2 days in and white mold spots starting to form…

This topic has 8 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 5 months ago by Mitch.

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June 24, 2019 at 7:06 pm #3528

Mitch
Member

So I’m not new to dry aging with the UMAi bags, but I really pulled a rookie move the other day.

Bought 3 whole crypto-vac striplions from my local butcher, brought them home and chucked them in the fridge for a day while I moved my trusty Dry aging fridge to our new house. I’ve used this fridge for a couple dozen slabs and it has worked flawlessly. I added multiple fans, and a large salt basin in the bottom drawer for air movement and moisture extraction. Also have LED lighting and a webcam to monitor the progress. 😛

Anyways, had company over, so my attention was not 100% on what I was doing, while I was prepping everything to transfer over into the UMAi bags. Upon sealing the first slab up, I realized I forgot to wash the cryo-vac big prior to transferring the meat into the UMAi bag. Marked the bag, and fixed my mistake with the next 2 slabs. That was Saturday. Last night I opened the fridge and noticed the marked slab had a number of patches of white mould all over both sides, on the fat cap and on the inside the bag. :unsure: :dry:

Now I in a bit of a quandary of what to do with this meat. I have thought about pulling the meat, trimming on multiple cutting boards as not to re-cross-contaminate the meat with the mold, before rebagging it. I also read something about wiping the meat down with apple cider vinegar to sterilize the meat.

The other slabs looked fine last night, will inspect again when I get home.

June 24, 2019 at 7:29 pm #12460

Ron Pratt
Member

It seems very strange that patches of mold could have shown up in a 24 hour period!
Ron

June 24, 2019 at 7:31 pm #12461

Mitch
Member

That was my thought, I’ll take pics tonight.

June 24, 2019 at 11:03 pm #12463

Thea
Keymaster

You sure are right to be in a quandary. Despite your experience and your set up, it sure sounds like you got some contamination going on there. Mold is seldom a good sign on fresh meat, particularly right at the beginning of the process.
“Abandon ship!” Is all I can think to imagine.

UMAi Dry is designed to be used In a modern frost free refrigerator in regular use located within a consistently room temperature environment. Fans and salt can replace the humidity management of the proper compressor.

June 24, 2019 at 11:04 pm #12464

Thea
Keymaster

One further note: from Ulta grow outside that meat so quickly, you should be very concerned about the temperature control in your fridge. It should run between 34 and 38°F consistently. From mold to grow that quickly, guaranteed that fridge is running well over 42°

June 25, 2019 at 1:01 am #12465

Mitch
Member

Fridge temperature sits between 0.8-1.8°C and does not fluctuate.

The fridge is a modern frost-free unit but because I tend to do multiple cuts of meat for different lengths of time, a dedicated fridge was required. The fans and salt are just to ensure circulation and moisture control. The salt barely absorbs any moisture from the fridge

July 1, 2019 at 3:55 pm #12470

john moran
Member

Don’t have much input for this but I was sure confused by this line in your post “I realized I forgot to wash the cryo-vac big prior to transferring the meat into the UMAi bag”

What does that mean?

July 7, 2019 at 3:25 pm #12474

Thea
Keymaster

Vic,
What did you end up doing with the moldy subprimal? We would definitely advise against proceeding.

But then, we would also advise against the need for the multiple fans and basin of salt. If you are aren’t using a modern frost free refrigerator in regular use located within a consistently room temperature environment, you are not going to get good, consistent results with UMAi Dry®. Only a compressor can really manage the humidity effectively. Fans just move the wet air, and salt is too passive and too inefficient a desiccant. As for the LED light, UV lights keep down mold growth in commercial facilities, so the LED must just be there to provide light for your webcam, right?

Thank you for putting in so much detail about what you did right, as well as what you did wrong. It is really helpful to other boarders, old and new.

July 8, 2019 at 7:30 am #12489

Mitch
Member

Hillbilly,
Any time I bag up a primal/sub-primal cut that came in a sealed wet-aged bag (cryo-vac), I wash the exterior of the cryo-vac bag thoroughly with soap and water to ensure there is no bacteria than can contaminate the process. I brew beer as well and even the slightest contamination can spoil a fermentation with beer, so I only assume dry aging meat to be the same.

Baglady,
I let it go for a week and watched it carefully. By the looks of it, it was a false alarm. I’m guessing the white specs might actually be loose fat particles from processing, but as of now, everything is looking good! Must not have noticed it when I bagged it and have never seen meat speckled with fat dots like that before.

As for the fridge.
I’m aware salt is a passive measure, and the fans only serve to move moist air around, but together they balance the temperature and humidity across the interior of the fridge. This means the condenser doesn’t have to work as hard and you get a more uniform environment without temperature gradients inside the fridge. I have thought to try a better desiccant than salt, but I haven’t had a need to yet. That said, I have been noticing a large amount of condensate under the fridge the last few days as the temp has started to rise. I may have to switch to a more active desiccant to drive the moisture more efficiently than the salt.

The lighting is specifically for the web cam, which has both standard and Night vision modes. The green-scale night vision is useless on a slab of meat and fridges actually ***ARE*** dark on the I side with the door closed! 😉 so the lighting helps both with the door closed and open to make for quick inspections.
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2 days in and white mold spots starting to form…

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