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Aged Steak Smell?


eternal

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I purchased some amazing steaks a couple months ago from Rain Shadow Meats here in Seattle. They are aged ribeyes and they cost an arm and a leg. I cooked two pretty quickly but the other two sat in the fridge for about 6 days (in butcher paper) then I vac sealed them and froze them until today. I defrosted them today on the kitchen counter and then opened the bag and they smell pretty strong. I sealed two steaks together and where they were touching the are very deep red but on the outside, the steaks are more brown.

I'm thinking this is just the smell of aging but man, it concerns me a little. I hate to prepare a whole meal and then find out on the first bite that the steak is spoiled.

Somebody tell me this is normal :)

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Brown to me indicates that they have not been kept cold enough or they are starting to spoil. Or possibly they have freezer burn - Personally I would never freeze a good steak as it can affect the quality of the flavour and texture although if they are going to go off otherwise I guess I see why you did it.

Aged steaks do smell depending on how well aged they are from sightly nutty to parmesan type flavours so the smell is probably normal but the brown discoloration is not.

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Pretty good read here!!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/01/the-food-lab-dry-age-beef-at-home.html?ref=search

Blood will tend to oxidize and change color/brown!! I have package/blood aged, as I call it from butcher wrap ( no vacuum ), for about. I'm sure 6 days would have been the limit. It will develope a smell and get brown

I would think anything you have would be superficial.. and a hot sear would do it good.

But again, that is me. Worst..you might try cuting off some of the brown and test fry a bit of the underlying meat.

Paul

Edited by Paul Bacino (log)

Its good to have Morels

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The steak was incredibly tender and tasted great but the smell was evident to me. The lady said she didn't notice or smell anything off but I sure did.

On another note, I don't know what I think about doing steak sous vide. It does get the temperature perfect but you just can't build the same crust with a blowtorch or a 2 minute sear.

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I must tell you this:

Paul Bacino

is the King of Meat here.

I SV 'steak' all the time, but not what PB has to start with ...

why not try again, and ' under SV ' your steak ( 130 min ) and then get a stunning ly hot grill / charcoal / etc for the sear?

if you get that odor again, wash the surface off and pat dry. then start again

there are some wonderful threads here on aging your own Meat!

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I cook steak SV all the time, the torch doesn't work for me either, only to brown some spots here and there. But I can get a great sear, what do you use? I use a cast iron skillet that I heat up to where the patina turns silvery, I drop a bit of canola oil in and spread around, then the steak goes in. I do dab the steaks off a bit if they got too moist with juices in the bag. Between 30-60sec/side gives me a really nice sear and no grey at all underneath. It's not an almost black crust, but a real nice (well, to me anyways) dark brown sear.
I might torch the sides a bit.

I do also cook them on a very hot bbq and just in the pan, either with the high temp sear one side, flip and stick in low oven method (with a thermometer probe inserted) or I flip the steak often to get a nice sear but slow down the heat transfer to the center a bit, thus less to no grey.

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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I actually only use steaks 2" and above.

Here is a finished product: ( my Rib Cap Roll Steak ) You can take it longer if you wish, if you like more char-- get a thicker cut or adjust your cooking time ,method and temp. :)

I usually buy high marbled beef, and these are special occasions and I will get to much flame on a regular grill for these meats.

2778960063_2792ae6788_b.jpg

Good luck

Paul

Its good to have Morels

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