/ck/ - Food & Cooking

The roast before I cut myself a steak off it.

Wrap it in kitchen paper.

>>5420986
I cut myself a ribeye because I couldn't resist. It's still about 6 pounds though. Look at that marbling... pretty nice for a USDA Choice.

>>5420993
no. I'm not doing the fake way... where you wrap it in towels to suck the moisture out. I'm trying to replicate an authentic hang-dry. So you can see I put it on a rack, and I have to put some kind of sea salt in the pan for humidity... and perhaps I may have to install a little computer fan inside the fridge for air circulation. I'm really not sure yet.

What I am sure is I'm not going to put paper towels on it.

>>5420995
Here it is alone in the fridge.

One of you guys mentioned that somebody on /ck/ dry ages his meat as well. I hope he comes into my thread and helps me out.

in the meantime, I'll just grill up a fresh ribeye. I want to taste this meat and see how it is at this point... so I can compare it to the final product.

>>5420985
Be sure and post how it turns out, OP. I've been planning on doing this exact thing myself, as soon as I can get a dedicated mini fridge, so I'm curious about your results. Be sure and note things that worked well or could be improved on.

>>5421027
I will let you know. Have you done any research yourself? There are contradicting sources. Some sources use a fan, some use salt, some use both, some use humidifiers some don't...

i'd like to go with the simplest option and just sprinkle a bunch of salt there in the bottom... and i do have extra computer fans to rig up in case I need to.

alright well i think i have the technology to build a little fan... 12 volt fan, 11 volt adapter.. couldn't find electrical tape so using black duct tape.

>>5421041
That's exactly what I had planned to do. Rig a computer fan in there and put a salt tray at the bottom. (great minds think alike I suppose :) I don't think it has to be complicated, I think that will work well. Oh, and a thermometer to keep track of temp, of course. Basically, I heard that once you have it set up, you need to not disturb it. Opening and closing the door too much will disrupt the temp and humidity, so I plan on using a probe type thermometer attached to the outside so I don't have to open the door too often.

>>5421068
Well, that was easy enough. I've completed the fan. It works great. If I need extra circulation, I have it.

>>5421075
> thermometer...

yeah... i knew i was forgetting something important. I need to figure out a way to build a home-made thermometer cause i can't afford to buy one right now.

what temp OP?

>>5421099
according to my research the optimum temperature is between 36-40 degrees F.

However... I don't have a thermometer, and I don't know if 36 or 40 is better.

Okay, well I've set up the fan, and put a bunch of large grain kosher salt in the tray.

I did the bare minimum. My only concern now is the temperature.

>>5421001
sstayusomehow I dougt thatwill ever make it to the"dry aged"stage.you have already cut a steak. not condemning. first thing i'd have done. Next, some friends over... hey lemme get some shaved ribeye ef, 2 lbs for four sandwiches, and worth it. My 6 1b rib is now 2 lb(actually1.8 lb, 'member that you "shaved off" and made a beast samich with horseradish (don't know why they call it that, every horse I've ridden gives it a wide berth.) enough for two nice steaks and made it 2-3 weeks.you should be congratulated.. If you can keep it 3, thats 2 better than my one op. thanks.

>>5421193

The air circulation will prevent mold/fungus growth... and the salt will prevent the place from getting too much humidity.

If this works, it should create a stale environment for no bacteria or fungai to be able to grow.. only for the meat to slowly dry out, as the natural enzymies in the meat work to break down the connective tissues, tenderizing the steak.

Godspeed

>>5421183
It's a temperature range. Translating it to Celsius, it's between 1 to 4C or so. So you're be looking for "just a touch above freezing"

Which kind of makes sense, considering that bacterial growth is slowed considerably at 4C or lower and stops at 0C.

Sorry, not sure how helpful this was.
Maybe you could keep an ice-cube tray in there or a ziploc bag full of water in the fridge?
If the water freezes, then you know you've reached below 0C and just dial it back from there.

>>5421201
I know!! XD lol. That's my biggest enemy. Like 3 days into this thing I'm gonna want a steak, and the ribeye sale will be over... and i'll just end up cutting a chunk off. Lol.

But no, i might just buy a couple of steaks at the end of the week just to prevent that.

There will be no more poaching. I had to cut the steak off because I want to see if the dry aging BS is actually worth it, you know? Gotta get the before and after.

Before:
>>5421021
After:
> ?

>>5421209
> you're be looking for "just a touch above freezing"
thanks for that - i went ahead and switched my refrigerator dial from 6/7 to 7/7 because i don't think it was quite that cold.

> Maybe you could keep an ice-cube tray in there or a ziploc bag full of water in the fridge?
I guess I can do that once to see if it freezes... to see the temperature. But if i keep water in there, it will funk up the humidity.

ill probably just borrow a thermometer from someone... but in the meantime just try to do what you said - just above freezing. So if i feel it getting kind of hard around the edges, ill probably turn the cold down.

