Found out primal cuts lose way more weight than I thought during dry aging

I was reading a meat science paper last night and saw that a whole primal can lose up to 30% of its weight just from moisture evaporation over 45 days. That adds up fast when you're paying $4-5 a pound for good beef. How do you guys price your dry aged stuff to account for that loss without scaring off customers?

2 comments

2 Comments

sam_harris6812d ago

Whoa, 30% loss is no joke. I swear I read somewhere that some butcher shops just build that loss into their normal pricing to keep things simple for customers, like they price the dry aged stuff the same as fresh but make up for it on volume. Other places I've heard of just charge by the final weight and don't even mention the loss, letting the price per lb look lower even though it's still expensive. It's a tricky thing to explain without sounding like you're ripping people off.

the_leo12d ago

Wait, they actually sell dry aged beef at the same price as fresh? @sam_harris68, that honestly blows my mind a little. I get that some places might hide that loss in the price, but I've always thought the whole point of dry aging was that you're paying for the extra time and flavor. If they're not charging more per pound for the dry aged stuff, then who's really eating that 30% loss? It feels like they're either eating that cost themselves or the customers are getting screwed somewhere else. I've seen butchers straight up tell people the final weight after aging, which seems like the honest way to do it, but then people complain about the price per pound. It's a weird balancing act, for sure.