We all know, (or at least most of us know... ), that you can wet age beef in a cryovac bag if the seal is not broken. What I want to know is can I vacuum seal a beef clod and still wet age it?
I don't know for sure why cryovac is safe. Is it because no air gets to the meat or maybe that no additional bacteria can get to it.
Does anyone know for sure? Maybe this is a questiong for docblonder ?
You got me curious, so I went to the Sealed Air site and also their Youtube site. From what I gather it is heavy duty shrink wrap that goes through a peroxide wash and several drying stages before packaging. They have machines that then form and load the bags. Uline carries the film and suggests a heat gun to shrink the film.
Most dangerous bacteria needs oxygen to grow, and Cryovac bags are vacuum sealed. So the bacteria die. But some microbes, like botulism and listeria, can grow without O2. In this case, keeping meat cold slows their growth. Some vendors sanitize the meat's surface before packing -with a gas plasma, or CO2. This extends shelf life considerably, but 3-4 weeks in a cryovac bag is generally considered safe.
When I grind meat for a medium rare burger, I usually take cubes of chuck/brisket and drop in boiling water for 30 secs, then grind. Kills surface microbes. You'll never notice the little bit of pre-cooked meat. If I have scrap meat from trimmings, I quick boil, then vacuum seal. Defrost, grind and make great (safer) burgers.....
), that you can wet age beef in a cryovac bag if the seal is not broken. What I want to know is can I vacuum seal a beef clod and still wet age it?
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