Dry aging DIY

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Kay W

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 9, 2020
1
0
Hey, first post.
Glad I stumbled across these forums, looks like theres quite a bit of information here but I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

I've set up a mini fridge for dry aging.
Has a thermometer, humidity sensor, UV light and a fan for air circulation.
Humidity can be controlled via controller, but no humidifier connected to it.
Installed a hook to hang the meat from the top of the fridge.

Temp is constant 2-3C (I believe it's around 37F), humidity w/o anything in the fridge is around 50%.

Got a 4.5Kg (10lbs) prime ribeye ready to go into the fridge.

Question is:
1) Once the meat is in, I expect the humidity levels to rise (correct me if I'm wrong) . Do I absolutely need some way to dehumidifie the fridge? If yes, is rock salt good? Keep in mind getting a block of salt in my area is quite tricky.

2) I plan to install a humidifier that will activate automatically once humidity levels drop below 70% and shut off once it reaches 85%. Is this necessary or am I going a bit too crazy?


Any advice or information for a newbie would be appreciated. I want to be sure I'm getting everything right. I also managed to get ahold of a great cut of meat.


Thanks in advance!
 
Any advice or information for a newbie would be appreciated. I want to be sure I'm getting everything right. I also managed to get ahold of a great cut of meat.

I've dry aged several large, sub primal cuts of meat and only used a regular fridge. Once or maybe twice I used uMAI bags but for the most part I just put the meat in the fridge on a bread cooling rack for air circulation and just let them go for the prescribed period of time. From everything I read if you're dry aging in that manner you want the fridge in the lower 30's F to avoid possible spoilage since the meat is not cured prior to aging.

Here are links to a few posts I did with dry aged beef




I did a huge amount of reading and research before delving into this and all three of these were fantastic and done in a beer over-flow fridge in the utility room. nothing special or fancy at all, just patience.

Robert
 
So instead of starting another thread about dry aging, I thought that I bring this one back up. From what I can tell by reading here, and I've read several pages of threads about it, if I attempt to dry age with the UMAi bags, I don't need a fan in the refrigerator? It seems that most that do it, prefer the bags as opposed to just placing the primal on a rack with a fan?
 
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