After talking to Mr. T about dry ageing a ribeye. He convinced me I could do it in my fridge. I always thought you needed a temp & humidity controlled place to dry age.
He said I could do it in my fridge set at 35-36 degrees, as long as the fridge had a built in fan to circulate the air. I have a spare fridge on the patio that I used. It very seldom gets opened so it seemed like I could keep the temp in range without a problem. Ribeyes were sort of on sale at $8.47 per pound. So I picked up a bone in, untrimmed 4 bone roast. It weighed 9 lb. 11 1/2 oz. Here it is.
The bones weren't cut off & tied back on & none of the fat had been trimmed.
All I did was pat it dry & into the fridge.
It took a couple of days to get the fridge set at the right temp. I had a Maverick in there so I didn't have to keep looking inside.
Tom said to put the meat probe in a glass of water & that would give the approx temp of the meat.
Here it is after 1 week. 2 weeks
In the 3rd week the batteries in the Mav gave out, so I just took it out of the fridge.
The fridge temp was always cycling between 34 & 37, and the water was always 35-36.
So I felt pretty confident that it would stay that way without constant monitoring.
3 weeks 4 weeks
5 weeks
Then after 40 days, here it is. You can see it is only 7 lbs. 12 1/2 oz. It lost almost 2 pounds.
After trimming it up, I ended up with six 1 1/2 in. thick steaks.
They each cost about $13. Can't wait to try one.
So out of a 9 lb. 11 1/2 oz roast. I ended up with 3 lb 3 3/4 oz of steaks. So each steak is a little over 1/2 lb.
It's hard to see in the photo, but the meat is a deep rich red color.
I vac packed 5 of them & left one out for dinner.
No seasoning on this guy, just S&P
Into
the kettle with lump & a chunk of red oak.
Sorry no pics of the steak on the grill, because I just forgot, it was cooking fast & I didn't want to screw up now.
All done with a little butter on top.
Served with a wedge of iceberg lettuce with Blue cheese dressing, and some garlic red potatoes.
It ended up med/rare. We like rare, so I let it get away from me.
I had no idea what to expect as far as flavor goes. I've never had a dry aged steak before.
I was very surprised at the wonderful beef flavor & the tenderness of the meat.
Hopefully next time I can get it a little more on the rare side.
I would definitely do this again, but only when ribeyes are on sale, so these will be for special occasions only.
Next year around the holidays when they go on sale, I will buy a whole 7 bone roast.
Also I think I will let it age for 45 days.
Thanks for looking!
Al
