45 Day Aged Rib Roast: Phase 1 (With Pics)

[tx smoker]

So....yesterday was a full day of firsts for me. I've been wanting to age a large primal cut of beef for a LONG time but for some reason never did. During my research for the Pancetta I also did a lot of reading on aging beef. I figured what the heck, may as well give it a shot. The fridge that I was going to set up as a curing chamber for the Pancetta is now being used as an aging chamber for a big ol' chunk of beef. It is a side-by-side out in the garage. The fridge side is used for drinks in the Summer while we are working in the yard so we don't have to keep coming the house to satisfy our thirst. The freezer side is loaded full of sausage, which is why I was not able to use it as a curing chamber. I can't give up the freezer space.

We have a place about an hour and a half northeast of us that pasture raises all of their own beef, butchers it, and sells to whomever is willing to pay the price for it. They have an excellent reputation for providing outstanding quality meat so I thought I'd give them a call. I asked if I could get a 103 cut rib roast consisting of ribs 6 through 12. There was a pause on his end as if he couldn't believe what I was actually asking for....but he did understand. Yes, they could do it but it was going to be $20 / lb. Due to the roast not being trimmed in any way, basically right off the cow, that is going to put in in the 25# range +/-. YIKES!! That's going to be a $500 piece of meat. We tend to be generous to a fault with our friends but that's an awfully big pill to swallow. Now to Plan B. Went to a higher end grocery store where I know the butcher. They had the roast but not in a 103 cut, but you'll never get that anywhere except from the actual producer. If you have a top notch butcher shop, you may find a 107 cut but even that is hard to find. Mostly what you'll get is a 109A or 109E just about anywhere you buy it, which is what I wound up with unfortunately. I did score one heck of a great deal though so I'm happy. Here is what I got:

21.55# rib roast. Look at the price....list and actual with the club card


And in my best late-night pitchman's voice: BUT WAIT!! If you buy the whole thing, right now, you can save even more!!


It may be hard to see but at the end of the day, I got a $280 roast for $141. I'm happy with that. You have to ask because nobody is going to voluntarily give away money but if you buy the whole roast, they will drop the price. There is no loss of product for having to trim them for packaging and no time / labor to cut and package, hence they can sell for less.

Here are a couple pics of the meat itself out of the packaging



That's a pretty hefty chunk of cow. Now into the aging fridge


I spent the weekend getting all of the stuff out and cleaning the fridge then getting the temp dialed in. The fan on the bottom is from a humidifier that was in a big cigar humidor for a long time but is no longer being used. I didn't need the water tank or reservoir, just the fan. Since it pulls air from the bottom I had to set it on a wire rack so it could get circulation. The thermometer is one that I've had for a long time also but is still spot-on accurate. It is secured into the notch for a shelf with a clip from one of my Maverick 732's pit temp probe. Sometimes I feel like McGuyver with some of the stuff I come up with....but it works so I guess that's all that matters.

This one will probably be updated in three threads as things progress. If anybody is going to be in Central Texas in late February, drop by. I'll probably be cooking these babies. I'm going to slice these into steaks, cook them Sous Vide, and flash blast them on the grill at 1100* for color and sear.

Fingers X'ed in Lago,
Robert

 

[atomicsmoke]

Don't rule out the water tank yet. Just like the pancetta you want to slowly dry out the meat. Dry too fast and it'll case harden and spoil. Dry to slow and it'll spoil. You are targeting around 75% to 80% humidity in a 36/37 degrees fridge. A UV light is also a welcome addition to some aging/drying chambers to help kill of bacteria.

I am an enormous fan of Inkbird plug-n-play controllers. Plug the fridge into the temp controller and the humidified into the humidity controller. Set the parameters and watch the magic happen.

A curing chamber and drying and aging chamber are two different animals. Unfortunately a lot of get us caught up in calling a aging/drying chamber a "curing chamber". Moving forward I'm going to try to remember to differentiate. A curing chamber is where wet meats are stored (home refrigerator) until the cure has sufficiently penetrated the meat making it safe to dry/age at a higher temperature. We are only concerned about maintaining temperature during the curing phase. The meat is then moved to a drying/aging chamber where we now need to be concerned with temperature, humidity and to a lesser degree air flow/exchange.

So no matter when drying/aging fresh "wet" meats or "cured" meats a chamber with controls is suggested. The difference is cure meats dry/age at a higher temperature typically in the mid 50's to low 60's whereas fresh meats age/dry at lower temps typically the 36/37 degree range.

I'm not trying to throw a wrench in the works I'm only trying to help you make the best and safest products possible.

