aging beef

[DaveFaris]

Some of the best new york strip I ever grilled was some aged beef from Whole Foods Market (which I have a sneaking suspicion is just last week's new york strips that just didn't sell).

On the other hand, I've tried dry aging some prime rib the Alton way, and I have to say, while the meat was very tender, the fat tasted gamey and unpleasant.

So, at what point does a piece of beef stop being aged, and start being rotten?

[yank101]

I remember my uncle aging beef. He would hang the whole carcus in an apple cellar. He would check it for mold or "Fuzz" as he called it. That was 40 years ago and the taste of that meat, whether it was steaks or hamburgers, sticks with me today. It was the absolute best I ever ate. Now, it was "gamy"! Some would call it rotten or bad, but I called it delicious. I am sure it took weeks. I am going to check with the local meat market and see if they will dry age me a rib-roast for 3 weeks. If they will I will taste it and go back for longer aging.

[melkor]

You want to age beef with the fat cap intact. Once the meat is ready, you trim off any part that was exposed to the air. Otherwise it does have an off taste.

[badthings]

By the way, in that article Steingarten claimed that the only two steakhouses in the entire country that actually dry-age their beef 4 weeks were Bern's (in tampa) and Peter Luger.

[wesza]

By the way, in that article Steingarten claimed that the only two steakhouses in the entire country that actually dry-age their beef 4 weeks were Bern's (in tampa) and Peter Luger.

That's absolutely not true. I personally have set up more then two dozen restaurants with aging rooms, and am aware of many more.

It's true that many of the better, more effective aging rooms are not publicised, but it's primarily because they are utilizing Ban-Bac Unit's to provide effective dry aging, while controlling bacteria and what's considered noble-mold, on the exterior of the meat surface. The Beef is kept in a humidity, temperature, bacteria controlled atmosphere for the amount of type to properly age each primal cut, as it varies.

The most popular primal cuts dry aged are whole short loins, bone in ribs, whole plates including briskets, loins, sirloins, whole rounds, hindquarters and forequarters.

They are hung from meat hooks, as this provides complete air circulation, or placed on special shelves, where there is surrounding ventalation, and the cuts are easily rotated.

In a correctly set up aging room the ban-bac units operate on timers. The ageing room is only opened daily for several hours at specified times. for deliveries, rotation of stock, removing meat for butchering to be prepared for anticipated service.

These types of aging set ups are sometimes located at the wholesalers or jobbers facility, where the meat for specific restaurants are personally selected, tagged, dated and stamped by whomever has the responsability of buying for each restaurant. After beef is weighed, and selected a memo is issued that must be fully paid in no longer then one week or at the purchase date. The tagged cuts may shrink anywhere from 12% to over 25% by dehydration, serum loss, or excess fat, and dry exterior trim.

Beef aged this way or even with Cryovac, should not acquire whats called a gamy taste or flavor. That is produced by a different process, under different conditions. The meat will have a natural, rich, tender beef taste and character due to the breakdown of enzymes, and the marbling of the interior fat.

Irwin

[hwilson41]

Wesza, since you seem to be a pro, is there anything affordable (more or less) that we home cooking amatuers could use to age our own beef? The reason I ask is that I am able to buy (at the right time of year) fresh bacon slabs, hams, etc., from hog farmers down in Southern Maryland, and expect I could cut a similar deal on sides or quarters of beef with some of the cattle farmers in Virginia if I knew what to do with the beef after I had it. TIA.

THW

Edit to correct stupid spelling mistakes.

Edited October 25, 2003 by hwilson41 (log)

[Citryphus]

Well, I'm "dry-aging" a rib roast in the fridge right now, and I'm up late searching the web because I'm anxious about it.

Both the Alton Brown show and the America's Test Kitchen website claim that even one day's aging in the fridge has a beneficial effect, and frankly, that's as far as I'm willing to take it with $80 and my reputation with some in-laws on the line.

One thing AB left out of his show--and by the way, who is seriously going to take a huge ceramic tree planter and put it in their oven--is that beef will absorb other flavors from the fridge, like butter will.

So far it's been unwrapped in the fridge for 12 hours, and I can already see some darkening patches on the fat, and a few additional brown areas on the cut sides. I pulled it out and took a sniff, and I must say it smells reassuringly good. A strong smell, but not a spoiled one.

Anyway, my evening of web research has turned up a tentative answer to the question that launched this thread: tenderloin has little to no protective fat coating its surfaces and is therefore not a good candidate for long dry-aging. Hence no aged filet minon.

The dinner is tommorow night. I'll post the results afterwards. . .

[budrichard]

This is my kind of research paper! http://www.confex.com/store/items/ift/jfs66-0196.htm

http://www.askthemeatman.com/dry_aged_beef.htm

http://www.americangrassfedbeef.com/dry-aged-beef.asp

http://boboquivaris.com/1_aStory.html

The above all mention the need for controlled humidity, sanitation and bacteria control.

This seems to be a good ref is you really want to attempt this. http://www.theingredientstore.com/foodpres...ion.pl?read=755

For my part, i paid $8/# for my whole Prime dry aged Rib Roast which seems a small price to me for peace of mind. I certainly would like to dry age my own beef but if you notice the articles tell you to start with high choice or prime to begin with. Since this is an already expensive cut, I let my butcher do the rest.-Dick

[charalito]

I did a little home experimenting of my own: went to Costco and bought one big chunk of New York Strip steak (1.2kg). Cleaned out the botton shelve of my fridge (it doesn't get opened very often as I live alone and spent most of the time out), put a cooling rack to provide with some form of ventilation, wraped the beef in cheesecloth and left it there.

The next day I changed the dressings and noticed very little blood stains, put the beef in a different position over the rack. Over the next days I didn't change the dressings daily, rather every 2 or 3 days.

By the end of 10 days, the weight of the steak was 0.9kg, the fat had a yellowish color and there was a dry crust on the beef. No mold, fungus or any kind of nasties.

I cut out the fat and dried crust (fed it to the very appreciative dogs) and divided the chunk into 2 steaks (forgoto to weigh the resulting steaks, but they were generous portions for 2 people). Cooked them according to Julia Child's steak au poivre and went to heaven!

The meat had lost the metallic/blood taste of fresh bought beef and insted there were the most amazing, complex and interesting flavors.

I'm definitely doind this again! Just went to Costo for 1.2kg of ribeye, planning on aging them for 20 days, see what happens

[tim]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience with the Dry Bag for aging steaks?

It appears to be limited to boneless cuts.

Tim

[deltadoc]

Think it would work with defrosted beef?

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Meat is muscle cells. Freezing causes the cells to expand and break the cell walls. You defrost frozen meat, you've already lost something in the process versus never frozen meat.

However, to try dry aging previously frozen defrosted meat, those broken muscle cells are going to lose their "internal" moisture faster. Unfrozen beef doesn't have broken cells, so the moisture within those cells has to diffuse out through the cell wall. A much slower process.

I wouldn't think trying to dry-age previously frozen beef would be worth the effort.

doc (previously from Iowa where I've seen the whole process from calf birth, sterilization (castration), pasturing, age of the chosen steers to "finish" off for 2-3 months in the barn, to the butchering process, to the hanging, the dry aging, the mold, the cutting off of the mold, to the final end product)