Dry Age "Cheating" on your steaks. Get the same great Steakhouse taste and texture at home

[zeavran1]

Now I want to cook a steak! Delicious read!

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[wade1979]

I have tried the 30-40 day raised rack dry aging method, but recently started playing with umai dry age bags. Not the same as traditional total air contact method, but it yields great results. I then reverse sear and finish off with searzall torch (the best kitchen gadget ever) .

[earthson]

Wait wait wait.... all this talk about concentrating the beef flavor and then you put beef crystals/boullion on it!?

[Wil]

Damn, some fine looking steaks.

[jrb5783]

Saw this thread a couple years ago and still use it to this day normally on use salt and pepper but results are still amazing. I have passed this technique to many friends and family and they are all blown away by how was it works

[ChefBoyRG54]

Nice thread, I got a 7 bone ribeye at 22 days as we speak. First time for me. Can't wait to eat her:)

[Fosgate]

Grilling season back upon us now that things have thawed. Just back from helping a friend brand calves and I would have to agree with the OP that beef selection is crucial in the process. Growing up in a family of beef producers and working with them every day I would say if your fortunate enough to be able to get a 1/4, 1/2 or a whole beef straight from a farmer rancher to go ahead and do it.

First off breed selection IMO is crucial. I live in an area where Black Angus and Black Baldies are the dominant cattle being raised. While we have Herefords, Buffalo and many other breeds the Black Angus and Baldies are probably the most adapted to this environment. That being said I think the Black Angus is probably the best beef out there aged. It is apparent in the color of the meat even, how dark a cut of Angus/Baldie is compared to other breeds like Hereford etc. Hereford is often pink where a good cut of Angus is a dark red with more flavor. While we have aged other breed cuts I have yet to have another breeds cut on their best day to hold a candle to an average cut of our Angus/Baldie.

Stress of the animal before slaughter is huge. Think about it, as people when we work out we build up ammonia in our blood stream and other chemicals are released when we are stressed. Same thing happens with cattle. We would contract truckers to haul our cattle to market and their total pay was based on the amount of shrinkage before they hit market. Once at market they are often fed a cheap mix of alfalfa and high percentage of grass for hay rather than fresh cut grass or alfalfa they are used to. Think about the amount of stress an animal goes through from transport to the slaughter house. Now take into consideration of a rancher. We would bring them into the barn at 4am when they are still lazy and half sleeping. Cow thinks its a normal day and we single one out and bring it out the middle of the barn with a bucket of feed. Cow has no suspicion whats up. Soon as they dip their head into the feed bucket a .22 into the top of the head immediately dispatches them and we start the bleeding out and butchering process. This is why many ranchers are happy to sell beef directly to people rather than run their animals they have cared for since calves through that industrial machine. Ranchers are happy, animals are dispatched humanly, and you are fortunate enough to be involved in the butchering process you have that much more appreciation and respect for your meat. The result on the plate is the best cut of meat money can buy and you cannot find in any steak house.

Time of year is also critical for us. We try to butcher as late in the fall as possible, especially if we had a hot or drought stricken summer where the animals were stressed and some dying. During a cold winter they are burning off the fat they put on in the summer. Although there are exceptions say a mild winter where they are good to butcher through the winter. Most the time though the cold and snow just makes them burn a lot of calories regardless how well one tries to feed them. Spring is usually not good because they don't have much fat on them after winter and heifers are calving and there is not much if any fresh green grass in the pastures yet.

I'll have to try the OP's method for grilling. Though I minimize my char by flipping mine at the 2 min mark so each side gets hit twice. I have to oil the ceramic grid to keep the meat from sticking and ripping open. If I don't minimize the charring my phosphate levels elevate enough to develop lower back pain with uric acid kidney stones and a good ass chewing from my doctor.

Also 100% agree with the liberal use of salt and NO sauce. If you want sauce on your steak you had better just grind it up and put it on a bun. Nothing insults the chef in this area faster than asking for steak sauce for a steak. That stuff is for burgers only.

[Ghabanos]

One of my fav threads!!!

[Lant63]

Any updates here?!?! Looks amazing!!

Nice thread, I got a 7 bone ribeye at 22 days as we speak. First time for me. Can't wait to eat her:)

[ChefBoyRG54]

Any updates here?!?! Looks amazing!!

