This is the meat that the OCU advises not to make at home for sanitary reasons

For a few years now, l****a matured meat has been occupying a gastronomic pedestal from which it is now difficult to lower it**. With a more tender texture and a more concentrated flavour, although it is sometimes reminiscent of mushrooms or butter, its use in restaurants and in gourmet butchers has been expanding little by little.

However, neither the OCU nor the AESAN recommend that we dare at home to make matured meat due to the obvious health risks that it entails. It is different in the case of butcher shops or restaurants and, above all, of checking the limits of this product.

What is certain is that it is a fashionable product, although the reality is that matured meat has been with us for many years. In fact, all the beef eaten in our country is matured, although not to the point of exceeding 40 or 50 days.

Typically, a recently slaughtered animal you need a maturation of your meat so that the muscle is more tender before being put up for sale. Otherwise it will be too stiff and also not that tasty.

For this reason, the most normal thing is that the matured meat have between one and two weeks of maturation. Something that has changed in recent years with long maturation.

It is nothing other than a physicochemical process where enzymes and microorganisms favor tissues to soften and, in addition, new flavors and aromas develop. The whole process can also be summarized as a loss of weight and water in the piece, due to this dehydration, but let’s see why the OCU recommends that it not be done at home.

Why not make matured meat at home according to the OCU

Although the OCU emphasizes that “the consumption of matured meat [en casa y hostelería] it is safe if the process is respected”, the reality is that “in no case can it be done domestically”.

The reason is that so much specialized butcher shops as slaughter companieswith controlled temperature and humidity ripening chambers, ensure that the ripening effect is as desired, but also safe.

Especially since these maturations require that they be done in large pieces, such as whole animals, carcasses or half carcasses, in addition to Whole loins, ribs or chopswhich ensure a homogeneous maturation and which will also later allow the elimination of unwanted parts.

However, in the fridge at home, meat only lasts a few days and the conditions are not controlled for humidity or temperature and, above all, there are other foods that can interact with it and generate possible contamination.

For these reasons, if you ever want to eat matured meat, better buy directly at your butcher shop or do it in a restaurant and never, under any circumstances, make it homemade.

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