Dry aged and confused ???

no fear opening the fridge. you can do this in a regular day to day fridge with no worries about temps. odors and off flavors from other food is the issue to worry about when using the 'regular' fridge

please tell me you have no towels or anything like that on the meat

no.

home fridges are fairly dry. except the fabled meat drawer, which is supposed to stay a little more humid by virtue of being somewhat 'airtight'.

those who dry age commercially, for the restaurant industry for ex., debate humidity levels even among themselves. some says 50% (even lower), some age around 80% humidity.

i personally think a higher level of humidity is better if you want to go herculean, 45+ days. especially in the home fridge.

think of dry aging as two almost literally separate things (aging + drying). if the meat never dried out, you could age it forever (not talking about bacteria here, just aging and drying).

the longer you dry it, the denser it becomes and less water there is. eventually you could let it go so long that the whole thing was a block of jerky. not good. the aging would still take place, but it would be dry.

since a home fridge is on the dry side, going super long is to risk overdrying. it's hard to do, overdry. i don't know anyone that has... but still. the dryness is just making its way deeper into the meat.

i am only guessing, but i think the dry-bag system acts more slowly. it still allows water loss, but likely not at the rate of meat in the open air. that would imply you can age the same piece of meat longer in a dry-bag than without, before it became too dry. and that would mean you can AGE it longer (which is a separate parallel process in a sense). longer you age, the longer the enzymes can act, and the longer the flavors and tenderness have to develop.

i don't know much more than that. perhaps the enzymes stop acting or slow in drier piece of beef, or maybe the rate of return slows. i dunno.

i go 40-ish days, plus or minus. if the worst thing i ever have is a roast that only aged 30 days, i'll be okay with that

that's the way, man. old school, commando. :laugh:

make sure your temps are ok. check on it, too. should be hard right now, dense feeling. waxy, but notat all moist anywhere. smell may be sweet and maybe a little metallic, but not putrid or making you wonder.