What is a matured meat?
Surely you have heard of aged meat before, either dry aging or vacuum aging. When you read 'aged meat' you may be thinking 'old meat that's been sitting in the fridge too long', but think again. In fact, it is a controlled process that could also be replaced by meat aging.
Why make it to age meat?
Why is it important to age the meat before you eat it or even sell it ? Simply as a result of the slaughter, the meat of the animal is completely rigid, and therefore, almost inedible. We must then age it a few days to make it good to the consumer. Generally, the meat could be found at the grocery store was aged between 7 and 12 days. At the butcher, it will sometimes meats aged between 14 and 28 days. The more you mature, the more it will be tender and tasty. Please be aware that the Selection of 1913 Maillard includes pieces of beef, aged for 60 days.
What happens during the aging process?
By waiting these few days before sale, the enzymes present in the meat are allowed to gradually destroy or eliminate the fibers (muscle connective tissue), which relaxes the muscles and makes the meat more tender. The more it is aged, the more the fibers disappear and gives optimal tenderness to the piece and brings incredible flavors, almost approaching a nutty taste, according to some.
Two ways to age the meat:
As mentioned above, meat aging is a process in an intensively controlled environment that involves aging meat to make it better. Two methods are possible; dry aging and vacuum aging.
The dry aging process
Dry aging consists of suspending the pieces of meat in an environment above the freezing point (between 1°C and 3°C) and in a humidity between 60% and 80%. This process allows the water to evaporate. In a freezing environment, water freezes and does not evaporate. In an environment that is too hot, the meat rots. The dry aging process causes weight loss, mainly due to the evaporation of water from the meat and shrinkage. What is interesting in this case is that the flavors do not evaporate and concentrate in the remaining meat mass.
The ageing under vacuum
This ripening process is perhaps more common since it requires less expensive and less complex equipment. In English, we speak of wet-aging. With this method, there is no evaporation of water, and therefore no weight loss. If the tenderness of the meat increases all the same, the intensity of the flavor remains about the same. You will have an accentuation of flavors only in dry aging.
FROM THE FARM TO YOUR BBQ! Why locally aged angus beef makes A Difference? Marché Divin has for objective to allow Quebecers to savour a delicious steak or hamburger with family and friends in the comfort of their home. We want to serve as a link between the farm and your grill (or your freezer). Buying beef from a local farmer is much more simple than in the past. The time where he had to go to the countryside to go get steaks is over. Our goal is to give everyone the opportunity to purchase the succulent beef that is local at a competitive price. BETTER HEALTH!! David and Philip have noticed over the years that it is possible to raise black angus beef in the Mirabel area, while providing a quality product at a competitive price. What differentiates our beef from all the others is that we do not give any hormones or antibiotics in our livestock. It is in freedom, allowing him to eat what is natural to him, without any stress of commercial farming. In addition, we let it mature until the age of 18 months, compared to the commercial farmers who cut their beef at the age of 12 months. After following these steps, it’s essential for quality meat like no other, we dry age the beef whole for 28 days.
However, the demand is too high, we are obliged to buy the premium beef from other providers and we can not guarantee for the moment that there are no hormones or steroids in all our products. What we guarantee is the best quality product on the market due to the aging process.
The dry aging process is a method that is more expensive, but we believe that the results are worth the cost. Once you've tasted our beef, you will understand why! The exceptional beef is aged for a minimum period of 28 days and this is what makes the extreme difference in its taste, its tenderness and its nutritional quality. It will impress you for sure! At Marché Divin, we are partners with cattle farmers whose quality is very rare. Noting that the beef quality is extremely superior to any competition, we decided to start to sell it ourselves. Truly our pride and our passion have always been the black angus beef premium quality. Selling this product to us, who are raised locally is an all-new adventure. We look forward to the Quebecers participating with us in this first chapter of the history of the Marché Divin.
WHERE DOES OUR BEEF COME FROM?
The Pelletier and Moorhead farm is a family-run company in business for many years. David Moorhead was raised on the family farm and began work at the age of 10 years old to help his parents. With Pascale and Doug, they’ve raised black angus beef (cow-calf) for nearly 30 years. This family’s passion for agriculture, which is now in its third generation (Gerald Moorhead, Doug Moorhead, and then David Moorhead), is both special and quite rare. On the side of Pelletier, Philip is part of the second generation of farmers. David has practiced many sports in his life, but his main passion is golf. He works at Airbus with Shorts Brothers (Kentech Aviation Services in Mirabel) and is the force behind David and Philip Inc. He always has a new idea in mind! Philip led a 28-year career in the armed Forces, administrative and financial services. He has traveled the world in countries such as Egypt, Norway, Europe, and Afghanistan. He retired from the armed forces in 2016 and now works as an administrative services coordinator at Commissionaires Ottawa, which employs more than 4,000 security officers. Philip lives with his daughter, Sarina, who also works at the farm and studying in care pre-hospital emergency at Cégep de l'outaouais. Conservative in nature, Philip is responsible for the administrative aspects of the company, sales in external markets and small-scale work on the farm. The company David and Philip Inc. is born from an idea of David after Pascale began to sell a few pieces of Angus beef in 2017
The success of this initiative quickly generated a lot of enthusiasm. David and Philip then looked for land for sale in the Mirabel area. In August 2018, they purchased a plot of land, a house and buildings at 5305 rang St-Hyacinthe, Qc Mirabel, in the same street where the Pelletier and Moorhead farm is. This 100-acre, has been used to raise steers for Pascale and Doug, and sell cuts from a small shop and to external markets. This would never have been possible without the support and collaboration of Pascale and Doug who are the pillars of the company since the first day, and which remain unconditional supporters of daily activities. David and Philip Inc. would also like to thank farm credit Canada, which provides financial support to the company. We are pleased to offer you this product of local Quebec, 100% quebec beef exceptionally here at Marché Divin in Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts!
