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21 day dry aged rib eyes

Luvs to shoot clay
Luvs to shoot clay Posts: 774
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Finally made it home from China and cooked up these 2" thick dry aged rib eyes. From start to finish, these were perfect. Pulled at 127 degrees, I think 125 would have been better but they caught me off guard. I used both eggs, one to sear and the other set up at 350 to finish they, this went faster than I thought I guess because they did not cool down when the egg was cooling down. It made it go faster but I learned not to leave it because it doesn't take as long.

Here is the rib eye after 21 days in a dry bag.
IMGP1126.jpg

Here it is sliced.
IMGP1127.jpg

On the plate.
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Ready to eat!
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Comments

  • Photo Egg
    Photo Egg Posts: 12,110
    Wow, what a great looking meal.
    Darian
    Thank you,
    Darian

    Galveston Texas
  • Boxerpapa
    Boxerpapa Posts: 989
    That looks great. Dry age is on my to-do list.
  • :(

    trimmed....

    "why, dear god... WHY do they trim your hard won prize?"

    off to cry in my happy place.
  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,880
    ahhhh, another satisfied believer! I know you are always coming and going to China so that determines your aging period, but I find ribeyes can go longer than 21 days with superior results. My best to date were 45 days and they were fork cutting tender!
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
  • Photo Egg
    Photo Egg Posts: 12,110
    This is not your happy place? :laugh:
    I thought you would catch the trim job.
    Darian
    Thank you,
    Darian

    Galveston Texas
  • I didn't know.... forgive me!!! It looked bad so I cut it off. I will try leaving it next time. They were great any way. Sorry to take you from your happy place.
  • 45 days will be easy for me. I will give it a try this time and post the results. I cooked 3 of these and slicked the third on thin for sandwiches, WOW! That is some great lunch meat!
  • well yer lucky i wasn't within arms reach, because i start flailing like a schoolgirl when i see stuff like that! :laugh:

    actually, that is the DRY aged part. the interior (especially at 21 days) is not going to be very dense from the air drying, though it will lose some mopisture.

    in reality, the red portion is still aged, but it is wet aged, having been nestled in a nice cocoon of dry aged beef.

    you'll still have the flavor from the enzymes maybe, and it should be broken down (more tender, too). but the dense portion is what we are after here, at least when dry aging.

    it's not bad at all.

    in fact, i try to remind folks that dry aging is quite a bit like making jerky. no, we don't want jerky, but both are dried beef, right? there's no safety issue with the browner, denser part. it can have portions that are overly dried and a bit TOO much like jerky, and you can trim those of course. but even the overly dried bits are still edible.

    here's a quick shot of the rind end off a strip loin. i had cut off some steaks before aging, so i had a whole side of exposed flesh. that gets too dry, and i trim that off. but i still cooked and ate it... hahah

    aged strip loin
    onrack.jpg

    rind-end (foreground) trimmed off, qwith the steaks and rest of the roast in back
    trimmed.jpg

    yield
    the_harvest-1.jpg

    rind end on right along with a representative steak

    on_the_fire-1.jpg

    heaven on a plate
    plated2-1.jpg


    let me reiterate... the end i'm showing trimmed off is NOT what we are after when dry aging. it was from an exposed side of flesh, and so that means it'd be way too dry. it is literally jerky. dried beef.

    but you'll notice the rest of it is untrimmed. that brown stuff is paydirt.
  • i had to read that last line twice... :blink:
  • Very nice. Wow.

    How did you age them? Just in a ziplock bag?

    Greg
  • I have a refrigerator in the garage and usually just put the meat on a rack in there but this time I used a "Dry Age Bag" that I had seen here but bought on the net. Seems a little more sanitary but don't know if it made much difference as the refrigerator is hardly ever opened while I am gone. They were really goo and I will be doing it again but if I trim it, I won't post those photos :woohoo:
  • serious comment, here, not tryna cause any trouble. but if you hinestly don't like the dried parts, the way around it is to WET age. same enzyme flavor and tenderness, no drying.

    i think the "sanitary" issue is more psychological than anything. i don't know if the dry-bag folks make any claim, but RRP may know more about that.

    i think some folks feel better that it is in a bag, but i don't believe there's anything the bag can do to make it "safer". just a thought.
  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,880
    Here is the site for the DrybagSteak product. There is plenty to read there to explain the product.
    http://www.drybagsteak.com/

    There is also a forum there now with several topics being discussed that you might find of interest.
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,880
    you've covered the topic quite well, but let me add one thing. I find that "hard dark" layer mellows during the hot tub period and then during the sear it becomes a very tasty bark. Stike made a believer out of me so I'm in his camp for little trimming except for the hard aged fat - now that has to go IMO!
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
  • I really do appreciate the help, just don't want to take you from your happy place and I think I agree with you that it should not be bad, it just didn't look good. If you notice I only took a thin cut of the really dry stuff off as I thought it would take away from the rest of the cut. I will probable skip the dry bags once I run out. The last time, I just covered it with a dry white cotton cloth.

    Really appreciate all your thoughts and comments!
  • no cotton!
    gah

    hahaha

    just when i was back to my happy place! :laugh:

    just uncovered. you want it (the surface) to dry quickly and not have anything wet in contact with it.

    the towels are a holdover from when entire sides of beef were covered in shrouds to keep dust and insects etc. (and maybe mold) off the beef.

    they really have no place in dry aging a subprimal at home. and you'll have less laundry to do, too :laugh:
  • Rolling Egg
    Rolling Egg Posts: 1,995
    Welcome home Willy! Thanks for the great post. Those steaks look amazing. Two egg set up? I like that idea. If you have guest over and your cooking steaks to order that would be the set up to have.
  • Those are gorgeous. How did you age them?