Aging Beef at Home

This link might be helpful: http://www.ivyhillhoa.org/bryan/Recipes/how_to_dry_age_beef_at_home.html

Interesting. While I fully expected Cav to post the first response, what is surprising is the short amount of time recommended to do this. I was expecting it to take a week, at least.

I suppose you could age it longer, but it would require a lot of inspecting for extra moisture and spoilage.

Yeah, it sounds like it isn't really worth the effort. Do you think that in a day a three pound porterhouse roast (two steaks tied together) would improve that much? Say I have two 1.5" NY Strips. How would you do it? Or not?

The strips should be fine, they'll age quicker. Fridge-aging is a pain in the ass. The benefit of a walk-in meat cooler is that the carcasses can be suspended so as to get dry air all around them. I once tried doing Thai-style dried beef in my fridge, and even after a week, they were still moist. When we did Peking Duck at chefs school, the steamed ducks were tied up and suspended similar to beef, to dry them out. It's tough to do that in a home refrigerator. Mind you, when cleaning out the walk-ins during that time, I did ask for a quarter from the first year students if they wanted me to make the ducks dance, a simple task, as they were basically marionettes.

Alton Brown did a show on this a while back. I'm sure you can find it on foodtv.com. He just put the roast in a plastics container that had holes punched in it. Put it in the fridge for a few days and that was it.

I don't know if this is the recipe, but I saw this:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_17372,00.html

I watch Alton Brown, I find him a good host and teacher, even though I finish his sentences, which annoys my wife to no end.

I do think that home-aging meat will never be superior to buying the genuine article. I should dig up my favourite prime rib roast recipe, courtesy of Jerimiah Tower.

We enjoy Alton Brown too. I should've thought of him when I posed this question, though some of his stuff is just way over the top. "First, we're going to cook the steadk 8" under the broiler, then, after four minutes, we'll move the rack up a notch to bring the mean to 4" from the broiler". Argh, I wouldn't have any skin left on my hands, and nothing to eat, and I'm a pretty good cook.

Thanks again everyone.

I just read that recipe. Yup, I cook with a terra cotta azealea pot just about everyday. Yup.

Hey, as long as you remember to take out the azaleas...

which tend to be poisonous..

Although if the deer have eaten everything else they'll start in on azaleas, rhodondendron and mountain laurel (also known as 'sheep kill").

Oh yea, I forgot about the flower pot. That was pretty weird.

I'm thinking of hanging the steak in the closet, next to the other bodies...

squinney saw this thread and thought you were talking about her....

Bear, for your own sake, I hope she never reads that post!!

I buy cheap chuck steak all the time and it is much improved by aging in the refrigerator. The thick "7 bone" shoulder cuts are especially good. Try to buy the ones that are already firm and a deeper red color, not the lighter, floppier, more "raw meat" looking cuts.

1. Get it out of the shrink wrap and that sanitary napkin thing as quickly as possible. The latter is a bacteria hotel.

2. If it smells at all off or is a bit green, give it a rinse with lukewarm water and pat dry. Blue is a better color, especially if it just smells slightly cheesy and not rank. It's probably O.K. to hit it with a little salt or spice rub, although I usually don't until it's dried out a bit.

3. Put it on a rack on a plate or roasting pan that will fit in your fridge. It needs to dry on both sides. I suspect a light wood rack would be better than metal mesh, because wood kills bacteria whereas metal seems to encourage them. But mostly you just want to maximize air exposure.

4. Mine is a batchelor fridge, a 1950s era thing with good Freon action and a balky thermostat that tends to keep it very near freezing. Also it houses little but beer and beef. My yuppie sister's fridge probably wouldn't work well--it is way too crowded, probably not quite cold enough, and ironically probably has a broader spectrum of bugs cultured in all the exotic yummies and leftovers. Use the one out in the shop.

5. When the top starts looking a little dry and dessicated, flip it over and let the bottom have a go.

6. Eat whenever. If it gets a little rank, cook it rare and see if the dog will eat it (mine at least prefers it cooked, and cooking seems to prevent re-emergence).