Honestly - i think even at maximum, this shitty minifridge is going to push 36-37

>>5421209

Smith, I have had it enough with your shenanigans. The CIA is actively working on a cure to Animationitis and you're still a cartoon! Come to the headquarters immediately!

Ziploc bag or some sort of sealed container with water would work too - and it won't screw up the humidity.

>>5421237
yeah... but if the bag freezes i would have already fucked up my roast.

I want something more accurate. I'm looking into building a home made thermometer but i dont have alcohol....

>>5421021

So here's the steak on Day 1

>>5421021
Here's the day 1 steak cooked.

>>5421286
oh god... this is going to be harder then I thought. (to not eat the thing)

hey OP, that's not how dry aging works

/thread

>>5420997
Sorry, tired. I meant baking paper. Protects it a bit from drying out too quickly. The circulation of air in a fridge seems to suck things dry.

It's how I keep my ham.

>>5420985
Someone else just posted about this the other day; let me just repost what I told them the other day. Dry aging isn't something that's properly done easily at home. Conditions are difficult to produce with just a refrigerator. Typically you have a "hot box" or otherwise special area to keep the meats in so that the temp and humidity allow themselves to mingle at a proper level for good fungicidal growth (exterior bacterial growth) and proper moisture wicking from the exterior tissues of the meat.

>>5420985

After 24 hours in the fridge, I see no noticeable difference. I think the outside feels a little more solid but I think that's just because it's cold.

The meat didn't freeze. And it's dry all around, but not like.... drying out. So far this seems like it may work.

>>5421312
yes it is. If it's not, enlighten me.

>>5421515
hmm I might have to do that... the thing is i have even MORE circulation in my fridge - i put a computer fan in there.

But i've never seen dry aging done with paper covered... you're supposed to let the meat grow a rind.

>>5421544
yeah, I know all of that. What I'm doing with my computer fan, fridge, and sea salt is basically building my own "hot box". Sure it may not be professional level, but that's why I'm doing it... to start to gain experience in it.

You know I've been on this path for a while.... The first time I tried steak was in Houston, Texas... and it absolutely blew my mind. I haven't had anything like it before. After that I started going around to different steakhouses ordering the same thing... ribeye. Turns out Bennigans is the most consistent and best steak in Texas... who knew.

After a while of this... I said fuck this and started grilling my own steak. It took me a long time - at least 100 steaks before I can honestly say now - I can cook a restaraunt style steak. All i need is a USDA Prime well-marbled piece of meat, a charcoal grill with mesquite wood burning at 800 degrees, and some salt and pepper. But also a quick marinade DOES help, even wiht prime steak... and the best kept secret is to wrap a bunch of garlic, onions, and aeromatics in a ball of foil and throw it near the coals to sort of smoke the meat...

And how do I know all this? by doing it... experience. Learning. Trying it. And that's what it is here.

Real dry aging isn't a magical secret... just the right conditions and patience.

>>5423180
>>5420985

Actually now that I compare it to the previous pic side by side, I do see the fat starting to harden a little bit. You can see a stripe off slightly off-white fat on this next picture.

God, I hope it's not drying out too fast... The meat on the side still feels tender, though. No worries.

>>5421544
> temp and humidity allow themselves to mingle at a proper level for good fungicidal growth (exterior bacterial growth)

That's more for cheese, dude. That's what happens when they age cheese. The true secret of dry aging isn't fungus or bacteria (which are different things btw, you probably dont want bacteria on your meat).

The secret are the natural enzymes contained within the meat that break down the proteins and fibers and tenderize the meat.

Bacterial growth is called rotting. And when the steak is done... all that "fungus" on the outside will be carved off... and since that stuff does NOT penetrate past 1/8th of an inch... there's really no way the outside critters can influence the inside of the meat.

It's all the enzymes already in the meat.

>>5423199
fungicidal
As in "this kills the fungi" - not sure if this is the correct term for that particular process. As, as far as I gathered when I did my food science course, certain fungal species are actually quite desired in the dry aging process.

The enzymes play a part and the bacteria that grows on the outside also contributes to the enzymatic breakdown of the beef.

>>5423279
yeah, you're right the blue and white solid mold is good but the green runny mold is bad.

>>5420985
Day 3, you can see a little bit more yellowing of the fat. At this point, I'm fairly confident it's working. I'll start to open it less often now, next update on Day 5.

Based bagged steak guy

>>5425395
fuck that bag, man... the first time I did it on /ck/, shit turned out legitimately good. Next time i did it the stupid bag leaked and i got water in my steak... it sucked. I need to get some real ziplocks..

Just so you know, butchers generally dry age meat by stretching the fat over as much of the meat as possible. Mould simply can't deal with fat, ain't getting through that shit at all.
You typically then cut off the rind that's formed and wash the fuck out of it with pure alcohol.
Godspeed OP, hope you don't die from fungal spores

>>5425419
> stretching the fat over
I would have done that, too. But I did not buy a sub-primal.. i bought a 3-rib roast and it was already half trimmed. Not sure what the cut was, but it was the one with the fat lip still attached, but not the full thick one. I think it is the 109.

