Going under the knife...

NoVA Bill

A drybag aged NY Top Loin sub-primal that is..

Later today or early tomorrow morning after 28 days in the frig I intend to cut up the sub-primal into 1.5 and 1 inch steaks.

Is there any advice or pit falls, for this final stage, I should be aware of given this is my first effort at dry aging.

Thanks in advance!

2Fategghead

I will subscribe to your post. Tim

fishlessman

i wouldnt go less than 1.25 inches, would go thicker and plan on splitting one steak instead of two thin ones.they are denser and more filling than a regular steak so you can down size the portions a little. biggest mistake is overcooking, these steaks cook twice as fast as a regular one so you need to watch the cook closley

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

don't trim them, and don't cut anything thinner than an inch-and-a-half. you do not need to serve a steak to each person. you'll have more contro;l cooking with thicker steaks, and then can simply serve a portion to each person. my wife and i eat one dry-aged piece between us, often with leftovers.

to re-cap:
1.) don't trim them.
2.) don't cut off "the brown bits"
3.) don't remove portions that look too dry or dark
4.) don't excise oxidized darker portions
5.) resist removing anything that's not pretty pink
6.) don't cut off stuff because it looks 'different'
7.) don't try to create a 'new' looking steak by cutting away the old

see my (rather beaten to death) point?

AFTER you cook them, you may still have some very thick fat you might not want to eat. sure, trim that off. don't have to eat all of it. but it often shrinks considerably to a thin layer of fat.

seriously, though. try the steak as-is. if you do not like the flavor of the drier, firmer outer dark brown meat, then you do not like dry aged. and that's fine. simply wet-age your stuff in the future by leaving it in the cryovac.

vidalia1

So what you are saying is...don't trim it???? :laugh:

I really do need to try dry aging...I loved the steaks Bobby had at class last fall..

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

i actually got a call from bobby asking some stuff about aging. i was honored. i told him to leave it on the counter for four hours first (old in-joke).

NoVA Bill

Stip and Fish,

Thanks! No trimming, did I say no trimming, and an 1.5 inch min. thick, watch the cooking time - all great and appreciated advice. Thanks once more.

Loin bacon smoke/cook is at 128 degrees. Once I pull it at 140 I just might have to sharpen my knife and get to work on the beef!!!

I feel like a kid in a candy shop. :woohoo:

AZRP

I don't agree about no trimming. To me a big part of food is appearance and removing the 1/8" blackened moldy outer crust makes the steak much more appealing. My dog appreciates it too. -RP

RRP

I absolutely agree with you, Jeff! Of course you were responsible for convincing me to all these for the first of the three sub-primals I have aged to date. That dark brown merely becomes part of the bark during the sear and I find it mellows and is very tasty!

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

i think you nailed it. the interesting thing to me about that brown, firmer stuff is that it is NOT tough at all. looks like it would be. but when seared, the high heat crisps it up. it's like beef bacon almost.

and i think we all know how i feel about bacon.
hahahaha

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

if it's moldy, yer doin it wrong.

anyway, to each his own. but honestly, you are wasting meat. you aren't eating any of the dry aged meat, so why dry age it?

it's not a rhetorical question. you would have the exact same enzyme flavor and tenderness from wet aging, and you wouldn't be tossing out the dry aged part. two things happen with dry aging. drying, and aging. if you toss the dried part, why bother?

trying to help, not berate.

but you aren't getting any benefit from the drying really. the beef condense when dried, but not uniformly. the center of the meat is no different than wet aged beef.

seems a waste.