Can any beef meat be subjected to these processes?
The answer is no, not all meat can be subjected to a long ageing process without losing properties and becoming inedible. It is a process to which only old cow and ox animals, carefully reared and fed, can be subjected. Are we clear what they are? Veal meat comes from young animals, up to a year old, of either sex. Here experts warn that at this age veal from heifers is better, although this is not normally indicated when we buy it.
Veal meat does not accept a long ageing process; it reaches its peak between 30 and 45 days. The veal heifers that are over 12 months old that are not slaughtered are used as dairy cows or for breeding. They will be used for this function until they become non-productive: at this moment, if the farmer puts them out to grass for a time and gives them feed that is rich in cereals (wheat, corn), the animal will recover and become an old cow with meat that is perfect for ageing. This category includes animals between 3 and 9 years of age.
On the other hand, the male veal animals that are left alive after 12 months have been castrated to make them more docile and they are fattened or used for work in the fields. The former will be slaughtered at 2, 3 or 4 years of age, but the ones used for work in the fields will live quite a lot longer, until their performance decreases. As is the case with cows, with a resting time used to feed them with good grass and cereals, they will become the most sought after trophies, because their meat admits the longest ageing processes, thanks to the covering layer of fat that will protect it during the time it remains in the ageing room.
“You can’t age the meat from all animals”, Carles Tejedor, gastronomic executive at El Nacional explains. “They must be cows or oxen that have been looked after like another member of the family, that have been put out to grass, that have eaten a great deal of corn… The breeds must be known, along with the region where each animal has lived”.
La Braseria at El Nacional offers only heifer veal meat aged for a minimum of 30 days (entrecote, sirloin steak and T-bone steak), T-bone steak from old cow, aged a minimum of 60 days, ox hamburger and ox tartar.
