"Dry aging" steak with fish sauce

[rx6006]

Hello all,

My Polyscience Creative Series finally came in the mail, and I've been tearing through recipes from Modernist Cuisine at Home. I was very intrigued by the technique of vacuum sealing a steak brushed with fish sauce to mimic the flavor of dry aged beef as mentioned in the section on beef. I currently have a skirt steak in the fridge doing just that, but I was unclear on the cooking process. Should the steak be removed from the bag after the three day aging period, rinsed, and seasoned at usual or should it be cooked as is? I'm somewhat leery of seasoning it as usual, due to the innate sodium content of the fish sauce but other forums have said throwing it in the sous vide as is will result in too strong a flavor of fish sauce. Given my wife's absolute disgust for the smell of the sauce as I prepared the bags, I'm trying to avoid serving her an entree redolent in that aroma and taste. Thanks in advance for your input.

[Paul Bacino]

Since ..u are basically marinating it.. I might rinse it.. Or pat it dry...Then really dry age it a day or two...just something.. To think about..then season with anything that doesn't have salt.

[rotuts]

Im very interested in what you end up doing and how it tastes to you. Pics are always appreciated. I like PB's idea of pat-dry and then refrig for a day or two .

fish sauce 'cooked' tastes quite different to me than 'raw.' I dont mind the aromata of bottled F.S. that much.

of course, If I dropped a glass bottle of the stuff in the Kitchen, I'd move a few countries away.

I keep mine in plastic bottles as low down close to the floor as possible.

Edited August 10, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Paul Bacino]

I will blood age...without any sauce..and can get some decent flavor profiles. It's the basic browning of the meat u see in the close-out section in the supermarkets

[rx6006]

Im very interested in what you end up doing and how it tastes to you. Pics are always appreciated. I like PB's idea of pat-dry and then refrig for a day or two .

fish sauce 'cooked' tastes quite different to me than 'raw.' I dont mind the aromata of bottled F.S. that much.

of course, If I dropped a glass bottle of the stuff in the Kitchen, I'd move a few countries away.

I keep mine in plastic bottles as low down close to the floor as possible.

I'm going to treat it like a marinade as Paul suggested; after he mentioned the comparison, the mystery of how to treat the skirt steak sort of fell away. I do think after I rinse and pat dry, I'll season with cracked black pepper and throw in a pat of unsalted butter for good measure. I'll be sure to report back with pictures and a summary of how it turns out.

Truth be told, I don't mind the smell either. Almost all of my favorite foods are heavily cured or fermented, so I've come to equate bracing food aromas with substantial payoff when it comes to the taste. A whole bottle of Red Boat breaking, though, might necessitate a HazMat response.

[rotuts]

I love Skirts. Love them. but they are thin. Remove what ever fat you want to or not. the roll them up in a 'pin-wheel'

use a bamboo skewer 1/3'd down each side and slice: two pin wheels.

if you plan to SV them, use kitchen twine the same way. it wont piece the bag. Cut in 1/2, and then proceed.

you can use the skewers to hold the meat in place for your twine, then remove and then Pre-Bag.

best of Good Eating!

Edited August 10, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[rx6006]

Great news from the kitchen...the fish sauce experiment was a stunning success. The marinade and time in the fridge created some very deep, buttery flavors in the steak with absolutely no trace of a fishy aroma. Out of an abundance of caution, I rinsed the meat prior to resealing and cooking, and found that it was necessary to salt liberally prior to searing with a MAPP torch. For those of you short on time or the resources to dry age at home, I highly recommend this.

Edited August 14, 2013 by rx6006 (log)

[Beusho]

I just completed this at home as well and can second the deep umami flavor it develops. I did mine for 2 days although they recommend 3 (on the MC website, not sure about the book). I would highly recommend this.

[rotuts]

what sort of fish sauce did you use? would the Red Boat be too intense?

[rx6006]

what sort of fish sauce did you use? would the Red Boat be too intense?

I actually used the 40N Red Boat, and it was perfect. I do have a few smaller bottles of 50N, but I typically use it for finishing and am not too sure if the subtle nuances would be lost during the marinade process.

