Salt Aged Beef
It has long been known therapeutic benefits of Himalayan salt but it is only a recent phenomenon that it has started to be used to aid the aging of meat.
Estimated at being aged between 150 to 200 million years old the Himalayan salt deposits were created when the ancient seas in the area evaporated, these deposits were then formed under great pressure during the formation of the Himalayas. Protected from pollutants and impurities by nature, the salt remains unrefined, untreated and free of additives. It varies in colour and comes in white and a multitude of different shades of orange and pink. Also known as “King Salt”, “white gold” or “salt of life” it has traditionally be used in cooking, baths and other beauty treatments due to it having the world’s highest elemental content, with 84 minerals and trace elements essential to the body’s health & wellbeing.
The wall we’ve created in our dry ageing chamber consists of over 400 of these Himalayan salt bricks. Each of the bricks has been hand cut and shipped in especially for us from the Punjab region of Pakistan near to the Himalayas.
There are a number of effects going on which enhances the flavour of the meat, firstly the salt bricks help to draw moisture from the surrounding air and meat, the lowered humidity helps inhibit the growth of unwanted bacteria on the meat. The negative ions from the salt then counteract with the positive ions of the meat giving a unique sweet, flavour. The bricks also aid in purifying the air in the chamber and it is noticeable the clean, fresh atmosphere when entering.
The meat we use for aging comes predominately from Galloway breed cattle and is hand selected on a quality basis to ensure the correct confirmation and marbling. By aging the beef for a minimum of 5 weeks in the Himalayan salt chamber and maintaining the right level of humidity, temperature, and lighting the results are simply stunning!! Steak like you’ve never tasted before!!
At the time of writing this there are currently only a handful of butchers in the world using this dry aging technique, 2 in the US, 1 in Canada, 1 in Australia, 1 in Europe and we are one of the first butchers in the UK to have it installed.
