Aging Beef was [Sca-cooks] Food Myths

[Decker, Terry D.]

As I recall, butchers like to leave a layer of fat on the outside of a
carcass they are aging for several reasons including to serve as a
protective sheath to reduce the penetration of mold into the meat.
Something about having more saleable product and better flavor.

Bear

> Anybody needing support for this statement can talk to the staff of a
> good steakhouse that does their own butchering, or even the butcher
> in the finer markets that sell dry-aged beef, about the amount of
> moldy surface material they have to trim off before sale. Now, or
> course, that meat is refrigerated, but refrigeration slows down
> decomposition, and doesn't eliminate it, so there are likely some
> major similarities to the process.
>
> Adamantius