Home Dry Aged Beef

Big Green Fire Dragon

Sometimes people are disappointed with the beef they buy because it has not been properly aged. While aging beef is a simple porcess, it is expensive beacues it requires that producers store meat for at least 21 days at 34F-38F. Only the top grades of beef - Prime and Choice - can be aged, because they have a substantial layer of fat on the outside the keeps the meat inside from spoiling during the aging process. Merle Ellis's friend, Al Cooper, shared with Merle the secret of how to age beef in the refrigerator. Buy a rib-eye or loin strip on sale - either Prime or Choice. Take the meat out of the plastic wrap and rinse it with cold water. Let it drain, then pat it dry with paper towels. Wrap the meat in a large white cotton dish towel and place the package on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator. The next day, unwrap the meat and wrap it in a fresh towel. Continue changing the towel as often as necessary for 10-14 days - and you are ready to start enjoying good steaks. Cut steaks from each end as needed and let the remaining meat continue to age in the refrigerator. Or, if you eat steak rarely, cut the entire piece of aged meat into steaks, wrap each one in heavy duty plastic wrap, and freeze until ready to use. Don't forget to label them with the date. To clean the dishtowels, soak each one as you finish using it in cold water overnight. Next, soak the towels in cold salt water for 2-3 hours, and then launder as usual. Origin: Cooking with Regis & Kathie Lee Shared by: Sharon Stevens, Nov/94. Submitted By SHARON STEVENS On 11-20-94
PS Do not use cotton dish towels the have been dryer with fabric softing drying sheets.
Enjoy you home dry aged stakes thay are out of this world!

Michael B

It sounds simple, but it isn't.
You need to buy the beef from a known butcher, who knows what you intend to do with it.
Put the beef in a cooler and take it directly home.
Immediately prep the beef and place it in a dedicated, hi quality refrigerator that has a high and low temp alarm.
The temp must stay between 34 and 37 degrees.

stike

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Fidel

Not to threadjack, but I was thinking of you at dinner Saturday night stike.

I had a 60-day aged 18 ounce strip that was, beyond a doubt, the absolutely best steak I have eaten in my entire life.

dukedog

Stike - Point well taken and I certainly respect your knowledge on this topic (I've read a lot of your posts and they've been incredibly helpful)

But I've had pretty good luck with the towel trick for 4-5 day ages. Now, the taste difference could all be in my head and scientifically speaking my 4-5 day ages may be causing very little authentic "aging" to happen , but I do notice a tremendous difference in texture and taste which I assume (maybe incorrectly) is due to dehydration and concentration of flavor. I basically do as the first post suggests for 4-5 days and the surface of the primal is anything but sticky and tacky, it has a dry pellicle that looks like the pictures you've posted in the past and requires some slight trimming before cooking. I use the flour sack type of kitchen towels and haven't gone beyond 5 days. I assume that a more controlled environment (and probably no towel) would be required for longer aging?

I appreciate any further thoughts or suggestions you have on this. Thanks!

stike

where did you get 60-day aged stuff?

i thought i had it good with 45 day stuff nearby. 45 days was, in fact, the most i have ever even seen.

you know, there are folks here that will throw out a steak one day past it's sell-by date, and your steak has been hanging around for a few months....

details, man. details. restaurant?

the strip is interesting. i noticed more bang for the buck at 45 days with the rib-eye. i wonder how much more buttery and pronounced the aging must be at 60 days on the strip.

damn. i'm jealous

stike

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dukedog

Appreciate the feedback. Next time I'll try without the towels and see how she goes.

When I did it with the towels, after the first day the towel was soaked a little, after changing each day the next several days the moisture was less and less and the last day (day 5) the towel stayed dry. I did a choice prime rib roast from Sam's that had what appeared to be a pretty good fat cap on it. The other time I did a NY strip loin roast, also with decent fat cap. I've been interested in doing a whole primal but thought I'd experiment with some smaller cuts off the primal (not individual steaks!) first.

I've seen the picture of the room full of prime stuff aging in that basement of a steakhouse in NY. Makes my mouth water just looking at it. Way cool.

stike

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Big Green Fire Dragon

Just to clarify the post on the stakes being to dry after the dry ageing process, he was trying to dry age individual stakes.

I to have used the towel method and it worked fine.

I was in Whole Foods the other week and their dry aged beef is dried using the open air method under controlled humidity and temp.
Was the dry aged beef in NY open or covered?

dukedog

Beautiful pics! With the towels mine kinda looked like that but yours definitely look better. I'd certainly prefer to not use the towels if they aren't necessary and you've convinced me they're not.

Now I'm hungry, maybe I'll swing by Sams and pic up a rib roast and start the process sans towels.

Question...when I did the last few I trimmed the edges a bit (just a little) to get the dried surface of the fat off and also trimmed a paper thin "steak" off of each end before cutting into steaks for grilling. It appears you didn't trim before roasting the whole rib roast. My question is how does the dried exterior hold up to grilling (in the case of steaks) or roasting (as you did) as far as edibility? Wondering if I still need to trim.

Really appreciate the input. Thanks!

dukedog

The NY steakhouse (Peter Lugers) does not cover when dry aging.

Here's the link to the article. Worth reading and looking at the pics if you're a steak fan!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/nyregion/23rooms.html?_r=1

Big Green Fire Dragon

And the difference in taste? Fix yourself side-by-side servings of mineral water and Evian. Both are high-quality beverages, but mineral water has an earthy complexity to it that spring water can't match. Dry-aged steak is similarly suited--you can (and should) eat it plain to savor its distinct flavor, whereas the wet-aged variety sometimes needs a sauce or seasoning to make your palate sing.

Big Green Fire Dragon