The Original Dry Bag Steak | Make Artisan Dry Age Steak at Home › Forums › Dry Aging Steak › Dry Aging Steak with UMAi Dry® › Giant bags
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January 17, 2011 at 9:49 pm #1195
Anonymous
GuestI sent this question to the “contact us” link on the left side of the webpage, but its been over a week and I haven’t heard anything back.
I realize that the biggest bag they sell is the “brisket/short loin” size (up to 18 lb). I’m wondering if they can custom make bags big enough to do a ~60 lb piece of meat. Part of my trip to get Wagyu will be to get what they call a steamboat round…best I can find is that its almost the entire round primal. I’d like to age it, and would like to do so with it in one piece if possible. I can chop it into its components and age them, but that wouldn’t be as much fun 🙂
January 17, 2011 at 10:26 pm #4338Ron Pratt
MemberI’ve given Thea a heads up – in the meantime I’d really wonder if trying to age that large of one piece would even be a good idea. Seems like the pictures I have seen over the years of the large meat processors/steak houses etc that have the large walk in aging rooms I’ve never seen large pieces that could possibly have started out as 60 pounds.
January 17, 2011 at 11:20 pm #4339GuestThanks RRP. I’ll be interested to see what comes back.
As for aging huge chunks…one process for aging is to age entire halves just after slaughter and cleaning. At least thats what I’ve read……… 😉 Biggest problem with doing huge chunks I would think would be space and effort. If I were managing a steak house, I wouldn’t want to age anything more than a subprimal…why? Because I wouldn’t want to have to have a butcher come in and cut subprimals off the huge chunk.
I could be wrong…often am 🙂
January 18, 2011 at 1:59 am #4340Thea
KeymasterGreat timing. We just got word from the manufacturer today that the 400mm/16 in. Large lay flat is the largest that can currently be reliably made in this formulation. When extruded with a larger die, irregularities develop as the material is very thin and flexible.
One option is that the DrybagSteak material can be provided in rolls so that you determine the length that you want to use.
Another option we can imagine is the possibility of using meat netting and a sheet of DrybagSteak on the fat cap and meat sides, leaving the bone side open, since you are planning to age a bone-in piece. This would effectively prevent the growth of mold or bacteria that can impart an off flavor to the meat or umami-creating fat.
However, ultimately, with the current technology, we might have to recommend that you limit the subprimal to be dry aged to a size that fits inside the 400mm/16 in. lay flat.
Thank you for your patience with our exploration of the possibilities.
January 25, 2011 at 4:05 pm #4352GuestOne idea I came up with was to take the 16″ material and cut it down its length (creating a 32″ wide sheet). Now do this to a second piece of material. Then take the two 32″ wide sheets and seal the edges together, and viola, you have a 32″ wide lay flat bag.
In my case, based on the dimensions of this hunk o cow, I believe I’d need a lay flat bag that is around 40″ wide. So in my case I’d have to seam three sheets together (two flat as described above for 32″, one folded over for another 16″, for a total of 48″ wide). The bag would need to be about 40″ long. In this case I’d end up with 3 seams, each about 40″ long.
At least in my head this seems doable. But the big question is how the heck would I do these seams?
January 25, 2011 at 4:54 pm #4354MemberTo each his own, but to me I’d have to wonder how much aging is going to occur with a solid piece of meat that large. I mean the center would be so dense. Instead I would cut the chunk into manageable size pieces and use the large bags. I’ve seen several videos of large commercial drying rooms with primals resting on shelves, and don’t recall ever seeing as large pieces as you are apparently trying to tackle. Good luck if you decide to stay the course!
January 25, 2011 at 5:29 pm #4356GuestI’ve got plenty of time as this thing is frozen and I’m not even going to mess with it until the fridge is emptied of the other Wagyu later in February.
If I can’t come up with a good reasonable way to seam the bags together, I’m planning to do exactly as you say and chop it into smaller chunks and dry age those individually. I’d really like to give the whole thing a shot, though…I think it’d be fun to see what happens.
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