We all know that if you want a really spectacular steak (as opposed to the same old one that you’ll find at your local supermarket), then you need to go to a steakhouse.

Now if you want the best steak a steakhouse has to offer then you want to get one that’s been dry-aged, preferably for at least a few weeks (ours is 5 weeks after 3 weeks of wet aging). Eat a steak that’s been properly dry-aged and there’s really no competition: It has a richer, beefier flavor, a more tender, more buttery texture, and a minerally, slightly funky scent.

Needless to say, the exact reasons are pretty complex. But we’ll help put it in layman’s terms. Two major things happen when you allow a slab of beef to dry-age. First, naturally-present enzymes in the meat break down some of the collagen, which holds muscle fibers together and causes steaks to toughen while cooking. With collagen out of the way, the end result is much more tender. Second, beef loses about 15 percent of its total weight during the aging process due to water evaporation, so the flavor will be much more concentrated and intense. The longer the beef is allowed to dry-age, the more water it loses and the more intense the flavor will be.

Myers, Dan (5/31/18) Why Does Dry-Aging Make Steak Taste Better? Retrieved from – https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/why-dry-aging-steak-works