Dry ageing beef for steaks is a different animal than drying meats to eat as cold cut. The purpose of dry ageing beef is not the uniform moisture loss one wants in dried sausages, coppa and pancetta, Rather the intensification of flavours due enzyme activity and just modest moisture loss. High humidity is not desirable during beef aging. Case hardening is expected and beneficial. You don't want your steak dry like a bresaola. One trims off the dry dark layer and ends up with a delicious juicy steak.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Curious as to why you wanted a 103. In 45 days you would have a nice roast and Ribs covered in funky smelling Jerky.
That butcher's answer was strange. There would be next to no handling or processing to Power Saw a 103 away from the spine. He said it's more work than a 109? Did he even understand what you wanted?...JJ

 

[atomicsmoke]

So....yesterday was a full day of firsts for me. I've been wanting to age a large primal cut of beef for a LONG time but for some reason never did. During my research for the Pancetta I also did a lot of reading on aging beef. I figured what the heck, may as well give it a shot. The fridge that I was going to set up as a curing chamber for the Pancetta is now being used as an aging chamber for a big ol' chunk of beef. It is a side-by-side out in the garage. The fridge side is used for drinks in the Summer while we are working in the yard so we don't have to keep coming the house to satisfy our thirst. The freezer side is loaded full of sausage, which is why I was not able to use it as a curing chamber. I can't give up the freezer space.

We have a place about an hour and a half northeast of us that pasture raises all of their own beef, butchers it, and sells to whomever is willing to pay the price for it. They have an excellent reputation for providing outstanding quality meat so I thought I'd give them a call. I asked if I could get a 103 cut rib roast consisting of ribs 6 through 12. There was a pause on his end as if he couldn't believe what I was actually asking for....but he did understand. Yes, they could do it but it was going to be $20 / lb. Due to the roast not being trimmed in any way, basically right off the cow, that is going to put in in the 25# range +/-. YIKES!! That's going to be a $500 piece of meat. We tend to be generous to a fault with our friends but that's an awfully big pill to swallow. Now to Plan B. Went to a higher end grocery store where I know the butcher. They had the roast but not in a 103 cut, but you'll never get that anywhere except from the actual producer. If you have a top notch butcher shop, you may find a 107 cut but even that is hard to find. Mostly what you'll get is a 109A or 109E just about anywhere you buy it, which is what I wound up with unfortunately. I did score one heck of a great deal though so I'm happy. Here is what I got:

21.55# rib roast. Look at the price....list and actual with the club card
View attachment 385100

And in my best late-night pitchman's voice: BUT WAIT!! If you buy the whole thing, right now, you can save even more!!
View attachment 385101

It may be hard to see but at the end of the day, I got a $280 roast for $141. I'm happy with that. You have to ask because nobody is going to voluntarily give away money but if you buy the whole roast, they will drop the price. There is no loss of product for having to trim them for packaging and no time / labor to cut and package, hence they can sell for less.

Here are a couple pics of the meat itself out of the packaging
View attachment 385102
View attachment 385103

That's a pretty hefty chunk of cow. Now into the aging fridge
View attachment 385104

I spent the weekend getting all of the stuff out and cleaning the fridge then getting the temp dialed in. The fan on the bottom is from a humidifier that was in a big cigar humidor for a long time but is no longer being used. I didn't need the water tank or reservoir, just the fan. Since it pulls air from the bottom I had to set it on a wire rack so it could get circulation. The thermometer is one that I've had for a long time also but is still spot-on accurate. It is secured into the notch for a shelf with a clip from one of my Maverick 732's pit temp probe. Sometimes I feel like McGuyver with some of the stuff I come up with....but it works so I guess that's all that matters.

This one will probably be updated in three threads as things progress. If anybody is going to be in Central Texas in late February, drop by. I'll probably be cooking these babies. I'm going to slice these into steaks, cook them Sous Vide, and flash blast them on the grill at 1100* for color and sear.

Fingers X'ed in Lago,
Robert

Untrimmed roasts might have a better yield, but since they are not common $ for lb of aged steak you get more value from supermarket beef since you buy it on sale. No argument on the taste of gras fed thougjh.

 

[tx smoker]

"Curious as to why you wanted a 103. In 45 days you would have a nice roast and Ribs covered in funky smelling Jerky.
That butcher's answer was strange. There would be next to no handling or processing to Power Saw a 103 away from the spine. He said it's more work than a 109? Did he even understand what you wanted?...JJ"

The thought behind the 103 cut was actually multi-faceted. First off, since the meat was basically untouched by the butcher, my anticipation was that it would be considerably less expensive per pound than meat that had been addressed for retail sale. Second was that I planned to cut off part of the bones as grilling treats for the puppy. Lastly was that I wanted was to trim off some of the fat, bag it up, and use it for sausage making later. I planned to leave enough fat so that when the aging process was done, that would be trimmed off for cooking and I wouldn't lose any of the edible meat. With the 109 cut, there is virtually no fat left on it so everything I'll need to trim off later will be a loss of edible meat. The butcher did seem to know what I was looking for but I think he was surprised that I knew what I was looking for. There was no indication from him that the cost was more for the 103 cut. I think their prices are just very high to begin with. Going from a 103 to 107 cut, the price escalated by $5 a pound. Sorry, but that's simply more than I am willing to pay.

Robert