45 Day Aged Rib Roast: Phase 3 (It's Done) w/ Pics

[tx smoker]

I've posted the first two steps in this process now to the final one.....except for cooking and serving it. The roast actually dry aged for 47 days. I had some time on Wednesday so went ahead and trimmed it and cut it into steaks. To save time and bandwidth, I won't post the pics taken each week to note the progress, just the beginning and end as well as the final process of trimming and cutting into steaks.

Here is the roast out of the package, rinsed, patted dry, and ready to go into the fridge

47 days later and ready to trim

Trimmed and ready to slice into steaks

Cut into 7 massive steaks

Close up of one of the steaks

Vac sealed and ready to go into the sous vide pot tomorrow

As many years as I have been buying, cooking, serving, and eating steaks, I have never seen anything that is this dark and deeply rich in color. The steaks are huge too. Each one is between 2 1/2 and 3 inches thick and all weigh between 2 and 2 1/2 pounds. I thought about trimming the roast a bit more but read where somebody had done one of these roasts in an UMAi bag and didn't trim it at all. They cut it into steaks, cooked them sous vide and let the juices soften the dry meat around the outside. After a month and a half of waiting, I absolutely cannot wait to dig into these monsters. I'm planning an epic meal tomorrow with some very close friends. Will post it at some point in the very near future.

Waiting with baited breath,
Robert

 

[normonster]

Wow! I guess I need to find those first two threads then, because this is wild! Aged beef! Can you give me the summary of why/how this works?

 

[pushok2018]

Robert, these stakes look great! 2 -2.5 inch thick stakes are my favorite... Would you mind to share on how did you dry them? I understand you did not use UMAI bags...

 

[73saint]

Beautiful!! Can’t wait to see the cook itself! That meat has a gorgeous red color...

 

[chilerelleno]

Tease, tease, tease, the grand finale better please.
Watching this, oh yeah, got an eye on you

 

[tx smoker]

"Can you give me the summary of why/how this works?"

"Would you mind to share on how did you dry them? I understand you did not use UMAI bags..."

It's actually a very simple process. Take meat out of bag, rinse and pat dry, put on rack in fridge for 45 days
You'll want to try keeping the temp 34* to 36*. That will minimize the possibility of spoilage. If you try to do this at 40* the results will not be pleasant. Prior to starting this, I did a LOT of reading and research. Most of what I found was pure garbage but I did find one article that was well researched, based on fact by trial, and well presented. There is some great info here. I followed it and couldn't be happier with the results. I also got some really good info from Holly2105 regarding the use of a humidifier. It appears however that the humidifier really only benefits for the first several weeks. After that the outside of the roast is so dry that moisture is irrelevant.

Here is the link to the article that got me started:
https://www.seriouseats.com/2013/03/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-dry-aging-beef-at-home.html

Now....go have some fun guys!! This is gonna be a kick in the a$$ tomorrow

Robert

 

[solman]

looking forward to the result!

 

[pushok2018]

Thank you for the link, Robert. I am sure your stake will be delicious! I am wondering what was the weight loss after 45 days of drying... I read (and watched youtube) a lot on this and know that it's necessary to trim the meat after the drying process is complete so... some meat loss is unavoidable. On the other hand your meat looks like you can avoid trimming... Interesting...

 

[tx smoker]

"On the other hand your meat looks like you can avoid trimming... Interesting..."

Oh no, I trimmed it but there was not nearly as much loss as I thought there would be. I've not weighed the meat since trimming cutting all of the steaks but it doesn't appear to be bad. I'm just guessing 20% or so total loss. I'll weigh everything before starting to cook and see where we are with it.

Robert

 

[smokininthegarden]

Interesting, I was always under the Impression that aged beef was only done with whole sides or
Quarters of beef. Obviously, I had no cooler or refrigerator that could handle that much of a load
so I never gave it much thought. Your post changed my way of thinking, I might have to buy a
small refrigerator to put in the basement just for this process, sounds delicious.

Cal