Longer than usual hanging time-butcher

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Ashes

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Does a long hanging time of the carcass affect the smell and/or color of the meat? It obviously affects tenderness but what about those aspects? It is controlled rotting so it would make sense. I'm used to the usual 1 to 3 weeks but a new butcher hung my 16-month-old heifer for 4 1/2 weeks. The color variation and odd smell is throwing me off.
 
I had one the butcher misplace one for a month, it deffinetly had a different smell and taste, I couldn't eat it. Packer told me it was almost a delicacy! Some of my family loved it. Not me!
 
my guy wont go over 15 days..even when I asked..too much trim and it does change it
..month and a half is getting into that range of acquired taste

yer throwing so much away in trim I hope ya got a stellar deal..cuz the percentage of return gonna be real low compared to hanging wieght
 
whats the ideal hanging time?

would a higher grass diet be better off with a longer time or is that for grass finished only?
 
Ashes":1oow4c6u said:
Does a long hanging time of the carcass affect the smell and/or color of the meat? It obviously affects tenderness but what about those aspects? It is controlled rotting so it would make sense. I'm used to the usual 1 to 3 weeks but a new butcher hung my 16-month-old heifer for 4 1/2 weeks. The color variation and odd smell is throwing me off.

Had the same thing happen 3yrs ago and the entire carcass was rotten! It was horrible. Butchers rarely volunteer to hang a carcass that long because they need the freezer space.
 
Thanks for the replies. This heifer was grain fed for 90 days and I wasn't happy with her weight gain. I was surprised she had enough fat to hang that long. Don't get me wrong, this is the most tender meat we've ever got back and it taste great. I just can't handle the smell. The smell is off and has more brown color patches than what I've seen in the past 8 years of doing this. The original butcher told me it was fine. I did get a second opinion from another butcher that said it was bad or spoiled. I just picked the meat up a month ago....
 
ddd75":30trmpuz said:
whats the ideal hanging time?

would a higher grass diet be better off with a longer time or is that for grass finished only?
I remember reading about the high end steak houses having theirs hang for 28 days. But they hand pick their sides of beef at the plant and aren't concerned about the amount of trim.
 
ddd75":30xjsz5m said:
whats the ideal hanging time?

would a higher grass diet be better off with a longer time or is that for grass finished only?
Ideal hang time depends on fat cover and amount of beneficial bacteria in the hanging freezer being used.

I read a few years ago U of M concluded most bang for your buck was 8-10 days with hang times beyond 14 days
resulting in too much shrink to be profitably recommended.

I would suggest asking your butcher what hang times he's had the best luck with.
Because butchers have incentive to move 'em out as fast as they can, I might ask a butcher I haven't used before to
hang it a day or 2 longer than he recommendss.
 
Ashes":2gcqg4b1 said:
Thanks for the replies. This heifer was grain fed for 90 days and I wasn't happy with her weight gain. Was surprised she had enough fat to hang that long. Don't get me wrong, this is the most tender meat we've ever got back and it taste great. But I can't handle the smell. The smell is off and has more brown color patches than what I've seen in the past 8 years of doing this. The original butcher told me it was fine. I did get a second opinion from another butcher that said it was bad or spoiled. I just picked the meat up a month ago....

Fry the hamburger and see if you can handle the smell. I'll bet your butcher had a problem he's not admitting to. That was certainly true in my case.
 
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