[rotuts]

very interesting.

how big was that steak? surface area? how many drops of the 40 did you use on each side?

Id love to know as I plan to try this my self.

40 is one potent F.S.

[rx6006]

very interesting.

how big was that steak? surface area? how many drops of the 40 did you use on each side?

Id love to know as I plan to try this my self.

40 is one potent F.S.

It was around 1100 grams or so with a thickness of around 7/8 inches; not my thickest project, but I love skirt steak. I used around 30 grams of fish sauce, and brushed it on each side equally prior to vacuum sealing. After three days rest, I rinsed, seasoned again, re-sealed, and cooked at 138F for about ninety minutes and then at 122F for just under two hours.

I want to use the same treatment for a piece of London Broil. It was the second item I cooked with my IC, and the overall result was like cafeteria food: bland, tough, and a texture not even my dog could appreciate. I'm sure that cooking time had a lot to do with it as well (under twelve hours), but hopefully this will help too.

[Kerry Beal]

What cut are you using for your "London Broil"?

[rx6006]

What cut are you using for your "London Broil"?

Ah, apologies. In PA, meat departments refer to top round as London Broil, as opposed to the more traditional term for a method of preparation.

[rotuts]

Id avoid all the Rounds, and all the leg: study up on the shoulder, or Chuck.

blade roast has two different muscles running on a very tough central tendon. once you learn how to deal with that tendon, very very tasty and tender meat

very good for SV or grilled.

also flap meat. sirloin tips when not cut into chunks are easy to SV, roll-up etc.

next time these go on sale my way Im going to try the RedBoat Rx on them.

Edited August 18, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I'll be interested to see how it turns out. I've not been really happy with most round I've sous ve'd with the exception of eye of round.

[rotuts]

I see SV this way: take a tough, but very flavor-full cut of Boeuf (fr: tasty ) and use the SV to make it tender. rare ( 130 )

then go from there.

flavor as most of of know does not relate to the cost at your butcher's.

Ill let you know.

I did those """Prime""" blade roast a while back and they were superb. cheap. some work but not too much.

the On Sale sirloin tips are what Im going to look for next. and they told me they would sell them to me at the

sale price but not cut up as a long piece but as a full flap

think stuffing potentials

Edited August 18, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[rx6006]

Id avoid all the Rounds, and all the leg: study up on the shoulder, or Chuck.

blade roast has two different muscles running on a very tough central tendon. once you learn how to deal with that tendon, very very tasty and tender meat

very good for SV or grilled.

also flap meat. sirloin tips when not cut into chunks are easy to SV, roll-up etc.

next time these go on sale my way Im going to try the RedBoat Rx on them.

Agreed. I picked up two pounds of grass fed chuck roast at Whole Foods today. I'm going to cook it off around 135F for 24 hours and see how it goes. I see a good deal of aromatics in its future, or perhaps a low acid marinade. Do let me know how you like the RedBoat treatment.

[Junkbot]

Can more people comment on the effectiveness of this technique? Very intrigued by get instant aged flavor without so much waste. 

[cdh]

Dunno what more you are looking for beyond statements that it works.  It works.  It definitely adds a nice funk to good beef. 

[Josh71]

I read above some success storied about with this trick

 

I read a reference about it here:

 

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/quick-aged-grilled-rib-eyes

 

Mentioned the technique from the book Modernist Cuisine at Home, Nathan Myhrvold.

 

I also watched someone tried on YouTube:

 

 

From the look of it, it looks nicely aged. Although he overcooked it.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Josh71 (log)

[harrysnapperorgans]

looked great - up until he cooked it.... can't say I like the look of that method. but i like my steak pretty blue

[mmille24]

This is REALLY interesting if it works well.

 

1) Not having to buy an entire primal to dry age

2) Not having to wait 25+ days

3) The water weight loss has to be less, along with no wasted trimmings.

Edited May 12, 2015 by mmille24 (log)

[gfweb]

Lot of work if you are going to incinerate a steak like that.

[scubadoo97]

He had a probe in it as well.  So I think it was an error on his part dealing with the video and all and he didn't want to redo the video