Dry Aging
A deeper and more concentrated flavour.
Value adding with Dohne hoggets.
Setting it apart from the rest
Potential to value add with Dohne hoggets
Balala is situated in breeding country and on the whole is not fattening country. I am always looking at opportunities to get the best return from assets managed and within our dual purpose flock of Dohnes I found two options. One is to increase cost of production in pastures to turn off the wether portion as finished lambs and the next was an alternative option of increasing gross margin per hectare without having to increase production costs like sowing pasture, supplement feeding grains by value adding my hogget portion of the flock.
I wanted to bring the terms of trade back to the farm gate by increasing the value of kilograms of meat per hectare by aging the hogget.
This was the catalyst behind seeing if it was even possible, and so the seed was planted to try a taste testing on aged hogget.
With the world on its head, I feel there is going to be a change in views about regionalism, food miles, local product and the quality of food are going to come more into play. We see it already being talked about in Australia's manufacturing sector and how to bring elements of manufacture back onto our shores.
We are what we eat, and it all starts from the soil.
More and more consumers care about the nutrient density of their food and consumer power will be the catalyst for increasing on-farm changes. Much of this pressure is currently being pointed at the red meat industry.
Perhaps the question of quality not quantity is important in this space and for us as farmers it means looking for alternative ways of achieving better quality.
Dry Aging Cabinet
(displaying beef primals)
Lamb prices per kilogram are heinously high and I feel we could be offering more to the consumer under the ‘sheep meat’ banner by addressing quality over quantity.
With time MSA will hopefully grade sheep meat on a quality basis and move away from an age determined product. Hopefully, in the process, creating a more appealing name for the product as they have done in using ‘beef’ to refer to cattle meat.
Considering this, I pondered how I might best enhance the quality, flavour profile and tenderness of my own sheep meat.
Ageing seemed the best and easiest way to improve not only the flavour but also tenderness. The sheep industry has not yet focused heavily in the genetics of intra muscular fat (IMF), in recent years a shear index has been derived but unlike the beef industry there is no IMF figure in breeding values - but this will surely change.
Meat Standards:
Meat Standards Australia (MSA) have a respected and well defined grading system for the beef industry, consumers are assured of quality in a grading system, not based on age, but on taste texture and eating satisfaction.
Conversely, the sheep market is graded by age, and what constitutes as lamb is determined by incisor emergence. Lambs are finished at 6 months of age now, and I wonder whether they have had time to develop a depth of flavour, taste, or much intra muscular fat.
Thus we are selling the attributes of quality short. For decades it has been a perceived market driver that lamb is better. So we then forge forward to achieve genetics which will push the boundaries of growth rates (hopefully not producing the pterodactyl sized flavourless, structure-less chicken pieces we find in our supermarkets).
The Taste Test:
So I decided to do a little test to see if I was barking up the wrong tree.
I sent a Dohne hogget through the system and then with the help of Dr Peter McGilchrist who heads up the Meat Science Unit at the University of New England we aged a half carcass for 21 days, freezing the other half as primal cuts (lion; knuckle; topside; bottom side) .
We then set up a taste test using the same muscles from both the aged and un-aged primals. Around the table we had a few very experienced meat specialists and some generalist foodies.
All participants noted there was a definite difference in flavour, juiciness, tenderness and eating quality, between aged and un-aged meat, falling clearly in favour of the aged portions.
The Results:
Ratings were based on beef scoring standards (due to no standard currently developed for sheep meat)
< 46% = Unsatisfactory
> 64% = 4 Star
> 74% = 5 Star
The taste test results came back with an
MQ4 rating of 77% for 21 day aged loin.
Results of the 8x8 Latin Square Taste Testing
My conclusion is that the consumer is being sold short in what is better - 'sheep meat' or ‘lamb’.
So for Dohne's being a true dual purpose sheep, there is an opportunity to look at allowing lambs (weaners) to grow out to hoggets (two tooth) and not be outlaying sums of money to finish them to fat lamb turn off weights but allowing them to grow into their potential, enhancing the depth of flavour in the meat. This also gives an option for pregnancy tested dry maiden hogget ewes, value adding to them.
Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) under Product Development have a final report and results on Dry Aging trials
go to: www.mla.com.au/dryageing