Re: the chef who says meat will age in the fridge after being thawed, if drained. The only caveat would be that it wasn't frozen in rigor. And I'm sure the chef would say the same thing since the good beef processors would never butcher and freeze beef while it's in rigor. (Cheap beef may be tough for other reasons, but not that.) On the other hand, I've heard some stories about guys processing and freezing their game animals too soon (while the carcass was still in rigor) and all the scientific journals say there's no way to cure that. Not fridge aging after thawing, not long slow cooking. It's stays pretty tough when you do that.
One of my editors admits he did it last fall with a young cow elk. He was so excited that he'd gotten an elk close to home without having to work as hard as he usually does, that he decided to butcher it next day. He's been butchering his own animals for years, and he knows it's not as tender as it should be, and he knew why it wasn't when he told me the story.
mizwhitetail
Last edited by mizwhitetail; 04/21/09.
