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Drybag Steak as promised

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upnsmoke
upnsmoke Posts: 60
edited January 2012 in EggHead Forum
Well i finally have a finished product. This steak has been aged about 24 days and I have one coming out this weekend at 30 (other 1/2 of the primal). The drybags did a great job doing what they say they will do although it was quite the ordeal getting them to work. 

They do NOT work with a foodsaver. One of the videos posted in this forum shows someone putting a modified piece of a FS bag inside a dryage bag but I can assure you it did not work with mine. I went through countless bags and melted everyone. There is another video showing a FS bag placed on the outside of a DA bag. This actually makes more sense but I did not try as I ran out of bags trying it the other way.

I broke down and bought the  vacuum sealer shown on their website. DO NOT buy the sample pack of bags, most will not fit in the recommended sealer.It took 5 to 10 attempts per bag to get them to seal and NOT re-open, even then they must be handled with kid gloves. I am sure with practice and a wheel barrel full of cash I could get better at it.

If you are lucky enough to get a return e-mail the support folks are pretty nice and will tell you the bags do not need to be sealed... But, but, but doesn't that defeat the point???

Taste. Well the first ones were good. The first ones came off medium or 130 degrees  (90 seconds a side, shut down the egg and do it again). I forgot just how fast dry aged steaks cook. I nailed my second attempt and they were excellent (pulled at 120 and didn't let them come all the way to room temp before cooking).

Was it worth the time, effort, trouble, and expense... Awe hell NO, but it was an experiment and will probably break down and try it with a "prime" ribeye or porterhouse (the strip experiment was Choice but looked very close prime) considering i sank money in a new sealer. The only positive is my wife only complains about the room it takes up in the fridge and not continually asking when is that nasty looking thing coming out LOL.





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  • upnsmoke
    upnsmoke Posts: 60
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    here is the pic, sorry if it double posted but i didn't see it...
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
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    even cheaper to not wrap it at all... heh heh heh

    did you enjoy it? wasn't sure because you said it wasn't worth the time and expense, but further up the page you'd said they were 'good' and 'excellent'.

    fwiw, it shouldn't cost you anything to age them (unless you use the bags i guess).  so not sure what extra expense there was.  time is just time. gotta plan ahead. trouble... well.  i just toss mine in the fridge naked.  it can be pretty easy, no trouble there.  and i think the payoff is phenomenal.

    did you ultimately like them?
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • rodent
    rodent Posts: 106
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    Is it worth dry aging a whole filet. Not a lot of fat/marbling. Done it with rib/strip loin.
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  • upnsmoke
    upnsmoke Posts: 60
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    yes i did like/love them stike... time and trouble was ALL in reference to the drybag... bags are expensive, buying a new sealer that worked was expensive, if you calculate TVM based on how long it took to finally get them right it was expensive. naked is the way to go if you have a big enough place in the fridge and a wife that does not mind it sitting there....

    referring to one of our convo's a long time ago, i could not tell a difference in the finished product (bag v/s no bag) other than i got no complaints about "when are you going to move that rotting hunk of meat" lmao

    to be very clear, i love dry aged meat and if someone has never tried it they should treat themselves. as i believe you said, go spend the money and buy one from a pro to try before you venture of and do it your self.
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  • upnsmoke
    upnsmoke Posts: 60
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    @rodent, never tried a filet.... as you said not a lot of fat and a good cut is already super tender.
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    edited January 2012
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    not sure what you mean by a 'filet'.  a filet is a steak.  i wouldn't age a steak.  but you can age any hunk of beef pretty much.  fat is a good thing to have if you are dry aging because it loses water and condenses.  but other things happen when dry aging, like the beef itself condenses.  automatically beefier flavor just by being condensed and with less water to, well, water down the flavor. 

    but here's the thing. with wet or dry aging, you get enzymes breaking down proteins.  this helps make the meat buttery in texture, and adds flavors.  protein is flavorless. but break it into amino acids and you get all sorts of flavors from them. 

    so, you can certainly dry age a whole tenderloin.  but just don't expect any enhanced flavor from fat.  i personally wouldn't dry age one though.  they are small, and too much drying can happen before any real payoff occurs. at week three you'd have a shriveled log, and it would only be 21 days aged. i would wet age it instead.  leave it in the cryo for a coupla-few weeks.  then take it out, carve off the chain, clean up the silverskin and fat, trim the thin end off, and then keep it as a 2 to 3 pound roast, or carve into fillets
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • rodent
    rodent Posts: 106
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    Sorry, meant whole tenderloin
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
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    that's ok.  i thought maybe... the answer is re: a whole tenderloin
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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