Dry Age NY Strip experiment

JohnInCarolina

RRP said:

JohnInCarolina said:

RRP said:

JohnInCarolina said:

RRP said:

Gman2 said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Sea2Ski said:

JohnInCarolina said:

I'm doing one now in a small fridge. It is not quite dorm-sized but it's close. After some consultation with stike offline, he convinced me that you really do not need a fan.  You really just need some air circulation, and the blast of cold air that comes from the freezer as the unit modulates the temp is probably more than enough.  It's also probably a good idea to open it every once in awhile to get some new air in there. But other than that, I think it's a lot simpler than many people make it out to be.  

I am not an expert, but have have done this about 20-25 times and I agree with the above. If I was to do it in a smaller dorm sized fridge - not the cube sized one, but the next size up - I would just open the door all the way once a day or whenever I remembered, but at least 3 times a week.  Nothing wrong with keeping other “stuff” in there as well so it holds temp a bit better as well. That is the same thing I do for my charcuterie chamber.  I keep gallons of water so the fridge does not cycle as much.

Every fridge is different as well. As as a non- scientific experiment, I tried to keep humidity up at 70% in a fridge with my dry aging roast in it opposed to my fridge in the kitchen. With that high humidity, there was not as much moisture loss and the rind was not nearly a desiccated as when done in the kitchen fridge. It took about 2x as long for it to reach that deep mahogany color than in the kitchen fridge as well. After 40 days, we cooked a steak up up, and while aged the same, moisture content was higher and the fat was not as buttery. I preferred my kitchen fridge better. That fat....  yummm....  I might try the high humidity environment  again if I wanted to go longer - like 80-120 days. Then I think - why?
Then I think again and say why not? I mean, I can. 

But this is really getting technical and overly complex.  Those new to this are not sure what to expect. To you I say keep it simple.  Get a non-mechanically  tenderized roast, open it, set it on a cookie cooling rack and put it in a fridge. Open the door a few times a week and cut a steak off when you want to.  I would not bother until at least 2.5 -3 weeks in, although you can if you want.

@JohnInCarolina I have to say I am surprised you have not already done this at least once. 

Yep just got started on it. I have no idea what took me so long.   I’m looking forward to the results though!

Not sure why I waited so long either. Now I can't wait to get another one going so there is always one in the rotation. Cheers!!

Besides always having one in rotation I sit down and draw up a plan for months ahead so as to rotate the sub-primal steaks I want to have in my freezer. For instance my wife and I love my dry aged rib eyes, New York strips and sirloins. IOW we like the choice of the variety of dry aged steaks in our freezer.

As for the discussion of the type of refrigerator I am in the school of thought that those "dorm" size units are not good for dry aging. Reason is simple...those units can and do chill the contents, but what dry aging means is removing the moisture from the meat, and that moisture needs to be drawn out of the refrig as the meat is aging.

Ron don’t you age in those bags?

Yes I do. I don't see that my response advocated my preference.

Yeah I'm just trying to reconcile your comment about how the smaller fridges don't remove the moisture from the meat all that well with the fact that you use bags anyway.

By the way, how does the water content in the air in those small fridges compare to the water content in the meat?  Seems to me that the physics of diffusion hasn't changed much in say a couple of millennium at least but I'm always willing to learn new things.  

John, I'm not wanting to get into a p*ssin contest...BUT my point is when the  moisture comes out of the meat it HAS to go somewhere. A working refrigerator works by drawing off the heat and moisture. A "dorm" size one merely chills the meat.

Ron I'm pretty sure the smaller sized fridges are perfectly capable of doing just that, because the moisture content of the air is much smaller than what's in the meat.  This creates a concentration gradient that leads to transport out of the meat and into the air.  Opening the fridge every once in awhile to refresh the air should address any other concerns you might have.  

This is why you will find plenty of examples of people dry aging beef in small fridges online: because it works just fine.  

RRP

John, let's just agree to disagree. Opinions are like *ssholes and everybody has one.

JohnInCarolina

RRP said:

John, let's just agree to disagree. Opinions are like *ssholes and everybody has one.

You are certainly entitled to your own opinion, Ron, but you are not entitled to your own facts.