Dry Aging Beef at home

Svetti Arss

I was thinking of giving this a ago with Ribeye if its safe. Anyone done it? and hows it done?

Seaneh

you can't do it with a single steak, you need a side of beef and a massive fridge...

You can buy bags that let you age an entire cut (en entire rib for example) and they work pretty well, they let moisture out but not in.


all beef in ireland is dry aged anyway, just most of it only hung for 18-21 days.

find a really good butcher and ask for 28day+ aged beef. You'd be much better off.

FTGFOP

The Good Eats' Method.

lucylu

Darina Allen has a recipe for it in her Forgotten Skills of Cooking book for Bresaola ( air-dried salted beef that has been aged two or three months until it becomes hard and turns a dark red, almost purple colour. ...)

Svetti Arss

My interest in this came about after I ate the nicest rib-eye steak ever in a restaurant recently. When I enquired about the amazing flavour I was told is was because the beef was dry aged for 21 days so I am surprised to hear that all beef in ireland gets the same treatment.

Have bought several rib-eye steaks from a good butcher since they but they never tasted like the steak I had in the restaurant.

Thanks for the info.

dh0661

Svetti Arss wrote: »

My interest in this came about after I ate the nicest rib-eye steak ever in a restaurant recently. When I enquired about the amazing flavour I was told is was because the beef was dry aged for 21 days so I am surprised to hear that all beef in ireland gets the same treatment.

Have bought several rib-eye steaks from a good butcher since they but they never tasted like the steak I had in the restaurant.

So you need to ask the restaurant for the name of their butcher, and how they cook their rib eye.

The Sweeper

Seaneh wrote: »

all beef in ireland is dry aged anyway, just most of it only hung for 18-21 days.

Seaneh, where does this info come from? I'd be very surprised if all Irish beef was hung for 18-21 days. I reckon the supermarket stuff is hung for 5-7 days, 10 at the very most.

Minder

Svetti Arss wrote: »

My interest in this came about after I ate the nicest rib-eye steak ever in a restaurant recently. When I enquired about the amazing flavour I was told is was because the beef was dry aged for 21 days so I am surprised to hear that all beef in ireland gets the same treatment.

That single jewel of information (21 days aged) is not enough information, but it is commonplace in restaurants as a stock answer as to the provenance of beef. You will never be told what breed of cattle the meat came from. Highly unlikely that the waiting staff would know what farm it came from. Extremely unlikely that the feed regime for the cattle would be on the menu. Yet it all has some effect on the flavour of the meat. Simple stock answer - hmmm delicious!, yes 21 days aged don'tchya know! I imagine it's a bit like asking the waiter why the wine is delicious and being told it's French as an answer - it doesn't get you any nearer to finding it for yourself.

brianthebard

The Sweeper wrote: »

Seaneh, where does this info come from? I'd be very surprised if all Irish beef was hung for 18-21 days. I reckon the supermarket stuff is hung for 5-7 days, 10 at the very most.

I very much doubt supermarket beef is hung at all tbh. Its in those packets with the pad to soak up moisture. Plus aldi's special steaks are 14 days hung and taste better than most other steaks you'll buy in the supermarket. You can easily tell from the colour of the meat when its raw whether its been hung any length of time.

duploelabs

Seaneh wrote: »

all beef in ireland is dry aged anyway, just most of it only hung for 18-21 days.

Absolutely not, the majority is wet aged. If you dry age beef, it will loose 30% (at minumum not including the crust) of it's weight, hence butchers are reluctant to do it

Seaneh

duploelabs wrote: »

Absolutely not, the majority is wet aged. If you dry age beef, it will loose 30% (at minumum not including the crust) of it's weight, hence butchers are reluctant to do it

Any butcher I buy from hangs their beef (or buys from an abattoir that does). I've been in several abattoirs (including a kepak plant) and they all hung their beef and all of them said they were hung for 18-21 days.
Maybe the super markets wet age it and maybe they don't age it at all (would explain the redness and the stupid soakage pads in the packets) but I haven't bought anything besides mince and chicken in a supermarket in my adult life so I wouldn't really know.
I buy all of my beef from butchers and the first question I ask is always how long do you hang your beef and not once in the 8 years since I first moved out of home has one replied anything less than 18 days.
I probably should have said all beef from butchers is dry aged, fair enough.

CiaranC

Seaneh wrote: »

I probably should have said all beef from butchers is dry aged, fair enough.

Why is it bright red then? My local butcher leaves the unaged stuff out front for the aul ones to buy, you have to ask for dry aged before he'll bring it out.

Seaneh

CiaranC wrote: »

Why is it bright red then? My local butcher leaves the unaged stuff out front for the aul ones to buy, you have to ask for dry aged before he'll bring it out.

It's not in the butchers I go to.