> You typically then cut off the rind that's formed and wash the fuck out of it with pure alcohol.
alcohol? hmm... haven't heard that one. What for? Mold is good....

>>5425444
Upon reading my post, it's not very well structured.
You cut the rind off, discard said rind, then wash the meat with alcohol. It's precaution, you're killing surface bacteria.
The reason you use pure alcohol is because it effectively penetrates and disrupts cell membranes, which breaks down bacteria and quite literally renders a bacterial cell inert.

>>5425473
I should also point out that this is the final step of aging meat, in case there's any confusion

>>5425473
> bacteria

yeah, but what I'm saying is that I'd rather not soak my meat in alcohol just to kill bacteria. That's already going to happen when i trim the surface off, and then again when i cook the steak...

not afraid of bacteria. The humidity and air circulation prevents bacteria from growing.

>>5425477
seriously dude... i can't find a single source on the internet that mentions putting friggen alcohol on the steak. To kill bacteria - of all things - that isn't a problem for dry aged steak. You trim off the fungal molds but thats just for taste, not for precaution.

Nobody soaks their dry aged beef in alcohol dude, stop being a germiphobe.

>>5425495
Dude, I've been to industrial butchers.
E-coli and Campylobacter is some serious shit, precautions are made.
This is why they have those big-ass UV light strips, to kill airborne pathogens.
I assume you don't have a UV light handy, so I suggested alcohol, which is doing the exact same thing. (and is commonly used in Italy for aged ham)
But you know best. Good luck with that anal bleeding.

>>5425478
Cooking doesn't have anything to do with it - it kills the bacteria but doesn't get rid of toxins, that's why you can't just recook stuff that's been out too long. And they're not saying to soak it. The alcohol would boil off when you cook it anyway, you're not going to get drunk from it.

>>5425926
Which is why the outside layer of dry aged beef are always trimmed during processing.

As long as your knife work is decent and you didn't allow for the introduction of bacteria into the rest of the cut, removing the 'outer crust' should provide reasonable protection against ingesting potentially dangerous microbes.

>>5425590
> E-coli and Campylobacter is some serious shit, precautions are made.
k, yeah i dont care about that. I want my meat with extra e-coli.

>>5425926
you're just a germiphobe dude, go study up on the ancient history of drying and curing meat before you reference the relatively newborn policies of the FDA and all the other "precautions". The precautions are there to prevent companies and industries from getting sued... they're not for your benefit but for theirs. But good luck living in fear...

>>5426460
>potentially dangerous microbes...
dude if the meat is infected with that, it will show and it will taste off. The whole point of controlling the temp and humidity is to prevent that, and like you said you're goin to trim any possible thing off anyway.

But my point is - even if you were to not trim anything off a dry aged streak and cook it that way... you would NOT get sick. There are NO toxins, and it would just be a texture and taste issue.

What's that, imaginary voice in my head?
> you should eat the trimmings off the dry age when it's done and post the pics to /ck/ to freak out all the germiphobes.
hmm... you mean that brown, nasty looking stuff that you're supposed to cut off and throw away? I guess I could make a gyro out of it....
> yes... make a Gyro. Make me proud.

>>5426683
Temp and humidity can limit growth but anything less than 0C will not completely stop microbial growth. Also, some microbes do produce toxins, like Staphylococcus bacteria, which produce heat resistant toxins.

Another bacteria, Clostridium also produce heat resistant toxins but require a low/zero oxygen environment - which goes back the point I made about having good knife work when processing BEFORE dry aging so you're not making new openings in the meat with your knife, which close back up when the knife is extracted (imagine poking jello with a toothpick), which creates an environment for these bacteria to grow.

>>5426715
> anything less than 0C will not completely stop microbial growth
yes, it will man. I have a small computer fan in there... moving the air and drying out the surface to prevent it from being inhabitable by bacteria. Bacteria has conditions it needs, too... and I am making those conditions not exist.

What specific bacteria are you talking about? e-coli doesnt grow on surface, it grows inside... staph would turn it green... what exactly are you talking about?

you sound like my grandmother when she says "don't go outside... you'll get shot by someone!" Who?? "i dont know, but its safer in here!"

I won't get shot, grandma.

>>5426683

You need dry, cold air. Fridge air isnt dry at all.

Also drying and curing meat has nothing to do with aging meat for steak. Drying and curing are done with salt, which kills bacteria.

>>5426683
>go study up on the ancient history of drying and curing meat
You mean that method where they pack salt around meat and only cure meat during the winter?
Remind me again what hundreds of years of salt curing in cold ass temperatures has to do with a mini-fridge and a computer fan...

>>5427265
>Fridge air isnt dry at all.
yes it is... in fact it's TOO DRY. I need to get a sponge to raise the humidity I think

Day 4 - the meat has built up a jerkey like crust on the outside. Meat's darker, fat's yellower...

>>5421515
maybe shoulda done what this guy said... oh well. We'll see at day 7