The Original Dry Bag Steak | Make Artisan Dry Age Steak at Home › Forums › Dry Aging Steak › Dry Aging Steak with UMAi Dry® › very frustrated with hit and miss results
- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 11 months ago by
Ron Lewin.
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January 20, 2013 at 11:38 pm #1526
Ron Lewin
MemberI continue to have problems getting good seals, and I think I just ruined around $200 worth of meat. 🙁
I find it too difficult to make a good seal, and I end up wasting more bags when I run out of bag for sealing. I dont know if it is me or if the sinbo is just a piece of crap sealing machine, but I’m ready to throw everything in the garbage.
For people who are considering getting into this, you should think carefully about whether you have the patience and wallet for this hobby.
January 21, 2013 at 12:17 am #6575Ron Pratt
MemberRon, sorry to hear of your frustration! It’s not unheard of for a newbie to have problems at first, but most all get the hang of it. As I have said repeatedly take one bag and practice sealing it multiple times. I wish I was close by to help you over this hump. You can always resort to not even using the Sinbo…just a straw, good lungs to suck the air out and then tie it off with a bread twisty. Please expand on why you think you may have wasted some meat…there is a chance that you didn’t. I’m trying help you!
January 21, 2013 at 12:40 pm #6577Scott Mark
MemberI’m a huge proponent of the drybags, but I also have problems with getting a good seal with vacuum sealers.
But – and I may be wrong – I’m getting to the idea that good contact / adhesion between the bag and the meat is the most important factor, and having an actual vacuum sealer is one path to good contact.
My current wondering is if a mechanical solution (holding the drybag tight against the subprimal using butcher’s twine or hosiery) isn’t as good as a vacuum solution, which has no help at all if the seal isn’t secure.
Drybags seem to be great at the job they are meant to do – selective barrier on transport of some molecules, but they aren’t trivial for the sealing process. Any wrinkle or fold in the bag means a double thickness of bag for sealing, and in my experience the line between getting a good seal and melting the bag (possibly open) is pretty narrow. It doesn’t allow for folds that take place for any reason.
It looks like my next experiment is to get some sets of hosiery and see what a mechanical solution might provide.
Toasty
Current status: 1 ribeye, 90+ days, ready to be steaked. One full top sirloin and one full strip loin just getting started. One boneless leg of lamb (major, major recommendation) ready to be drybagged. Many steaks in the freezer. Beef’s good at the moment.
January 22, 2013 at 8:50 am #6578David W Jones
MemberI am a relative newbee to dry aging steak. In fact I have only dry aged two 16+ ribeye loins I got from Sams. I bought the Foodsaver 2460 and the starter kit including the Vacmouse strips from DrybagSteak. This is what the Lady I talked to on the telephone recommended. With the Foodsaver 2460 and the VacMouse Srtips, I have sealed both ribeye loins the first try and I have used only 2 Drybags. I did use the practice bag and sealed up several water bottles first. The First Ribeye I hadsmall air pockets where the bones had been cut from the meat. The second ribeye, I got my wife to help me massage the air out of these areas and got an extremely tight seal.
Do you have an old foodsaver or equivalent sealer you could try instead of the Snorkle sealer?. I have had a wonderful exeprence using the Foodsaver 2460 with VacMouse Stips. Most sealing problems seem to come from the Snorkle vaccum sealer users until they master them. I have only used the Foodsaver 2460 so I cannot address the Snorkel sealer.
You are losing out on the best steaks you will ever eat if you give up.
Keep trying
David
January 22, 2013 at 10:03 am #6579MemberI owe everybody a reply.
This is not my first aging, I have done 5 or 6 so far.
Sometimes everything goes right, and other times it is a nightmare.In this case I think I ruined the meat because I spent too much time handling it, using different bags and trying to get a seal.
Finally I got a seal but it appears it is bad already, I see pockets of air.
And I will be surprised if the meat is not contaminated by all the handling.
Also during the process I spilled blood from the meat on my stack of bags and probably ruined a bunch.I dont have a foodsaver and would not want to invest any more money into this experiment.
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