Greedy beef, or Why the Italian built the world's largest meat storage

Meat remains one of the most popular products on Earth. And there is a particularly high demand for beef, which, unlike pork, is eaten with pleasure by both Jews and Muslims. In the USA, beef has a particularly reverent attitude, because without it it is impossible to imagine steaks and many other popular dishes. Therefore, it is not surprising that the world's largest storage of this meat is located in the States.

Dry aging, or dry aged, is a special preparation of beef for consumption. To make the meat softer, more tender and tastier, it is kept in special storages at a certain temperature. Sometimes this process is called a "controlled decomposition process".  It certainly doesn't sound very good, but in fact it's not that scary.

During aging, part of the moisture goes out of the beef. It dries up, as it were, which changes its structure and taste. The meat has barely noticeable nutty notes, which are highly appreciated by gourmets. A marble steak that has passed dry aged, according to experts, becomes "more beef" and acquires a concentrated flavor.

The dry aged process has nothing to do with freezing. In the chambers where beef "reaches", the temperature is maintained in the range from 0 to +2 degrees Celsius. Only in such conditions fermentation takes place correctly and quickly. When the temperature drops, beef simply freezes, and when it rises, it ferments faster, but acquires a characteristic smell of carrion.

In addition, the meat should be blown by an air flow at a speed of 0.5 — 2 m / s. Humidity also matters — it is maintained at 70-85 percent. Have you already imagined how troublesome it is to produce dry aged beef? Technological difficulties do not allow processing large volumes of meat, since the chambers for such a process are very expensive.

But the costs and other difficulties did not frighten Pat LaFrieda, a third-generation butcher. A descendant of the Italian dynasty built a huge beef dry aging plant in North Bergen, New Jersey, USA. His camera for dry aged occupies an area of 15.5 thousand square meters!

In a huge storage, where all the conditions for the aging of meat are maintained, there is beef worth $ 10 million (585.2 million rubles). The products are stored on racks capable of holding up to 1100 full-sized pallets.

It is not surprising that the construction of the premises itself and the installation of equipment cost Pat LaFrida another $ 10 million. But the meat expert did not lose — his meat is in great demand in the USA and restaurants are even lining up for him.

LaFrida's company turns 100 years old this year. His great-grandfather opened his first butcher shop in New York, Manhattan, in 1922. For the last 50 years, the company has been supplying meat to the most expensive restaurants and luxury hotels in different parts of the USA and even in Canada.