Yes, made it 31 days and the finale was epic

My father, brother and I basically grunted like cavemen eating these. My wife was a bit nervous about the aging then starting taking a couple bites and ended up eating a whole steak. Even my kids ate a bunch. Great meal, can't wait to do it again!

[JackFNQ]

Can someone remind me about if oil is used at any stage?

[NapaNolan]

Can someone remind me about if oil is used at any stage?

Oil would get in the way of dehydrating the meat.

You can use oil when cooking the steak, but any decent cut should have enough fat to satisfy and will within a few seconds render enough fat to take the place of added oil.

[MaxG]

I'm trying this method for the first time. I have a very thick bone-in ribeye that is at the 24 hour mark now. I really see no visual difference in the steak. Should I give it another day before seasoning?

thanks,

- MG

[NapaNolan]

The salt will help pull out moisture, if you haven't used any salt I can imagine there isn't much visual change. The exterior should be pretty dry to the touch, though. If you can't season and give it another 24 hours I'd season just before cooking at this point.

[MaxG]

Thanks for the reply. I was asking because the original post said after 24 hours there would be a visible difference in the texture of the meat. I didn't really see any.

I ended up giving it 48 hours without seasoning and another 24 with.

It goes on the grill tonight!

- MG

[NapaNolan]

I think a lot of things said in this thread aren't what I experience or what is proven by scientifically-minded chefs.

Plus just like cigars, meat is a natural product and there isn't a universal schedule that everyone experiences.

[wade1979]

I think a lot of things said in this thread aren't what I experience or what is proven by scientifically-minded chefs.

Plus just like cigars, meat is a natural product and there isn't a universal schedule that everyone experiences.

I found this link very helpful with my dry aging "experiments". I can say that I have hit a few home runs with my progress and have also had some real strikeouts. Fun nonetheless.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/03/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-dry-aging-beef-at-home.html

[Ethernut]

Great thread! Been wanting to dry age at home for a while now. My wife looks at me like:  I also am big into reverse sear. I will often get my BGE up to 200 and toss on a bit of hickory then the meat. let it sit under heavy smoke for 20-30 minutes at 200 degrees. Careful, 30 minutes can be too long. You want a smoke-kissed flavor not a BBQ flavor.  Then it gets interesting. When I'm ready to seer, I open up the air vent WFO on the BGE and take the daisy wheel off for max airflow. Then I fire up the leaf blower and allow it to idle air into the closed BGE chamber via bottom air vent for 1.5 minutes. Trust me, this is steakhouse temps and flames will be shooting from the top of the BGE (Burnt gasket anyone?)  Turn the steak over and another 1.5 minutes with blower idling air in. Boom! Perfectly caramelized and a cool red center. 

That's my trick..

[ThatAlfonso]

On 5/8/2016 at 10:19 PM, JackFNQ said:

Can someone remind me about if oil is used at any stage?

No oil necessary. Even when cooking the meat will release from the grill when its been on for a couple minutes.

[oakalley]

I tried the "dry aging" process outlined at the front of this thread by "brazoseagle". I dry aged a prime ribeye, cut about 1.75" thick. Cooking on a Weber Summit, I was able to get the temp up to 700+ degrees. Steak came out pretty good, although I was fighting flare-ups almost from the onset. The outside got a bit too charred for me, but the taste was really nice. One thing that I would say, if you are going to grill at really high temperatures, the grill has to be clean, and I mean really clean!! If the drip plate or the flavorizer bars over the burners have any residual from past grilling, your flare-up problems will be much greater. I usually don't clean anything but the grates after each cook, but to do these right, everything under the steak has to be really clean. Would I do this again. Probably, after giving the grill a good cleaning. But frankly this steak wasn't any better than ones that I cook using the reverse sear method.


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[Diamondog]

Full 40 day dry age using Umai bag.

[bierz]

5 hours ago, Diamondog said:

Full 40 day dry age using Umai bag.

Looks awesome.  2 things - what is the Umai bag, and where'd you source the big ol' steak?

[backbone]

Costco or Sams club sell ribeye loins like that, and they grade them as well.

[Diamondog]

Brother in law got the cut from butcher at local grocery chain....best IMO is from Costco, their beef and meat in general is brilliant. This was his experiment and worked well!

Umai

https://www.drybagsteak.com

[watchesandputters]

Awesome thread and great write up.... may have to make my way to a butcher here soon now.


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