You won’t know unless you’ve tried it. Here’s why the latest trend in meat, dry-aged steak, is blowing minds at Hunter & Barrel UAE and beyond.
Dry-aged steak is trendy. But it also tastes incredible. Diners that have tried the dry-aged steaks that appear periodically on Hunter & Barrel menu are so wowed by their taste and exceptional tenderness they need to share it.
For many, it’s becoming something of a dry-aged addiction, as our customers find it hard to shake off the juiciest, flavour-packed meat they’ve maybe ever sunk their teeth into.
But how is steak aged, and what difference does it make?
To dry age meat, it needs to be stored in a self-contained laboratory-style refrigerator, keeping the product at a consistent temperature and humidity above 75 per cent. It also contains a UVC light, which is necessary to sanitise the chamber – eliminating the bad bacteria, preserving the good bacteria, and ensuring the meat is matured safely.
There’s a craft, style and science to ageing beef. It involves thousands of hours, and millions of chemical reactions. The flavour profile changes significantly over time: the most common timeframe for dry-ageing is 30 days, but it’s not unusual to go as far as 60 or even 90 days. Fattier, more marbled meat can withstand this kind of extreme ageing – the Tomahawk on the Hunter & Barrel menu sparks a lot of excitement when it comes to dry-aged steak.
"Swiftly, while watching it like a hawk!"
You need to be so meticulous when cooking dry-aged steak because there is far less water content in a dry-aged steak to “bring to a boil”, the steak will cook in much less time, and so constant attention is essential.
Diners must be ready for the change in flavour of a dry-aged steak. Some describe the taste as nutty; others liken its smell and flavour to that of blue cheese! But most would agree the tenderness, juiciness and unique mouthfeel of this preparation trend is unmatched. In short, steak lovers haven’t lived until they’ve sampled dry-aged.
Dry-aged steaks appear periodically as speciality cuts on the Hunter & Barrel menu. Talk to us at the table to check if they are available. Book your exceptional steak experience here
