Was flipping channels this weekend, and saw Guy Fieri demoing how to dry age steaks at home. Any one have any advice on this? Obviously I put little stock in the Friday’s spokesman, but got me thinking, it should be pretty easy, no?
Ian, I routinely do this at home without any issue. Over on the Squires board, there are two dedicated thread to my experiments. I’ll give a brief overview and some pics:
- Get a whole primal in CryoVac…either a standing rib roast or strip loin.
- Get USDA Prime if possible, although I have had great success with Choice.
- Thoroughly wash and dry the critter once removed from the bag.
- Place on a wire rack and sheet pan in the bottom of a home fridge.
- Let it go at least five weeks.
- Expect about 40% wastage once the aging process has dehydrated the beef and wastage is cut. Plan on upwards of 50% to be safe.
I’ve done it twice now with excellent results. Preferred the 30 day to the 45 day.
I also found it easier and less waste to cut into steaks first and then trim
A couple of questions-
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Does it have to be in CryoVac? Or can I buy what’s in the case and use that?
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What needs to be trimmed after aging?
Also, do you need to wrap it in cheese cloth? And what is the best temp?
I am using a small fridge, since I don’t have a second full size one in the house. Is that ok?
the ones i bought were not in cryovac. you can easily tell the difference between what is nasty and what isn’t. Dried out rotten meat surrounds the good stuff underneath. I did not use cheese cloth. Keep in mind that a full rib roast is about 18 inches so it would of course need to fit and have enough space around it for the air to circulate
Whatever Jordan does, do that.
He did not publicize it at all, but he cooked up two batches of identical steak cuts this past weekend for a bunch of us in Vermont and quietly asked me and Zach which of the two batches we preferred. We both said the second batch, which turned out to be his home recipe. Amazingly good. Bravo!
-Michael
For me CryoVac is the only way to go…either from Costco or Sam’s. Trim away what you think needs to be trimmed. I will resemble beef jerkey and be almost leather in consistency. I have trimmed both ways…cut into steak and then remove the funk, as well as “shaving” the funk from the primal and then cutting into steaks. Both yielded similar results.
As for temp, 34 deg F is what my fridge measured on the bottom shelf. Key is to keep the door opening to a minimum to provide as steady of a humid environment as possible.
Here is the strip loin cut into steaks before final trimming:
Michael is right. Jordan labeled them “A” and “B”. I thought I was going to feel bad b/c based on bias, i was sure that B was the Flannery. It turned out being Jordan’s and I didn’t have to feel bad at all
you think one of those little college soda fridges is good enough for this?
If you can find one that can fit an entire primal in it with good air circulation around it.
For those of you who are feeling a bit squeamish about the dry-aging, I’ve had great success with wet-aging an entire top loin for up to 8 weeks in the Cryovac. The key is that it’s in an anaerobic environment, so there’s a considerable margin of safety.
At 6 weeks it was tender; at 8 weeks it was very tender and had picked up some flavor change like you’d get with dry-aging - not as much, but the little bit was nice. I may go for 10 weeks next time.
I have a packer-cut brisket basking in the fridge right now that was packed on April 22 - I bought it around April 30 - and I’m going to smoke it sometime this week. I’ll let everyone know how it turns out.
Thanks guys.
My Cholesterol just went above 300! [1928_middle_finger.gif]
It’s not the little one, but a step up from that. It’s about 3 feet tall. I will measure the dimensions before buying meat.
Huge help from all, thanks for the advice!
is there a daily/weekly cleaning process to remove any mold or what not?