Re:Vacuum and sealing a frozen ribeye

[Anonymous]

Hey Raul, You can not dry age a frozen piece of meat. I would not even attempt to thaw out a subprimal and then try to age it. You need to start off with a fresh unfrozen whole ribeye. The temperature that freezes a piece of meat is way to cold for the enzymatic process which is know as putrefaction to occur. This process is what causes the meat to become more tender. The enzymes don’t work in freezing temps. The temp of the meat needs to be between 34 – 38 degrees. I would think a frozen subprimal would probably go bad before it would age because of all of the moisture within the bag. It would never dry out. Another thing which you mentioned about not having a good seal, this is an absolute must in order for the Dry Bag to work. You have got to have a good vacuum for the bag to adhere to the meat. Also what I do is trim the ridges where the ribs were removed. Trim it so the meat is as smooth as you can get it. This makes for a tighter vacuum in that area. Be carful not to slice too deep into the meat when trimming. this will cause the meat to turn sour at those cut marks. Hope this helps. Good luck.