Dry Aging steaks - Drybag Steaks?


 
J

Joe Dang

TVWBB Super Fan
I know some people have tried the alton brown method of dry aging their steaks. I've done a variation of it but I find that 3 days just doesn't do it. I've read about another windely known method where you just cover with cheesecloth in your normal fridge for 21 days or so changing it daily, but to me, 21 days in a regular fridge sounds kinda risky to me.

So I started toying with the idea of getting a dedicated dry aging fridge. Yeah sounds crazy but hey, we're pretty crazy about our food here. So I went online to search for the parameters, I know the temp should be consistent and near freezing, but can't figure out what the humidity should be.

There is no way I will ever make it the full 21 days but 14 days sounds about right. In any event, I came across this and it sounds interesting:

http://www.drybagsteak.com/sho...bag-steak-paypal.php

I'm always leery of anything saying that it's a european method, that sounds hokey to me. But on Discusscooking someone bought the bag and it came out quite nice according to the pics, with a nice burgundy color. It's a vacuum sealed bag but it allows moisture to escape while keeping a the vacuum.

Any thoughts on this? Costco for some reason has a steady supply of prime roasts now so I would love to stick one in this bag and go at it.

EDIT: Googling them, they look to be spammers on various message boards. hmm, not sure I want to give them a try anymore.
 
Dry aging at home is difficult for most people because the temperature and humidity must be kept to very narrow range. Most household fridges are opened and closed everyday and spikes to both those targets will occur. The bags are one thing, but they don't help with the 2 big items mentioned above. The big boys out there don't dry age in bags; they use dedicated coolers. Doing a quick skim of the dry bag website, I couldn't find the benefit of using the bags. You saw 'pictures' of a sample dry aged piece of meat, but the real test is how did it taste? Most recommend to use the prime grade for dry aging beef and prime beef should always taste very good, dry aged or not. That's my .02.

Paul
 
Hi,

Dry aging at home is very simple and safe as long as you follow some sanitation guidelines.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Sanitize your bottom cooler drawer.
Reduce the fridge temp to 35 degrees.
Don't handle the meat with your bare hands.
Place the meat on a rack over a pan of water.
Check the meat every day; it should look and smell clean.
</pre>

Enjoy,

Tim
 
Anyone else used these DryBags? I bought some and I'm planning on trying it out tonight so I won't be able to offer any thoughts on them for a while.
 
Hi Joe

There are only a few things in life I know about, ageing and hanging beef is one. About 6 years ago the meat and livestock people in the uk started a test on dry hanging beef verus vacum packing beef. One side was hung and the other broken down and packed. The test was going to be with 100 bodies of beef after 50 they had found both scored the same on taste and tenderness.

One big factor in this hanging is the method of hib bone hanging straight after slaughter( I understand this is not easy to do at home). This has been prove to increase tenderness after only a few days.

All that said I do keep my ribs of beef bone in for six weeks in a commercial chiller and they are great.

Good luck

simon
 
There are only a few things in life I know about, ageing and hanging beef is one. About 6 years ago the meat and livestock people in the uk started a test on dry hanging beef verus vacum packing beef. One side was hung and the other broken down and packed. The test was going to be with 100 bodies of beef after 50 they had found both scored the same on taste and tenderness.
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do you have a link to the source of this? It pretty interesting, I'd like to know more.

and I'll remain skeptical of studies done by industries trying to prove themselves right.

I buy prime beef that has been dry aged for 21 days, I rather like it however I can't say the key is the intense marbling or the dry aging.
 
I am very interested in trying dry aging. I have wet aged a couple of things and they turned out very well especially the tri-tips. I have a small dorm fridge that my wife used at work that is now my dedicated aging fridge. What I couldn't tell from the dry bag website is how the moisture escapes. It looks like you cryovac the meat so you are wet aging, yet somehow the meat loses moisture like dry aging. Looking at the photos, it appears that the steaks in the bag have no relation to the final picks where the butcher is trimming a whole roast. If the bags work, I would be very interested in knowing.
My main concern about dry aging is maintaing the proper humidity. I think I read that you need to have about 80% humidity. I have no idea how to regulate that in a fridge. Guy Fieri just did a bit on his show Guy's Big Bite about dry aging using cheese cloth in his fridge but he didn't go into details about how he set up his fridge. Anyone else have a dry aging technique that works? I know K Krueger has written about dry aging before but that was a few years ago.
Lance
 
I also would like to know about the humidity. I totally forgot, my parents own a 7-Eleven (I didn't forget that) but never thought to use their big cooler! The temp does not vary much in there. But I'm not sure about the humidity. And since I have no idea how to regulate it, if the humidity is no good my only choice is wet aging, but that shouldn't be so bad with a huge cooler like that and temp not dropping.

Does anyone see a problem with vacuum sealing the cut myself and wet aging it? Or is there a chance for some germs to get in there between the market and my vacuum packing? Costco always has prime steaks now (ribeyes) for good prices here, and I want to grab a roast but it will no be vacuum packed.
 
