Stike's comments on dry aging?

RRP

about buying that second frig - our mega-utility company has been paying customers $25 PLUS picking up any old refrigerators as an incentive for people to buy new efficient ones. So at least in this part of the country you could buy a used one dirt cheap!

Unknown

Misippi Egger:

I salt 'em (kosher, Cook's Illustrated has this whole bit about salting for an hour before cooking in addition to it'll help retard bacterial growth) and put them on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet in the lowest part of my second fridge.

You can go a week, but overnight works as well. In fact overnight works really well for me because 1) it improves the flavor, 2) that's about the extent of my ability to plan, and 3) it's simple. I like simple.

Work Lurker

Misippi Egger

Thanks. BTW, do you wash off all that Kosher salt before cooking to prevent it from being too salty to the taste?

I would work better for me because I prefer to buy a subprimal, have it sliced by the butcher into 2" steaks, then I vacuum seal and freeze. I could take them out individually, age in the frig and cook.

Unknown

Misippi Egger:

CI says the salt pulls moisture out, then it gets sucked back into the steak as a brine (my words, not theirs). It also creates a dry surface which is better for searing. So there is no salt on the surface, no need to rinse and I have not found it to be too salty. I'll add pepper then some nice finishing salt at the table.

I've found a 1.5" cut to be a better cut than 2". To me a 2" cooks more like a roast, but nevertheless darn good eatin'.

Just for fun, how long have you taken an individual steak?

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BigDaddy - OCT

Need some terminology help please. What does primal and sub-primal refer to?

Thanks in advance,
Bruce

Unknown

Wiki says, "A primal cut is a piece of meat initially separated from the carcass during butchering." Think of cutting a steer into 5 parts, front to back.

If your question is why use primal cut? I think the answer is you can't dry age a sub-primal (i.e., a steak) the length of time typical of dry ageing (e.g., 21 days).

But you can still improve the quality of a good cut of sub-primal by reducing the drying time.

Working while Lurking

Misippi Egger

Good info - thanks.

I have not dry aged any meat yet, but have been reading with interest. I usually buy a whole ribeye when on sale ($4.99/lb) but they are usually grass-fed cows, not grain-fed, so tasty, but a little more 'chewy' than those fattened up on corn.
I have had the butcher cut the whole thing into 2" steaks that I vacuum-seal and freeze for later use. We usually cook one steak and split it.

I was thinking that dry aging would add some flavor and maybe a little more tenderness to these steaks. Your post about doing individual steaks sounds more in line with what I was thinking. I don't have a second frig for sub-primal or primal sized aging and the indoor one gets opened too much to keep the temps down.

I read a Cattleman's article posted on here this week and I think it said 7 days was a good time to appreciate the benefits of dry aging, maybe out to 14 days, but beyond that it seemed to be just "bragging rights".

thanks for your help and advice.

Big'un

Ron, I had left the pellicle on the first steaks, but it was so chewy that I decided to not do that again. How was yours without trimming?

Big'un

I agree with most of what you've said and I certainly bow to the master, when it comes to dry aging meats.

I went with the bags for a couple of reasons. The site stated that it was safer and cleaner, and with some medical issues that I have, I felt this was about the best set of training wheels I could get to wander out of the gate into the world of dry aging.

Another issue that nudged me in this direction, was the fact that my boys frequent the extra refrigerator and they don't always wash their hands before heading into the fridge and sometimes, spills occur without my knowlege. For me, it seemed like the bag may be one more layer of protection against normal kid funk. Maybe the bag helps to form the pellicle quicker, I don't know.

I will try them side by side with an unbagged primal and see if this bag is actually a crutch. I'm hoping someone will beat me to the punch. The thought of leaving something uncovered in the fridge just seems to go against my idea of clean storage:at least in a "working" fridge.

I tried the first aged primal with the pellicle left on and it seemed as though it was really good meat wrapped in jerky. I saved the second pellicle and bagged it in a ziplock with burgundy wine for a couple days, it was great with mushrooms as stirfry!

I hope my novice dry aging exploits aren't seen as sacreligous, but I took an inexpensive piece of meat, and helped to transform it into something the whole family really enjoyed. My wife has never eaten that much steak as she does when we use the bags to age the meat. Again nothing else to compare it to until we do a side by side test. I would appreciate any input you may have. Thanks. Back to bed, mids this week.

Big'un

I agree with most of what you've said and I certainly bow to the master, when it comes to dry aging meats.

I went with the bags for a couple of reasons. The site stated that it was safer and cleaner, and with some medical issues that I have, I felt this was about the best set of training wheels I could get to wander out of the gate into the world of dry aging.

Another issue that nudged me in this direction, was the fact that my boys frequent the extra refrigerator and they don't always wash their hands before heading into the fridge and sometimes, spills occur without my knowlege. For me, it seemed like the bag may be one more layer of protection against normal kid funk. Maybe the bag helps to form the pellicle quicker, I don't know.

