Re:”Black Friday” order

[Ron Rosson]

I now have a large ribeye (Costco Choice) dry aging in a small fridge. So far (since the 19th of Dec) so good. Being busy with the holidays, I have no pics and did not weigh. But, I would like to relate my experience so far. I did struggle with the sealing process. First of all, I did not measure the width of my fridge with respect to my roast. Roast was too long! So, after placing the meat in a bag, I had to take it out and cut it in two.

Lesson learned at this point was that I should have kept the bag for practice sealing, but did not.

Tried sealing the now two sub primals about three times. Never got a seal. So, finally I went back to the directions, video’s and forum. After study and one practice run with some salami, I was able to seal the first half as advertised. Then, on the last half, I ran in to my sealer being too hot. It took me several times at a cooler setting and a short cool down to get a satisfactory seal. Results is one half of ribeye drying great and looking good. Other half has some air bubbles, over lap of bag on one side, but appearing to be okay and processing.

Those who know please correct me where needed, but here is what I as newbie have learned:

– Read all directions; look at the video’s and read about the experience of others in the forum.

– Practice on a bag which contains a food of your choice (this keeps you from abusing your costly sub primal).

– Do not throw away a bag without practicing sealing with it.

– Pay attention to the directions concerning your sealing heat selection and how long you are sealing.

– Do not cut your filled bag shorter than four inches. Mistakes can be corrected if you have sufficient sealing room.

– Paper clips and straws do work. But, you can seal the bags without them.

– 12 days into the process has shown me that it does work and it does not require my constant attention. i.e. you really don’t need to be constantly looking into the fridge, poking the meat, feeling the seal and otherwise handling the product. Once a day checking the temp and visually inspecting the meat seems to be the best way to go.

In about fifteen more days I will be removing, trimming, slicing and cooking. Then, I will fire up my Egg and hopefully produce the steak I expect.

I’ll report the results.

Ron(2)