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 break meat down into the retail cuts at the packing house, vacuum-wrap them in plastic precisely to avoid exposure to the air, and deliver these prepackaged cuts to the supermarket Vacuum-packed meat has the economic advantage of assembly-line efficiency, and keeps for weeks (as much as 12 for beef, 6 to 8 for pork and lamb) without any weight loss due to drying or trimming Once repackaged, meat has a display-case life of a few days Carefully handled, well packaged meat will be firm to the touch, moist and evencolored in appearance, and mild and fresh in smell Meat Spoilage and Storage Fresh meat is an unstable food Once a living muscle has been transformed into a piece of meat it begins to change, both chemically and biologically The changes that we associate ...break meat down into the retail cuts at the packing house, vacuum-wrap them in plastic precisely to avoid exposure to the air, and deliver these prepackaged cuts to the supermarket Vacuum-packed meat has the economic advantage of assembly-line... Once repackaged, meat has a display-case life of a few days Carefully handled, well packaged meat will be firm to the touch, moist and evencolored in appearance, and mild and fresh in smell Meat Spoilage and Storage Fresh meat is an unstable food. .. Vacuum-packed meat has the economic advantage of assembly-line efficiency, and keeps for weeks (as much as 12 for beef, 6 to 8 for pork and lamb) without any weight loss due to drying or trimming Once repackaged, meat has a display-case life