Dry age boeuf

Steve is that what the english call "Acquired Taste" :laugh: The fridge looks nice & clean though.....

Hey, stay out of the beer fridge. :P

Couldn't help but notice you've dispensed of all the beer.

Hey you got it going on.

Looking Mighty fine.

Must be 50 days by now. :huh:

I say......old chap sounds much better my little one :laugh:

eenie meenie and I, and no doubt LC, are very glad you finally got all the beer out of there, and have left that meat entirely alone for 40-50 days or so.

Best beef you'll ever have

Wine is nothing more than rotten grapes, after all
Cheese is rotted milk
Honey is bee spit

Lord forgive him, for he knows not what he sayeth :laugh:

You have me beat there. Hahahaha
Man o man :laugh:

Ummmmm.....I will?



This last hunk of prime ribeye will be 75 days (maybe 77) on Friday. I'll clean it up a bit and slow roast for Fridays dinner.

Steve! Time to start cutting into that!! How else will you know how 'aged' you like it best?? Just cut off a steak, and throw the beast back in the fridge! Honestely, I still have a hunk I am letting go to 75 days, but in all honesty, I was most happy in the 45 day range. After that, to me, it was lacking moisture. I will try a dry bag at some point, but really don't want to invest in the vac packer needed. Truly, with the bare nekkid method (aka Commando...thanks Stike), I think too much moisture is lost after about 40 days. JMO. My next, I will start eating off it at 28 days, but once I hit 40, I will steak the remainder and vac pac. Enjoy it! It is SO worth the effort!

i was informed by someone on "the other side" that the commando process slows down after a certain point, and the dry-bag continues to dry. meaning, at the 'end' (in the final weeks) the dry bag system permits a higher rate of drying than the commando

i had always been wanting to delve into the differences between the two approaches, because it was my gut feeling that the dry bags would allow you to go longer with less drying, and therefore age longer with less drying. but i think some empirical evidence here suggests both lose about the same water around 45 days. beyond that (60, 75+) there aren't many of us trying it to be able tell. but safe to say 45+ is pushing the 'moist' variable. it'll be drier, yeah.

but it was shared with me that (to oversimplify), in tests, commando and dry-bagged chunks will start out at different rates drying. the commando loses water fast, by virtue of not being slightly impeded by the membrane. the dry-bag dries a bit more slowly at first, the 'commando' dries faster initially.

i figured this held true for the entire process, but my 'source' (all round good guy) related to me that studies show the rind of the commando version is thicker eventually than the bagged product. what that caused was a SLOWING of the drying in the commando process, and a comparative faster drying in the bagged stuff toward the end of the aging period. not faster as in it speeds up, but faster compared to the fully-exposed beef ('commando', for STILL lack of a better word. hahaha).

[just a note: i've gotten the impression from some folks (only a few) that it looks like i am nay-saying the dry-bag product. that's never been the case. i have only ever tried to get at the differences, and this was one. and it was shared with me by 'the other side' (other camp, i should say).]

to me, it is another tool in the arsenal. another idiosyncrasy of each process that will inform how you go about it, based on what your goal is.

anyway... i agree about the dryness toward the end. that dryness is apparent usually around 5 weeks, even. i have served aged beef to some folks who loved the flavor, but were surprised that it didn't have 'juices' running over the plate. well, 99% of that juice is water. and the reason the juices taste good is because it is carrying flavor away with it. aged, (dried, actually), the flavor is in the beef, it's just lost water. it gains (in perception) flavor from being condensed, plus actual new flavors from enzymes contributing esters after breaking down the meat

so the flavor we are after is there in spades, but the texture, for me, at the extended 100 days was not as good as i'd hoped. a strange combo of too mushy (broken down, tender), yet too firm from dessication. think dried sponge. still soft, but dry.

yet another blathering answer from stike. ah well. just trying to toss it all out there for others to make a decision for themselves. not about what product or method is best, but about which achieves your goals. what are folks looking for?

i think many of us have settled on 45 days as about the best combination of moisture and flavor. i still think 60 days was the best for me, personally, but i was frankly not too concerned about the moisture. just as aged beef itself is an acquired taste, i think the firmer, less moisture, but more tender aspect is acquired too. but 100 days? yeah, too dry even for me :laugh:

think of it like ham. most folks aren't looking for ham to be soft and juicy like a roast, and so don't complain. but it WAS a roast. it lost that moisture. aged steak is just a different thing than 'steak'.

should say this wasn't an answer to your post, but was spurred by it.

need to go know, fingers cramping. from. the. hunt. and. peck.

(i lost your email, can you send me a PM? i have something along the lines of aging beef i wanted to run by you, and it's DIRECTLY related to moisture... shhh. it's an ex-peri-ment)

let us know if the plastic wrap trick worked on the cut end. i think it maxed out around two weeks, and then had dubious benefits after that :laugh:

did you score some mold? i haven't had any mold yet (on the beef). ...pancetta? some mold. to be expected to a certain extent