45 Day Dry Aged Ribeye

DMW

On Sept 25th I put this 17.08lb ribeye in the fridge:

Today I got this 14.6lb out:


The chine bone had already been removed, so I just sliced between the bones:

The steaks varied between 1lb 10oz and 2lb 13oz. Here's tonight's 1lb 13oz pick on the small BGE coming up to temp. Seasoned with salt and pepper. The rest are in the freezer.

Around 118* I pulled and setup for direct.

After the sear resting:

Let it rise to 135* and then sliced and ate. No sliced pics, wife and kids were getting hungry, and to be honest, so was I.  Really nice deep beefy flavor.

I also sampled some of the raw shavings you can see in the second picture. That was really good, and I hope that wasn't a bad decision, but it was dried like jerky, so I figured I'd be fine.

SGH

Brother I wish I had a triple seal of approval to give this cook. Simply spectacular brother D. The Steak Gods are truly smiling down my friend. 

Phatchris

Awesome!

BIll-W221

That looks great !!! Do you trim much off after the aging ? I just ordered some bags yesterday, really looking forward to trying this.

marysvilleegger

I reaaaaalllllllly hope that fat old guy brings me some bags on the 25th!

GregW

It looks great. I've never dry aged beef at home. The only dry aged steak I've cooked on the egg came from the store. The butcher cautioned me that dry aged beef cooks faster. Apparently I didn't believe him and I overcooked it.

It was still good.

SGH

DMW said:

That Thermapen should be reading 110 brother D You know I'm just messing with you, a man likes what a man likes. Outstanding job my friend. That steak looks like a masterpiece. 

TTC

You win

RRP

Looks good! I've been a dry ager for years now though I much prefer using the UMAi Dry bags.

Darby_Crenshaw

Years here too. Even before some of the oldtimers. 
If i wanted to take credit for doing it first on the forum, i'd have a good case.
No bags here though. 

DoubleEgger

Yeah buddy! 

Darby_Crenshaw

Re trimming: I only trim the end off, as you did. Like the 'heel' of a loaf of bread.  I usually slice off just enough to expose the full cross section. 

Then i slice the raw stuff from the heel end, and eat that as carpaccio. 

I don't trimany of the rind, because it softens and fries and crisps up really nicely when you grill it. Becomes, for me, the best part 

it is jerky. One of the reasons jerky is air dried is to extend shelf life. And so when you let this dry, it also keeps it from any bacterial funk. It's just very dry when raw

RRP

Darby_Crenshaw said:

Years here too. Even before some of the oldtimers. 
If i wanted to take credit for doing it first on the forum, i'd have a good case.
No bags here though. 

Oh I would testify on your behalf, Jeff! You taught eggdom much about dry aging and yes I believe you lead the way. SWMBO just prefers that I use the bag. Your way or my way still knocks the socks off "grocery store red" steaks! It has always amazed me when people spend so much at "good steakhouses" when they can get the same tasty results at home. Granted the steakhouses use white linen tablecloths but those wait persons are also looking for 20 to 25% gratuity on top of that overpriced steak. A 12 to 18 pound sub-primal aged at home is far cheaper and personally more rewarding than ripping up a credit card receipt!

Durangler

All I can say is ....... WOW 
Very nice.
No bags? Even better!

blukat

I need to give that a try.  Great job!

bgebrent

Outstanding at DMW!  Bravo!

theyolksonyou

Like x (7x10^5)^3

DMW

Thanks everyone. @Darby_Crenshaw I read as many of your prior posts as possible before jumping in. No bags needed, and just shave a bit of the crust off each end.

caliking

out-frikkin-standing. Wish I lived closer to you... like next door.

JohnnyTarheel

That is PRIME right there!!

WeberWho

That looks wonderful! @dmw

I'm thinking about doing another dry aged NY strip as a gift for my cousins wedding. The only problem is that he has a gasser and puts it away in winter. I'd be dragging it back out of the shed if I was given dry aged steaks as a gift. Actually I'd drag it back out and put it next to the curb with a free sign. Thinking about it I should just buy him a kettle grill!

Darby_Crenshaw

Aged strips will pan sear in a way which might just make you flirt with the idea of not bothering to start the BGE (or digging out his gasser).  You can lightly coat them in oil (lightly!) and sear on the stove top (with the vent on).  

I wouldn't use aged beef for au poivre, but that's always goos too, if the grill isn't handy 

blasting

Another great cook thread @DMW .  Outstanding.

Raymont

Great job. I also go no bag, and have recently been leaving the rind on, and think it really makes the steak pop. Will never trim again. 

texaswig

It doesn't get any better than that. Nice job brother. 

Sea2Ski

Beautiful @DMW!!!   Just beautiful!  

YEMTrey

Excellent!

onthegreen

Very interesting. Looks awesome. I was under the impression that its a bad idea to dry age my meat in a regular old fridge. A local butcher said most normal fridges temperature readings are off and the temps fluctuate quite a bit so it can be dangerous to try at home. I will have to spend some time with the search tool to look into trying this some time. Wonder if it smells up the fridge?

tarheelmatt

I wish we were neighbors... no homo though.  

nolaegghead

@onthegreen No, he's wrong about the temps.  The main disadvantages to a home refrigerator are 1) grossing out a significant other and 2) low humidity

Darby_Crenshaw

And the low humidity can an asset for some. Aged meat can (for some people) have an unexpected taste. Not gamey, but just nothing they are used to

if you age only a few weeks, you can avoid the pronounced flavors some don't care for at 45-60 days and beyond, while still gaining the condensed beef flavor that drying in a gome fridge more quickly affords

dry aging is merely aging PLUS drying, and it's fine to just do the drying for a bit if that's all yer after

And so in a drier home fridge, you can get a quicker return on the drying if that's your thing. You can even dry a week or so, not really agong much at all, but giving you the fantastic maillard browning that is a hallmark of dry aged beef

humidity is a concern for commercial aging because it allows longer aging with less weight loss. But that's just water in the end

for the home dry ager, the drier environment does help guard against mold. Mold occurs in commercial establishments sometimes, but it ain't no thang

when i first started this investigation, i bought my first steak from Julia Child's butcher. He spent a few minutes rubbing the mold off it. Mechanically, fwiw, not with water or anything

The dry environment of a home fridge isn't a quality problem until you hit around 60 days, and the meat sometimes tends to cleave off or shrink back along the lines of internal fat. Not very photogenic, and it's better probably for quality to avoid that. Maybe some rancidity due to the air getting in. There's always a touch of rancidity to be flirted with, it's actually part of the flavor profile of aged beef. But too much is bad voodo. Another good reason to use the beer fridge is less acquired odor and lessened rancidity. 

If you really really want to humidify the fridge (to achieve less water loss, i.e. More yield, but less condensed flavor), you can include an open container of water in the fridge. Some salt it, thinking it keeps it from going stale. But you can also just swap it oit for fresh every few/five-ish days