Dad wants to attempt to dry age a few steaks. He's got a good butcher, and a food saver machine. Is there anything more to this than just vacuum sealing the steaks, and putting them in the fridge?
Any other steps we should be doing? Or tips/tricks?
Assuming after they age, you can grill them like normal.
We're thinking for a first attempt to do 2 sets. One that would be cooked at 21 days, and the other at 28.
My gear:
22 Weber Kettle
Napoleon PRO Charcoal Kettle Grill
Broil King Keg
Traeger Pro 34
Napoleon Prestige Pro 500
Pit Barrel Cooker
Blackstone Range Combo Griddle
Loads of information on the intertubes on dry aging, and no, you can't just seal them in food saver bags and throw them in the fridge. Also, you really want to use sub-primal cuts and not individual steaks. You lose far to much meat during the dry aging process to try to do it with individual steaks. I've always done mine nekkid but a lot of folks swear by these.
To dry age you need a whole sub primal (e.g., a whole ribeye) and a temperature and humidity controlled location. Basically you are controlling the rotting of a huge chunk of beef which tenderizes and flavors the meat. Then you cut away the desiccated outside and are left with the good meat which you then cut into steaks. You’ll probably wind up with 40-50% of the weight from what you start with.
I haven’t explored this myself but some people do this with a dedicated fridge and a fan set up. The other option that people have used on this site are Umai dry aged bags which supposedly offer special bags which allow you to dry age large cuts but I can’t speak to their effectiveness
So, it looks like my easiest options are really
1) just leave a whole roast/loin in the cryo bag and wet age - which will improve tenderness but not change the flavor much.
2) Buy one of these dry aging wrap kits from Sausage Maker , or Umai Dry that can be used in a regular refrigerator.
You can set your roast/loin on a raised cookie sheet and set it in the frig, open to the air. I've done this 3 times with great results. You lose about 25% moisture by weight and you will have to trim the mold or scab away (depending on the humidity of your frig). I would not dry age prime or Waygu. Choice and select will benefit greatly.
It sounds like the dry aging process greatly benefits from precise temperature and humidity control.
That's more than my dad wants to bite off. I don't have a second fridge. (Un)fortunately, my cousin has closed one of his restaurants due to the Covid shut down. BUT, I think he has the commercial refrigeration equipment that I could really get into this.
I'm also wondering if there is a market in the Dallas area for locally raised, dry aged meats, custom cut and delivered to your door in a refrigerated truck (rather than shipped on ice). Maybe start a side business to help him lose less money while the restaurant is closed.
There is a pretty substantial up-front cost to get into dry-aging on a commercial scale. Gotta buy A LOT of meat and put it up for a month or two or three.
Not really. In the link above you'll notice Kenji found that variation in humidity didnt affect the results much. Obviously you want the temp under 40F.
To do this on a large scale would be expensive and to sell it would require, I'd imagine, permits and health dept sign off etc. Even if your area doesn't require much, you'd want much tighter controls just to avoid liability.
Last edited by rickgregory; September 9, 2020, 11:37 AM.
Some restaurants here have gotten the go ahead to sell to consumers. They're basically buying from their suppliers and reselling things that mostly never get to the retail market while some are selling sauces or other things that they make and would normally use in service.
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