I agree under good refrigeration that aging beef makes it taste better. It is a dangerous practice under collapse or primitive conditions.



Under collapse conditions, in the absence of a good supply of salt and refrigeration, then the old practice of hanging meat could result in terrible food poisoning.

The reason that this is so is meat that's been around too long at the butcher shop has been exposed to the bacteria that has been transferred from the butchering process and contamination from gut anerobic bacteria.

That kind of meat is not salted and the longer it sits, the higher and higher the bacteria gets through colonization. That means that meat needs to be cooked longer or else if not, then the rarer portions have very high bacteria counts.

Shigella in tiny amounts can seriously make someone ill. Salmonella in vastly higher amounts is needed to make someone ill, but it propagates easier.

Under no refrigeration, aging meat by hanging could kill you.

Under today's conditions, it's very tasty and pretty safe.