Drying dynamics of meat highlighting areas of relevance to dry‐aging of beef

Abstract

Drying of foods is a processing step, which has a variety of outcomes from improving shelf life and product stability, to reducing weight, or to achieving a targeted product eating quality. Drying is key step in the manufacturing of some dried meat products, such as jerky. It is also a major event that occurs when beef is dryaged, where beef is exposed to air under defined conditions for an extended aging period. Although the conditions typically used to produce dried meat products are significantly different from those that prevail during dry-aging, both involve a gradual removal of water from muscle. As there is a paucity of research on the kinetics of the dehydration process occurring during dry-aging of beef, this paper comprehensively reviews models used to describe drying kinetics in other beef products, in order to gain insights regarding the key factors that impact water removal from meat. Consideration is given as to how the specific conditions during dry-aging such as air flows used (approximately 2 m/s), high air relative humidity, low temperature, and meat geometry will influence the kinetics of the drying. With regard to modeling, equations derived from Fick's second law of diffusion (e.g., thin-layer models) have been used to describe the drying kinetics of small-sized meat products. However, to apply Fick's law to dry-aging, some different considerations may need to be evaluated such as: tridimensional geometry (i.e., whole muscle); uniform initial moisture content; isotropic diffusion; negligible shrinkage;and a combination of internal and external resistances.

Effect of Starter Culture and Temperature on the Flavor and Sensory Characteristics of Dry-Cured Ham

“…Early in the drying process, free water is lost, and during the aging period, bound water decreases due to dehydration. The drying rate varies according to drying environmental conditions ( Álvarez et al, 2021 ). Parolari et al (2016) reported that when dry-cured ham was aged for 12 months at 4°C and 16°C, the high-temperature treatment showed lower values.…”

Bigels as Fat Replacers in Fermented Sausages: Physicochemical, Microbiological, Sensory, and Nutritional Characteristics

“…In addition, this process improves the mechanical and organoleptic properties of the sausages. Loss of moisture is affected by the prevailing conditions in the fermentation chamber, such as temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity [ 29 ]. Additionally, the composition and structure of the fat replacer could also have an impact on the drying process of the sausages.…”

Analysis of physicochemical properties of dry-cured beef made from Hanwoo and Holstein meat distributed in South Korea

“…Moisture in meat is divided into bound, immobilized, and free water. Among them, free water is reduced in the initial drying process, and fixed water is reduced in the subsequent dry aging process [ 30 ]. Furthermore, the protein content significantly increased with the manufacturing periods in both Hanwoo and Holstein.…”