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Although less than 1 percent of the meat in the United States is dry aged, a good percentage goes through a process that the meat industry calls “wet aging.” Wet-aged meat is vacuum-packed in plastic and kept under refrigeration for between 4 days and 2 weeks. During that time, the same muscle enzymes activated in dry aging help to tenderize the meat and improve its flavor, but because the sealed plastic doesn’t permit any dehydration, the rich concentration of flavor that is the hallmark of dry-aged beef never occurs.

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CUTS OF BEEF FOR GRILLING

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08. Veal

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VEAL PRIMAL CUTS

1. Shoulder

2. Shank

3. Rib

4. Breast

5. Loin

6. Leg

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Technically, veal is baby beef slaughtered before 9 months of age, but most veal actually comes from animals less than 4 months old. Its meat is pale, tender, and lean, although these characteristics vary widely depending on how the calf was raised and how it was fed. Veal older than 5 months is usually classified as calf or baby beef and will have a rosy color, a firmer texture, and some marbling.

Many cooks erroneously believe that the younger the veal, the better the meat. Although youth ensures tenderness and mild flavor, it also means a minimum of marbling, which can cause the meat to toughen and dry as it cooks. Veal slaughtered before 8 weeks will certainly have this problem.

Veal quality is more dependent on feed and exercise than on age. The tenderest veal is milk-fed or formula-fed and raised in stalls. Many people object to eating veal that spends the entirety of its short life confined to a stall. Grass-fed and range-fed veal is an option if you are concerned. This type of veal is a deeper color than formula-fed veal, and it has a beefier flavor. If you are a classicist (culinarily speaking), you might object to these qualities, but many contemporary Americans prefer the flavor of grass-fed veal.

Veal carcasses vary greatly in size, from 50 pounds to over 300 for large Dutch formula-fed veal (also known as Provimi) that yield large cuts of meat with exceptional tenderness. Because veal is young beef, it has the same body parts, but there are fewer primal cuts. The sirloin is included with the leg, and the plate, flank, and brisket are all included in the breast. The same distribution of tender and tough cuts applies, but because veal is younger than beef, more of the cuts are tender enough to grill.

Arranged from the most tender at the top to the toughest at the bottom, the cuts of veal that you can grill are shown in the following chart.

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CUTS OF VEAL FOR GRILLING, FROM MOST TENDER TO TOUGHEST

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LOIN The veal loin is most commonly divided into chops, but it can also be roasted whole or boned. It includes a T-shaped bone that separates the loin-eye muscle from a small tenderloin muscle. It looks very similar to a T-bone beef steak (see the illustration on page 52). The tenderloin can be separated and sold cut into veal medallions, or high-grade scaloppine.

If the loin is separated from the leg before the tenderloin is removed, the smaller half will be included in the loin. The larger butt-tenderloin will then be included in the top half of the leg.

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RIB A rack of veal ribs corresponds to a standing rib roast in beef. Like beef, it consists of seven ribs, and it is frequently sold “frenched,” meaning that 1½ inches of each bone is cleaned of all meat and fat, which allows it to be used as a handle to facilitate gnawing or carving.

More commonly, the rack is sliced and sold as chops. Veal rib chops are the most sought after and highest priced of all cuts of veal. They consist of a tender fine-grained eye surrounded by layers of fat and cap muscles. When chops come from the end of the rack closest to the shoulder, the diameter of the chop is larger, but the eye muscle is smaller. You will get more lean meat and less fat per pound by buying rib chops from the loin end,