I will try them side by side with an unbagged primal and see if this bag is actually a crutch. I'm hoping someone will beat me to the punch. The thought of leaving something uncovered in the fridge just seems to go against my idea of clean storage:at least in a "working" fridge.

I tried the first aged primal with the pellicle left on and it seemed as though it was really good meat wrapped in jerky. I saved the second pellicle and bagged it in a ziplock with burgundy wine for a couple days, it was great with mushrooms as stirfry!

I hope my novice dry aging exploits aren't seen as sacreligous, but I took an inexpensive piece of meat, and helped to transform it into something the whole family really enjoyed. My wife has never eaten that much steak as she does when we use the bags to age the meat. Again nothing else to compare it to until we do a side by side test. I would appreciate any input you may have. Thanks. Back to bed, mids this week.

RRP

Like I said I only trimmed some of the fat but left the pellicle in tact as stike suggested. Personally I thought it was mellow and if it were tough didn't even realize it since it was part of the bark from searing. Another thought comes to mind. Here is a picture with the fat trimmed - note the dark layer is not that thick.


Then since I hot tubbed them I wonder if that may have softened it? Here they were out of the tub before the cook. Note how pink the meat appears now vs the darker red.

ranger ray

i'm just wondering how folks used to dry age steaks before the invention of goretex( whatever) bags and super(single purpose ) suckers?? maybe i'm wrong ... but dry aging ....isn't exactly a new idea....??? in fact ... i read somewhere it was done before the age of modern refrigeration....thanks! ray

RRP

the answer is interspersed throughout this thread and in most all threads dealing with dry ageing. The commercial purveyors use large controlled environment coolers to maintain a set temp and humidity and the bare meat just rests on racks in the open air.

Unknown

the pellicle is just the tacky semi-dry surface. you are talking about the dried meat.

i don't ever trim the brown stuff. the only reason we age it is to MAKE the brown stuff. hahaha

anyway.

i think if folks wanna bag their beef, go ahead. they just should unnerstand why the heck they're doin it, and understand what they're paying a premium for.

big'un... if you are worried about spills. alton brown has suggested a tupperware coffin, drilled through with a hundred holes or so. allows the air to circulate, but keeps any spilled stuff of the beef.

folks ought to note that alton brown has all his advice vetted by lawyers who are more tenacious than pete benac when he's looking for a donation. anyone scaring you away from dry aging at home either doesn't understand how to do it, or is trying to baffle you with bullsh!t and hitting you over their head with their safe-serv certificate.

one dude told me he didn't want to buy a dedicated dorm fridge to age meat, so he just went with the dedicated vacuum sealer and a stock of $5 bags. which cost as much as the fridge in the first place.

ah well.

:unsure:

Unknown

you can't dry age a steak all by itself. wait. let me rephrase that. you can. you'll just end up with nothing but a thin dried shoe insole if you do, at least anything over a few days.

the reason that a whole rib eye subprimal is aged instead of the steaks themselves is because you want minimum surface and maximum volume. if you cut a steak, you will have two big broad sides of exposed flesh. all your water loss will be from those sides. if you leave it as a whole subprimal, you will have a layer of fat almost all around. the fat meters the drying so that it is not too fast. the best thing you could possibly age would be a round ball of beef, prime grade, covered with a layer of 1/4" fat all sides. since that doesn't exist on a cow, the best thing after that is whatever comes closest. a rib eye. followed by maybe the strip loin, then the tenderloin. tenderloin is rarely dry aged (never seen it, frankly) because it will dry very fast, has little external or internal fat, etc. a tenderloin is a prime candidate for wet aging for these reasons.


the whole idea is to let the enzymes do their job, and to slow the drying down by keeping the fat on it, to control evaporation.

if you try to dry age a steak all by itself, it'll have enzyme action, but that 2inch steak will quickly become a half inch of beef jerky. keep it under wraps and wet age it.

CWM is the wet aging guru.

fishlessman

i know i read somewhere where it was done in deep cold wells before refridgeration, seems the fridge is an upgrade

Unknown

folks don't wanna hear that, man. they want a new device in their kitchen, and the comfort that comes from wrapping something in plastic. same damn chunk of beef whether it's in plastic or not, and no safer, but they "feel safer" eating it.

i dunno.

the dry aging method was good for the hundred years before someone started selling plastic bags, me, i just happen to keep plastic as far away from what i ingest as possible. you got folks saying they never use aluminum foil, but plastic they are cool with.

Rees

There is only one dry aging bag--DrybagSteak.

If anyone knows of another bag, it would be fun to try, too.

Reesy

Rees

You don't have to buy the sealer the drybag folks are selling. Their site says any retractable snorkel sealer or chamber sealer will work. The first two bags I tried I got my local butcher to seal up for me in the chamber sealer they had on the floor. Had to take one back and get it resealed because it slid around on the back seat. But it worked fine once I babied it back home and onto the fridge shelf. After that I wanted to try meat not purchased through them, so I dropped the Franklin on the simple little sealer through the website. Anyhow--you can use a regular vacuum sealer--just not one that requires the little channels embossed in the bag.