Joe, I'd do some research on curing cabinets. Basically people rig old refrigerators up so they can create the proper environment (cool, humid) for dry curing meats. There are various methods for humidifying the chamber, you'll have to seeif any will work for you.

here's a link you might find useful

and in case you haven't seen this, here's merle ellis' instructions for dry aging beef:

1. Only the top grades of beef can be dry aged successfully. Use USDA Prime or USDA Choice - Yield Grade 1 or 2 (the highest quality of Choice) only. These have a thick layer of fat on the outside to protect the meat from spoiling during the aging process.

2. Buy a whole rib-eye or loin strip. [You cannot age individual steaks.] Unwrap it, rinse it well with cold water, and allow it to drain; then pat it very dry with paper towels.

3. Wrap the meat in immaculately clean, large, plain white cotton dish towels and place it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator - which is the coldest spot.

4. Change the towels each day, replacing the moisture-soiled towels with fresh. Continue to change towels as needed for 10 days, to 2 weeks. (See Step #7 for cleaning towels.)

5. After the desired aging time, you're ready to cut off steaks from each end, trim as desired, and allow the rest to continue to age in the refrigerator.

6. If, after 21 days, you have not eaten all the meat, cut the remaining piece into steaks, wrap each steak in freezer-proof, heavy-duty plastic wrap, and freeze. The steaks will keep for several months in the freezer.

7. To clean the towels for re-use, soak the soiled towels, immediately upon removing them from the meat, in cold water overnight. Next, soak them in cold, salted water for 2-3 hours to remove any blood stains. Then launder as usual. [In olden days, butchers used to cover sides of beef with cotton "shrouds" during the aging process - this is essentially the same thing.]
 
I'm going to do the research on curing cabinets but first I'm going to check my mom's cooler. A huge cooler being operated and paid for by someone else, and is free, cannot be beat. If the humidity is right.

To answer your request about the study mentioned above, I found this;

http://www.beefresearch.org/CM...ging%20of%20Beef.pdf

Great paper. It references several different studies with very different results. I think both aging processes are better than nothing. I know I like a steakhouse out here called Mastros, and they say they wet age their steaks and its delicious.

Only one way to find out. Buy a huge cut and do both and test!

EDIT: Note that the paper discusses a "polyvinyl chloride film" aging process. Is this the drybag steak original referenced?
 
I took the plunge and purchased the DryBagSteak kit for this USDA Prime Boneless Ribeye from Costco:

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After 18 days of dry-aging, this is how it looked today:

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I hope it tastes as good as it looks for Christmas dinner. We'll see tonight...
 
Hmm, that video (and followup video) seems pretty legit. I notice in the picture above and the followup video

http://www.youtube.com/user/fo...search/7/-SaRVzpyVQ8

That the meat doesn't take on a crimson red color inside like some of the other dry aged stuff I've come across. I wonder if it develops the musky dry aged flavor (which is what we want to go for). But it looks like it works in reducing the moisture
 
That's a great price for USDA Prime....wish we had a Costco nearby...our Sams has Choice
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About the aging..If you put your roast on a wire rack on the lowest, coldest shelf in a 34* fridge...towel under the rack and on top of the roast....change the towels when they look like they need it...VIOLA ...great color, great taste.....my father & his father had butcher shops
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This was a picture of our Christmas dinner from last night:

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I was very pleased with the outcome; I think the bags worked! The meat was very tender and very flavorful. I thought about searing the roast on the charcoal chimney (reverse sear), but the dinner guests were getting a little impatient. I received compliments from everyone, including my girlfriend, who usually doesn't enjoy red meat.

With that, I'm considering picking up another USDA Prime boneless ribeye loin and a strip loin to "dry-age" for 28-40 days...might pick up at Restaurant Depot this time.

Anyway, if you're interested, check out photos and videos of my first DryBagSteak adventure.
 
Originally posted by Michael L:
I took the plunge and purchased the DryBagSteak kit for this USDA Prime Boneless Ribeye from Costco:

0_0_7a07adb2772a855cda74591a5d01f20c_1


After 18 days of dry-aging, this is how it looked today:

0_0_f36e962c328f806c970b756b63d2e0d4_1


I hope it tastes as good as it looks for Christmas dinner. We'll see tonight...
Click to expand...

That. Is. Beautiful.
 
Michael...do you have the sealer they recommend? I watched the videos and can't figure out why you need the "snorkel." unless is has something to do with the fact that the bags lack channels.
 
Originally posted by j biesinger:
Michael...do you have the sealer they recommend? I watched the videos and can't figure out why you need the "snorkel." unless is has something to do with the fact that the bags lack channels.
Click to expand...

I actually purchased the kit because I didn't have a snorkel-type sealer. You need to this particular type of vacuum sealer because the bags are just like any other plastic bags - they lack channels. They're also not quite as thick at your typical vacuum bags - kind of reminds me of slow cooker bags.

I read that someone was able to use a foodsaver to seal these DryBags. A Google search would probably yield the results for this method.
 
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