Dry Aged Beef

[ercchry]

so i decided to try dry aging some beef at home a couple weeks ago, finally got a chance to try out one of the steaks and HOLY! best... steak... EVER!

i went with a tenderloin (really unnecessary, but meh, only $80 at costco for a log). it was packed the day before, so when i got it home i unwrapped it; rinsed it off, and dried it with a paper towel and wrapped it in cheese cloth and tossed it im my empty fridge on a clean rack with a pyrex with sea salt in it underneath. the next day i changed the cheese cloth with a new one, left it for another day and completely removed the cheese cloth.


so two weeks later i cut a couple steaks off, trimmed the dried meat and sprinkled some sea salt on them and left them on the counter for an hour, this draws out a bit more of the water.


then tossed em on the que for 3min a side with a little butter once i flipped them... then ate


i cooked them to rare, i didnt even need a knife! they just pulled apart, after i was done there wasnt even a drop of blood on the plate, yet the steaks were still juicy... well worth the time and effort!

see how dark they are? awesome...




they cracked open like that on their own

[Amysicle]

Thanks for sharing! Looks delicious.

So did you age them for 14 days total or 16?

[ercchry]

well its actually only been 10 days, but i have left the rest of the meat in the fridge. i will keep eating and aging till 3 weeks then freeze whatever is left (if there is any left haha)

[digi355]

I've always wanted to try this but always worried I'd kill myself in the process. The internet has tons of articles on how this is either sex or poison?

Apparently, home fridges don't have the humidity they need to properly age the steak and wrapping them in cloth encourages bacteria growth?

I'm curious if you were lucky, or if the internet is fear mongering? I just might have to pick a ribeye up this weekend. Thanks for sharing.

[ercchry]

well i didnt leave it wrapped the whole time, just to help rapidly draw the moisture out off the bat. the salt helps to keep the bacteria growth down. that coupled with an empty fridge that i dont need to open helps. a fridge is a natural dehumidifier so there should be low humidity. since the whole idea is to dry the steak you should have low humidity. its easy to tell if the steak is healthy or not. it gets a hard dark crust on it that you cut away and you end up with a nice healthy deep dark red steak.

[R-Audi]

When we do it at home, the meat is simply tented with tinfoil and Costco beef is usually left for 1-2 weeks. No trimming either.

One thing worth nothing, any good butchers will age (wet or dry) their beef for ~28+ days... but Costco cuts it and bags it right away... hence the need and major improvement when its done.

[sputnik]

I just buy my steaks from a place that dry ages their beef.

[msommers]

Dry-aged meat is amazing, I've gotten spoiled and won't go back. The Farmer's Market on Blackfoot has a couple vendors as well as the Coop downtown. They end up being the same price so go with the FM so you can talk to them about the meat; I like Silver Sage.

[digi355]

Originally posted by sputnik
I just buy my steaks from a place that dry ages their beef.

Where?