Dry aging best before

[alys]

Hey
I have a newbie question. How long is it okay to keep a dry aged steak fresh out of dry aging bag in the fridge? Will simple vacuum bag extend its life?

I know I can freez it, but what is the optimal time between opening it up and having to freez it?

 

[dr k]

Hey
I have a newbie question. How long is it okay to keep a dry aged steak fresh out of dry aging bag in the fridge? Will simple vacuum bag extend its life?

I know I can freez it, but what is the optimal time between opening it up and having to freez it?

Most have a dedicated fridge with a temp probe alarm for the fridge with the intact roast on a rack on a pan with coarse salt under the roast to reduce humidity and to quickly desiccate the outside of the roast. Once dried it'll just keep drying with less and less edible meat in the center.. The dedicated fridge keeps the roast from absorbing other food flavors if you wish and a 12 vdc computer fan keeps air circulating at the beginning and usually to the end of the dry aging. A large local meat packing company I toured had a roast the owner was doing a test on but forgot about it for many months and said it'll pobably all go in the garbage., being dried out. The first two weeks with a fan and low humidity to desiccate the exterior is crucial since the bacteria is on the outside with intact meat. I'd leave it open in the fridge until you want to cut away the desiccated outside and slice into steaks. The coarse Himalayan, sea or rock salt will stick together from absorbing humidity but can be put in a 350+ oven to bake out the humidity and tap into pieces to reuse.

 

[TARM]

All those trying to lower humidity i your regular frig or adding fans are going the the wrong way. Regular frigs are already way to dry for proper dry aging. Dry aging is a high humidity level process. That is the entire reason for the dry age collagen wraps or bags. They are used for slowing the rate of moisture loss of the meat. Regular home refrigerators are on average about 30% humidity. For dry aging you want 65-80%. With it being so dry the last thing you want is increased air circulation increasing moisture loss even faster. The same thing goes for salt trays etc. Last thing you want is drier air. Just put the meat cut in the wrap and then in a netting sleeve or the bag and set it on a cooling rack in a sheet pan (cookie sheet) and every few days gently flip the meat. Thats it.

After using both the bags and the wraps the wraps seem to do a better job having a thinner pecille rind. But yes they are a bit delelicate but its really not hard. Mits not like they are tissue paper.

I have a full rib roast finishing its 3 week as we speak. I am pulling @ 35 days. From testing using the wraps or bags the sweet spot seems to be 30-40 days. As you go further it drys out too much vs using a proper drying chamber.

The best meat for dry aging will have a good fat cap as you can cut that as the dry rind not the actual meat flesh. A brisket is kind of ideal in that way as there plenty of fat cap you are going to trim off before cooking anyways. Just dry age it with no fat trimming. Then trim as usually after dry age is complete which will include that dried rind.
Issue is that is not making steaks lol

In a basic refrigerator if anything you might want to add a small pan of water under the shelf or rack the dry age meat is on.

We raise our own cattle and get the entire carcass dry aged hung for 3 wks which is good enough for increased tenderness and minimizes risk for our butcher. The only real difference between drying cured meats and dry aging raw fresh beef cuts is the temp. That is because of the curing. 55-65F cured meats 35-38F regular cuts dry aging. The amount of air circulation is really not needed in frost free modern refrigerators as they cycle on off so much there is no real need for more air flow even with the proper higher moisture/humidity level. In a commcial walkin it needs it. Its not that hard to make a drying chamber from a used frig for a few hundred dollars. Controller, small bed side size humidifier & dehumidifier, used old working frig and you are all set. You can many times get old frigs for $50-200 even free. The more basic the frig the better. They last longer with less to fail like the numerous circuit boards.

For cooking a dry aged steak. First remove the pecille rind taking the bare minimum to get only the hard dry crust off. Sharp thin blade boning or fillet knife and take your time. Then salt dry brine as usual and cook. Do not go past med rare-med. Use a thermometer probe. After all that work and cost its silly to wing it.

The best steak cut for dry aging IMHO is the rib roast for ribeyes. Good fat lots of flavor. The ribs protect those areas of the meat so you do not loose much more from that side than if you trim off the bone anyways. You usually do not notice much dry age flavor until the 30-40 days. It only gets funkier from there but no increase in tenderness after 3-4wk.

One tweak you can do we use in charcuterie drying cured meats is before cutting the pecille off the steak/meat cut after aging is complete put ut in a vacuum seal bag at max vacuum. Let it sit in there in the frig for a couple days then cut the rind and dook. The vacuum helps evenly distrubute the moisture left in the steak evenly and it can rehydrate the inner most parts of the rind netting less to cut off and more to eat. Your still going to have a decent bit of rind though. No real way around that. Its why dry aging is best done as a whole carcass or as least large primals as they have a entire fat cap is finished well. I would not choose grass finished for long dry aging as they never have as nice of a fat cap.

eta: oh ahd keep the rind pieces as you can put it in a crock pot and render it to tallow. You can then use it on reg non dry aged steaks and it will impart that dry aged flavor. Also tallow is great for cooking steaks no matter.