While we were debating the word salumeria, a commenter by the name of SpandTexPants complained that Houston didn't have a butcher shop that sold dry-aged beef. Well, now we do. Hubbell & Hudson Market in the Woodlands has a dry-aging case in its meat department.
When I stopped by today and asked about it, a counterman named German got out a black, moldy USDA Prime rib eye to show me what it looked like. This piece of meat went into the dry-aging case on June 9th. The weight is recorded when it goes in and again when it comes out. Dry-aged meat loses as much as 20 percent of its weight in the aging process. The rib eye he showed me won't be ready until June 30.
Dry-aged meat has a nutty flavor and a unique texture that some steak connoisseurs love. The shocker is that Hubbell & Hudson's dry-aged steak is Certified Black Angus, not USDA Prime. The dry-aging process is so expensive due to the loss of water weight that generally only the very top grade of meat gets the special treatment.
Skeptics might say that dry-aging Black Angus makes about as much sense as putting a leather interior in your Toyota. But who knows, maybe it's great. Pick up some dry-aged Black Angus rib eye right now at Hubbell & Hudson for $24.95 a pound and tell us what you think.
