Search Results for 'wet aging before dry aging'

[Ron Pratt]

Welcome to the forum! Looks and sounds like your first attempt was a smashing success! As for dry aging lesser cuts like you mentioned it’s up to you, but I would not waste my time nor bag. As for aging previously frozen meat – sure you can! I believe you would find that many times those large sub-primals suitable for dry aging have already been frozen when shipped! As for the missing moisture what I have done before is using a food grade mister I lightly spray the meat using bottled water. You just want to make the surface slightly wet, not dripping wet. Then if you do over-wet it just shake the excess off, don’t dry it! Ron

[Dr. Frederick Howard]

Actually I have a couple of questions. First, I have a prime rib eye nearing 28 days and it looks pretty good. My initial goal was to age it for 45 days, but I started thinking (I know that’s dangerous) that perhaps 28 may be appropriate for a prime rib. I will cut it in half giving me approximately 7lbs before trimming. I searched the forum and didn’t find a thread on cooking a prime rib roast.

Now I’m thinking that 45 days may be a tad long as the bad tasting water would be gone and cooking a roast of that size for a long period of time, at low heat, might ruin it. Usually I do high heat roasting, but that’s appropriate for a wet aged hunk of cow. Not sure if it will work for a dry aged roast.

So, my questions are: Would it be appropriate to age for only 28 days based on your experience? Also, how to cook. Long and slow, high heat and/or hot tubbing?

Yes Ron, I went back and picked up another Prime rib eye and another cryovac Tri-Tip. So I’ll be dry aging for awhile.

Doc

[Ray]

Doc, It tastes like a great steak. I like to use montreal seasoning or smoked sea salt and water bath at 130 degrees. Then a quick sear on charcoal. It’s tender, tasty and you’re left with more meat. It’s choice not prime. If you want to concentrate the flavor try salting to pull moisture out of the steaks. Coarse sea salt, wait an hour per inch, rinse and grill. We like it.

Ray the Gormet

[Dr. Frederick Howard]

Interesting method – before I started dry aging, I too wet aged for 42 days. The results were really good as the tenderness was unsurpassed. Almost fork-tender. However as previously stated the flavor was not enhanced. Now, dry aging following a six week wet age makes sense. However Gourmet you didn’t state what the taste results were after two weeks of dry aging. How did you come to that period? I’m considering a 21 day dry age following the 42 day wet age.

Thanks,

Doc

[Sean]

Thanks for the input. This is exactly what I was looking for. After posting on the forum I did some online digging and found that some folks leave the meat in the cryovac bag for up to 60 days from packaging. I only plan on going about 30. Good tip on the brisket too! I will surely do that!

[Ray]

Not wanting to be too much of a contrarian on a dry aging forum, but I will give my personal results. I wet age in the cryovac for 6 weeks from packing date at low temp …around 33 to 35 degrees. I’ve aged rib eye, tenderloin and brisket this way. All are more tender due to aging and had no off odor or change in appearance other than a little more bloody liquid in the cryovac. Then I dryage for two weeks. Total of 8 weeks aging for tenderness and flavor. This way there is much less bark to trim off leaving more meat to eat. And don’t dryage brisket after wetaging, better to marinate before cooking. It all depends on you taste buds.

[Ron Pratt]

Sean, I always hate to see questions go unanswered, but our forum member Gourmet had a tread a while back where he experimented with a combination of wet and the dry aging. I was hoping he might see your query and jump in here… Ron

[Sean]

I was wondering how long I can leave a large subprimal cut of beef in its original cryovac bag (and in its own juices) before I have to be concerned about spoilage. It’s been a while since I been on this forum but I recal folks wet aging prior to dry aging. What signs do I need to be looking for that may suggest there’s a problem? Thanks!

[Gordon Couey]

Gourmet- wow what an amazing idea. And it seems like there’s quite a bit of merit to it, I mean Cattlemans…. Can’t argue steak with them. Thanks for sharing. And for those stuck scratching your heads, think of it like this, when you make a, let’s say salsa, you leave it to rest before serving to allow the flavor to permeate. The same MIGHT be taking place once you age a steak and then proceed to halt the aging process(FS bag) and allow the flavor, without changing, to evenly distribute. Maybe one can end up with the truly intense flavor of end pieces throughout the whole slab. Can’t wait to give this a try too.

