So if I wanted to have a go at doing this at home? You've no chance. (Laughs) No you
can't do this in a domestic environment.
Right people, stayed overnight in Liverpool, up
early because we're going on a little adventure to Northern Ireland, I'm off to Belfast, in the van.
Right people, welcome to episode two of the beef series. Now, if you haven't subscribed...
what? Call yourself a fan of beef? I mean I've got the most awesome content coming at
ya in the next four and five weeks and you wana be subscribed so you can catch every episode
So I'm off to see Peter Hannen, he's one of only a handful of guys in the world
who is really pushing the boundaries when it comes to ageing meat. You see most steaks,
most beef in the supermarket, it's only aged for about ten days and it's wet aged,
it's no good. In an artisan butcher, the good stuff it's aged for twenty-eight to thirty.
And in a great restaurant, you're getting up to sixty days. Well, Peter Hannan, he's pushed the
envelope to four hundred days.
Peter how are you? Very well, how are you? I hope you've got a good appetite,
have you? Bring it on, bring it on. Our starting point was we were tasting a lot of beef that
had been dry aged and we consistently thought that there must be a better way of doing this
and the reason most people offer meat aged twenty-eight days is that's really when you
need to be eating it if you're not in control of a lot more elements and temperature. We
started by hanging a side of beef in a cold room and we educated ourselves on what actually
happens and inhibit certain things from happening and we thought could it be light, humidity,
air temperature, all those sorts of things. We eventually got to a point where we were
happy with what we had done and the whole salt process was almost a fluke. How long
were you banging your head against a wall before you came up with the breakthrough
of salt? We were at it for over five years and then two years with the salt so before
we built our first salt chamber, we'd been seven years. So can we go and film in the
chambers? You'll have me shot at the door! They've never let a camera in to film. Really?
No no, we'll let you have a peep, how about that. A wee look?
Sixteen and a half tonne of salt in that wall. Sixteen and a half tonne?
Bloody hell. 1st April 2015 we slaughtered this.
They're just controls, we're not going to eat them, these ones are safe. Why Peter?
(Laughs) I think the important thing to point out here brothers and sisters is that Peter
really is a bovine, Jedi knight. There isn't anything he doesn't know about it. We could've
made a two hour documentary on all the information that he shared with us but here is a quick
summary of some of the points. You're a very bad man. (Laughs) When it comes to ageing
a piece of beef, ultimately what you're trying to do is displace moisture and concentrate
flavour. Depending on what it is you're trying to achieve will dictate where you want to
be at any given point on time. You're tenderness process is something that people quite often focus
on saying 'oh it's so old it must be so tender'. That work is pretty well all finished at twenty-eight
days inside the salt chamber you won't find any mould growing. Whenever we started this,
we didn't have a recipe to follow. We you go innovating, there isn't any plan. When
we initially started, we were entirely manual. Now they way we have it, it's almost like a jet
on auto-pilot. Everything, sort of, is in fine tuning. None of this would happen, unless
you had a very passioned group of people who are focused on the same end result. Like how
incredible is this place and how awesome is Peter, so he's nipped in to the chamber to
get a special piece of beef, so I'm gonna set up the truck. John this is a beef chop,
we call it a Coal de Boeftus with an exposed bone slaughtered as you can see on 4th June
2018, it's 108 days old and we'll just season this up and put it on the little green egg
for a while. It's probably going to take thirty minutes or there about. Ok, ok. I'm a great
believer, I have a thing about pieces like this are a six, six, six and six and you leave it untouched in
a pan or on a barbie for six minutes, turn it over for six minutes, slide it in to a
170 oven for six minutes and rest it for six minutes. It's a great way of handling a piece
of meat to sort of give you a medium rare to medium, which I think it needs to be. Everyone
has their own preference but you do need to cook a piece of beef sufficiently so that
you start to break down after all the work you've done we want to try and eat it as best
We'll be trying to hit this internal temp of about fifty-four, fifty-five degrees. When we rest it, it will then rise up to about
fifty-eight and then we'll slice it and see what it's like.
We've had five minutes, we'll give it another five I think. Ok.
Two years, then one hundred and eight days then forty-five minutes and then twelve minutes
resting. Wow.
It should have a blue cheesething because it's so old but it's not. It's
like when you put a sauce in or a jus and you reduce it down and you reduce it down,
you get that intensity, the depth in the beef. What you're good at, is the balance isn't
it. It took you many years but you finally found balance, but it's right though isn't
it, it's the balance.
Ah, Peter, thank you, it's spectacular.
Pleasure.
So my challenge is, is that I want
to try and re-create this.
Alright Peter it was great, lovely to meet you, see you later.
(Laughs) Bring the beef with you. (Laughs)
That's the only way you'll recreate it. But.
We'll send you some. I want to have a go. But the thing is I'm not going to get to one hundred and eight days.
Nor should you want to, in what you're going to be able to replicate. You should
be able to produce something very nice but with a lot of things. I'm going to have a
go at twenty-eight to thirty days. I think you should, and, er, we can help you do that very well. Ok, ok.
I'm going to hit the bone. Hit the bone.
Incredible.
Peter, that was, worth the drive, the ferry,
the overnight stay in Liverpool, the lot, it was, it is, really bloody special. Well
it's been lovely to have you. Thank you so much. And you're going to have to come to
London. Yes, in London we'll do something strange and wonderful. (Laughs)
What an incredible day ey? Wow, what a privilege, you know, we're the first cameras ever, that he's ever allowed
to go into those salt chambers. Like what a privilege, what an absolute privilege and
Pete Hannan is the guy who is responsible for the beef ageing revolution that has happened
in London over the past ten years.
You know he's had Mark Hix in there, Richard Turner,
he's had Marco Pierre White, all the greats, all the legends. It's one thing to have your
mates round to try it, it's another thing to have Peter Hannan and Richard Turner
and Mark Hix to my studio in Shepherd's Bush
and to taste the meat that I've aged for the first time ever.
The next thing I've
got to do, is I've got to get the piece of beef. For that, we're going to Scotland.
I'm going to meet a husband and wife team that have got a heard of pedigree wagyu, so I'm
going to meet them and learn more about this prized breed of beef and to get my rib of
beef to age.