Final Report: 100 Day Dry-Aged Rib Eye (LOOONG)

deepsouth · February 2011

stike wrote:

thanks deepsouth...
kinda pushin it though. not sure 100 days is where it's at. but good to have done it and know, at least.

i've still got to get my head around wet and dry aging and try to do it for myself.

FrankC · February 2011

Thanks for the excellent write up...it's very much appreciated. And feel free to keep it up, too. You are the one that got me dry aging in the first place. Now when I'm done butchering and freezing a sub primal, my wife asks, "so what are you gonna do with the empty spot in the fridge"!

Thanks again,
fc

stike · February 2011

simplest explanation i can offer....
wet aging is buying a steak (or roast or primal) and leaving it in the package (cryo is best) until you have forgotten about it and are wondering whether you should throw it out because it is tinged brown and weeks old (answer: no. cook it. it's damn good)

dry aging is taking the meat out of the package and forgetting about it in the fridge until it has shrunken a bit, turned dark brown, and gotten hard, to the point where you wonder if you should throw it out (answer: no. cook it. even better than wet aged):laugh:

stike · February 2011

Thanks for the excellent write up...it's very much appreciated. And feel free to keep it up, too. You are the one that got me dry aging in the first place. Now when I'm done butchering and freezing a sub primal, my wife asks, "so what are you gonna do with the empty spot in the fridge"!

Thanks again,
fc

thanks frank.
i only started doing it because the stuff i was buying was expensive ($20 a pound). there were a few write-ups on the web, but all seemed a copy of one post, and involved towels and methods that have nothing to do with real dry aging, and can cause bacterial problems, keep the meat wet, etc.

i am glad you got something out of the write ups. they seemed to happen a couple times a month and i was afraid i was beating the drum too much.

it's perhaps the easiest thing you can do to improve the meat.

Frank from Houma · February 2011

You wouldn't dudat

I went comando for 28 days once and we liked it

Besides - a bus drivers butt crack might not be that bad if it is aged properly :unsure:

2Fategghead · February 2011

Great post Jeff. I never knew about aging beef or any other meat until I got my egg and joined this forum. Now you have a wealth of information. I'll read all the responses before I ask you a question. Thanks for posting.

Hammer · February 2011

Stike,
Would like to see what your method is in dry aging! Looks great; but you the man for many years!
My first post in four years!

stike · February 2011

Aging has really taken off the past year or two

Austin Smoker · February 2011

Very, very, very sexy pics. My wife walked in on my whilst I was viewing them and I slammed the laptop shut for fear of being caught!!

berrygood · February 2011

E P I C. I've done two 30+ day ribeye primals with good results. Now, since you're still among the living, I'm inspired to go for more. BTW, do I have to cover with the cling wrap? If so, just loosely?

Vincent Chase · February 2011

Great stuff, Stike. Always enjoy your posts. Quick question, though: I had posed a question a while back on another forum about whether or not briskets could be dry aged and while a few people said they had wet-aged them in the past, the consensus was that if you were going to smoke that brisket afterwards it would be a waste, that the smoke flavor would dominate any 'concentrated beef' flavor. (I personally have only had a 21 day dry aged steak at a local restaurant and truly couldn't tell any difference in tenderness or taste.)

I noticed you hit your roast with some oak smoke and was wondering if you felt that masked any concentrated flavor (or did I get some misguided info from the other guys?) I understand a brisket takes longer to cook than your roast from this weekend and would take on more smoke flavor, but I guess the vibe that I took away was that you wouldn't want to add anything that would mess with that concentrated flavor.

stike · February 2011

No wrap at all. I only covered the exposed flesh after I cut into it. Otherwise I'd end up with another dried end cap in a week or so. This worked fine for a couple weeks with no visible change at all. Meat was still red for a couple weeks. My plastic wrap covered that cut end from 60 to 100 days though, and eventually got a little browner than i think you want cosmetically. I rubbed the entire surface of the cut end with oil and that allowed the plastic to stick

The idea behind that was that if you went only a week or two between lopping off steaks, the plastic wrap would preserve the cut end and keep it from overdrying

But the primal itself is never wrapped in plastic wrap.

stike · February 2011

Well. Beef is beef and smoke is smoke

If those guys told you one covered the other, I wonder why they think the smoke doesn't do it when the brisket is NOT aged? They sound like they're just guessing :laugh:

I do know of a guy who dry ages his brisket. I am pretty sure that the beefier flavor is Stronger than unaged, so have a hard time understanding how it would be masked

At any rate. Trying it would answer the question. Maybe the guy here who I think ages his brisket will chime in. I don't wanna name him, in case it is a secret in his arsenal

Vincent Chase · March 2011

Thanks for your insight. Like I mentioned, my one experience with dry aged beef was from a local restaurant who did the aging on site. While I admit the restaurant is a 'big fish in a small pond' in terms of the caliber of restaurants around, the owner and head chef is CIA trained and I figured he'd have an idea as to how to dry age correctly. None of us at the table could discern any difference in the least which left me thinking that perhaps the dry aging results in a very subtle taste that only refined palates and steak connoisseurs could pick up on, which then made me think of my brisket post, and in which case, I could see the smokiness burying that subtle flavor. But it's possible the kitchen sent out a regular steak instead of a dry aged and my basis for the points above are incorrect. Like you mentioned, though, it sounds like a good opportunity to experiment like you did and find out firsthand!

Great work again, and thanks for you input.

WokOnMedium · March 2011

Holy crap that looks amazing! Speechless, absolutely incredible.

Lobicho · March 2011

I stand up
and
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP!!!!!

Standing ovation my friend!!!

Great post

stike · March 2011

thanks hammer. method is nothing more than a primal at very cold fridge temps (say 34-36). i put it up on a baking/cooling rack over a cookie sheet. there's no real dripping at all. maybe a drop or two the first day. no towels over it, nothing to get wet or wick the water from it. just surrounded by air.

45-60 days is i think the sweet spot. my 100 days might not have done much more than 60 days already achieved.

stike · March 2011

some of it is a little brown... :ermm: hahaha

stike · March 2011

thank you sir. you are consistently, easily, our most enthusiastic forum member!

nolaegghead · March 2013

That sounds great. How'd it taste?

RAC · March 2013

Now that's funny!

)

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2013

looks awesome. Nice job.

Hi54putty · March 2013

nolaegghead said:
That sounds great. How'd it taste?

Well done

Aviator · March 2013

nolaegghead said:

That sounds great. How'd it taste?

You really had to go dig and raise HIM, did you not?

)

wibrewer · March 2013

nolaegghead said:

That sounds great. How'd it taste?

I see what you did there.

Village Idiot · March 2013

Stike is gone? I hadn't noticed.

Aviator · March 2013

Village Idiot said:

Stike is gone? I hadn't noticed.

He bought a pink Vespa. [-X

nolaegghead · March 2013

Aviator said:

nolaegghead said:

That sounds great. How'd it taste?

You really had to go dig and raise HIM, did you not?
)

I just searched "Bresaola" and only took a few seconds....

henapple · March 2013

you're gonna run Fred off

nolaegghead · March 2013

Fred lives in Flint - he's got a bullet proof firewall.

Final Report: 100 Day Dry-Aged Rib Eye (LOOONG)

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