P.s. I love these lil bags

[Ray]

Just going by experimentation and studys by people more advanced than myself. I think the key word is ageing.

executive SummAry
Prepared for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Center for Research & Knowledge Management

Jeff W. Savell, Ph.D.
Regents Professor and
E.M. “Manny” Rosenthal Chairholder, Texas A&M University

excerp:
PALATABILITy ATTrIBUTeS
flAvoR
The greatest reason for dry aging beef is to further enhance its flavor and to impart the flavor notes that are generally associated with this product. Flavor is a difficult attribute to study because it requires very specifically trained panelists to evaluate the complexity of the positive and negative notes that may occur in meat in general and dry- aged beef in particular.
Campbell et al. (2001) conducted one of the most extensive studies to date on the effect of dry aging on beef flavor. They evaluated Certified Angus Beef® brand striploins and shortloins that were first vacuum packaged to simulate initial packaging and shipping conditions (7 or 14 days), followed by various times of dry aging (0, 7, 14 or 21 days) before vacuum packaging, storage (0, 2, 9 or 16 days) and steak cutting. A number of sensory traits were evaluated including two very specific
flavor intensities important to the dry aging consumer:
 overall aged-beef flavor intensity – defined
as a full, blended and sustained, cooked beef flavor that has few dominating individual flavor notes and creates a smooth, balanced impression
 brown/roasted flavor intensity – defined as a round, full, dark, caramelized aromatic generally associated with beef that has been cooked with dry heat.
The authors found that with at least 14 days of dry aging, aged flavor and brown- roasted flavor increased significantly compared to those cuts dry aged for fewer days or that were not dry aged at all. They also found that aged flavor peaked at 9 days of vacuum storage after the dry aging period and actually declined when stored at 16 days, indicating that some benefits of dry aging were reversed slightly with this additional vacuum storage period.

[Ron Pratt]

good luck, but please don’t blame the results on the short time at the end in a Drybag! IMO your attempt to save a little weight lost from trimming will not produce the concentrated beefy taste of dry aging. In fact I hope you smell the beef closely for a rotting smell, before you waste a Drybag! Ron

[Mark]

First off, I’m a dry aged steak connisuer. Wherever my wife and I travel, we always seek out higher end steakhouses that offer dry aged beef…..Our last visit was to Gallaghers in Atlantic City.
My first experience with the Drybag system started 24 days ago with a choice boneless rib roast. I did everything by the book, aged 24 days in a fridge set to 34 degrees, opened the door once or twice a day to kick on the fan and circulate the air, racked it 2 inches of the fridge bottom so air could circulate. The roast deleloped a nice tight membrane, and looked axactly like the pictures on the web site. When we weighed it before cutting it up, it had lost 16.5% of it’s initial weight …….I’m reasonably sure I did everything correctly.
We’ve been “wet aging” our beef for the last several years and coincidently, had a bonless rib in our aging fridge bought from the same butcher, from the same meat packing company, that was at the 5 week mark and ready to be cut into steaks……Great time to do a “blind” AB comparison.
We both have to say that other than a slight difference in texture to the dry aged steak……There was absolutely no difference in tast between the wet aged steak and the dry aged version……..Needless to say, we were both dissapointed, especialy given the fact that after trimming, the dry aged meat had lost about 35% of it’s initial weight.
Obviously I could have aged it longer, but it seems like most of the really good restraunts that dry age there beef, do it for 20-30 days.
Am I missing something here?
Mark

[Dr. Frederick Howard]

Ron,
I know this doesn’t have anything to do with the topic, but Wednesday the 5th is my 60th day. Yours, I believe, is the day before. Sometime after processing the ribeye and sirloin I’m going to have a tasting gathering where my guests will sample the following: 28 dry aged sirloin; 60 day dry aged sirloin and ribeye; and a 42- day wet aged ribeye. Now before you castigate me for having wet aged along with dry aged, remember this is what I did before discovering dry aging. Then I think I’ll be able to play with the big boys. Hahaha.
Doc

[Ron Pratt]

quote TAXMAN” post=3139:

I have just started my 2nd boneless ribeye loin. This ribeye set in my refrigerator still in the original vaccum pack for a week before I put it in a subprimal dry bag. Will this have an effect on the time it ages? I aged my first one for 41 days.

I also have thought about aging a bone in ribeye or tbone. You have cautioned about the problem with the bones cutting the bag and eliminating the seal. What if you placed one of your vacMouse or part of a dry bag over the sharp bones inside the drybag? Would the VacMouse prevent the drying process?

.

David,
The time spent in the commercial cryovac bag is considered wet aging. While that period does help tenderize the meat I personally would not subtract that time from my Drybag time. Reason is the Drybag permits the aging but also the removal of the tasteless water. That concentration of the beefy taste is what creates the WOW factor IMO.

As for using a protective barrier as you asked with a bone-in sub-primal – yes that will work. Just be careful that you position the meat “at rest” so that bone points don’t come in contact with the shelf so as to prevent punctures. I do want to raise a question though – most people opt for the boneless cuts because they do not have a means of cutting through the bone at home. Also even if they intend to separate the meat from the bone after aging then keep in mind the meat under the bone will not be as dried as a boneless cut.

Ron

[Rob Babcock]

quote RRP” post=2936:

I even know some people who only buy the packages that are beyond expiration in order to save some money – plus to them the wet aging enhances the meat somewhat before then transferring from the cryovac bag to the DrybagSteak product.

Busted! :laugh: I buy almost nothing but stuff that’s being binned out due to the sell-by date. With almost every meat except chicken you still have quite a while to use the product before it loses much quality.