!

    If they are older animals then I would recommend the aging process or you might end up doing more chewing than you would care for.

    The one thing to keep in mind is that not all animals that are slaughtered with shechitah are necessarily kosher… sometimes they have internal problems with the lungs or other organs that renders them treif, hence the need to have a qualified posek to make any such halakhic decisions.

    Bete’avon

  3. der Says:
    August 23rd, 2007 at 8:40 pm

    Shalom can probably elaborate on this since I have not studied shechitah, but my understanding is as follows:

    1. After slaughter, meat has to be soaked and salted to remove as much blood as possible in order to be kosher. This is how most kosher meat is prepared

    2. OR, the meat can be cooked on an open flame (read: BBQ) immediately upon slaughter. At my Yeshiva in Israel, each year this is done – 3 lambs are bought from local Arab herdsman, slaughtered (as part of a larger class) and a barbeque is held right there. (as a side note, we sold the non-kosher hind quarters back to the Arabs).

    However, after slaughtering the animals, we did hang them up since its much easier to check the various internal organs and remove the skin / wool (which we also sold back to the Arabs) when you can walk around the carcass, rather than having it lay on the ground.

  4. Michael Green Says:
    August 27th, 2007 at 5:19 am

    Red meat should definately be hung for around 21 days. If your steak is bright red – i.e. fresh and not hung – then don’t buy it!

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