seen, slow cooking gives the aging enzymes a
chance to do in a few hours what would
otherwise take weeks.
Cutting and Packaging
In the traditional butchering practice that
prevailed until the late 20th century but is
now rare, animal carcasses are divided at the
slaughterhouse into large pieces — halves or
quarters — which are then delivered to retail
butchers, who break them down into roasts,
steaks, chops, and the other standard cuts. The
meat might not be wrapped at all until sale,
and then only loosely in “butcher’s paper.”
Such meat is continuously exposed to the air,
so it tends to be fully oxygenated and red, and
it slowly dries out, which concentrates its
flavor at the same time that it leaves some
surface areas discolored and off-flavored and
in need of trimming.
The modern tendency in butchering is to