Dry Age ????

I've heard of 60 days on a ribeye.No knowledge on the others.

depends who is doing it and how.

commercially, there are steaks i believe advertised as being aged as much as 75 days. generally you will find it retailing at 21, 28 days. some shops (The Meat House, which is expanding nationwide it seems) offers 45 days.

This holds tru for both rib eye and strip.

Rib-eye benefits the most, though, i think.

if YOU are doing it yourself, commando style (no bags, on a rack in a fridge), i'd say 28 days easily for both ribeye and strip. beyond 28 days you might (though not likely) risk overdrying the strip, but if it is a good subprimal with a nice layer of fat, longer is easy enough. 35 days with a rib eye would be longer than most do i think, simply because of diminishing returns. it's not a safety issue so much as an overdrying issue. you don't want to make jerky. if conditions and humidity were good, no reason not to go 45 days. i go 35 because frankly that's about as long as i can take waiting. and though i have had a lot of dry aged stuff, i'd be hard pressed to say that i can tell the diff between a 35 and a 45 day steak. i think QUALITY of the original subprimal is as important if not MORE important than an extra week or ten days

if you use the dry-age bags, i know that RRP has done 45+. i think the water is lost more slowly with the dry-age bags, and that in theory should let you age longer before they get too dry. longer aging means longer enzyme action means (in theory) more tender and more flavor . aging also actually adds flavor, from byproducts of the enzyme action. anything you can do to slow drying (except using hated towels!) is a good thing. some commercial dry aging suppliers add humidity, to slow drying and age longer. some others, well, some suppliers keep it LESS humid. humidity control is not a safety issue, but a quality issue. drier environments lose water faster, but more humid ones allow a little longer aging.

keep in mind that water loss (a good thing) hits close to just under 20% at about 3 to 4 weeks, and slows a bit after that. i don't think even at the much longer times anyone is experiencing greater water (weight) loss than 20%. the longer you go before becoming "too dry", the longer the enzymes (which are what age the meat) can work. ...but "too dry" is hard to do. i don't know anyone who found their aged meat too dry.

that's a lot of blah blah blah...

in my little corner of the world, i wouldn't say there's any huge benefit at 21 days or less. sure, there's some water loss (and thereby condensing of the meat) by 21 days, and a nice pellicle-sorta surface on the meat, but the true 'holy-cr^p' payoff only just begins around week four (28 days).

at home, 35 is even better (commando). if you go 45 days, you are a man among men. hahaha. also one who may be eating only among men. how adventurous is the wife?

45 days seems easy enough with the dry-age bags (based on RRP's work), and some claim to have gone to 75 days.

i haven't gone past 35 days commando style, so i can't speak to whether it is too dry or not.

this is strip loin 28 days, i think (done at home)



the longer you age, the less red it'll be at center

here it is, cooked.



a 45 day rib-eye i bought



rib eyes are where it is at, when aged. no one ages tenderloin, and strips are only ok. ribeyes are transformed. no wet floppy falling apart steak on your plate. no sir. nice crusted brown firm steak with beautiful firmness (but tender). here's a thinner one, cooked. notice it stays together?



keep in mind you do NOT want to do a steak by itself. you want as little exposed flesh as possible, and the sides of a steak are nothing but flesh. if you are aging, it better be a subprimal. i have done half a subprimal, but i know that the cut end (after hacking off steaks) was going to be sacrificed. still edible, but it was jerky

you CAN do a small roast for a week if you want. it'll firm it up, and there will be more beef flavor per bite because of the loss of flavorless water. here's a simple 5-day roast. it won't get too dry at the cut ends, because of the short time. it won't gain much tenderness or flavor though, aside from getting rid of some water





sorry for the long post. better to answer as many questions in advance, i think. this subject comes up all. the. time.

...and if you do it, and trim it, then you basically will be trimming off the best part. :laugh:

30 days is a good start. have you had aged beef before?

Ew ew ew. Meat in a beer fridge for thirty days. Yuk

AMEN!

I keep a cup of water in the extra fridge with a thermometer in it.No fluctuations.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: What about beer in a meat cooler for 30 days?????

It's all good buddy :laugh:

as opposed to pork in a suitcase for 36 hours?

hahahaha

Bubba needs to start a Ruint Offerings page! :laugh:

I can't add much to what st!ke said. I'm going to put a rib-eye in this weekend for 45 days. My previous one was 28 daysish and it is fabulous but I'm running out. You'll be fine with your fridge temps. I do the dry bag thing as well and have had no problems.

IMHO, go very easy on the trimming. It is a little different in consistency but there is a lot of flavor there.

Take pics!

I have not yet read the other responses, but in the last 12 months I have aged 5 sub-primals using Drybags. By and far my best ones have been New York loin strip at 35 days and a rib eye at 45 days. In the future I will not even bother doing them any shorter and may even try longer.