Air leak

[Anja Mengewein]

Hello everyone,

I am new to dry aging. My first 40 days experiment with a bone in ribeye worked perfectly.
I tried it again last week with a bone in ribeye again. The bones are well protected as to not pierce the membrane.
After 8 days, I realized there was too much air coming in, so I cut the bag and resealed it.
Air was still coming in immediately after resealing.
I have a consistent bond on fat side and opposite seal side.
Bone side and seal side are loose because of air. No bond.
How could I salvage this?
Is re-bagging an option?
Today is day 10 and I was going for 45 days.
Any help welcome.

Regards,

Anja.

[Ron Pratt]

I’m a little confused why your bag is filling with air, but it sounds like your meat is off gassing causing the ballooning. As for the adherence to the fat side you are fine, and when you say seal side I assume you meant the meat aide..attachment to the bone side isn’t important. At this point I would not re-bag. If you want you can cut a small hole in the sealed end, force the air out and then place a piece of good sealing tape over the hole.
Ron

[Anja Mengewein]

I meant that I could not find a hole.

[Ron Pratt]

I had a thought during the night…wondering just why your meat may be off gassing…are you using a modern frost free refrigerator in proper operating condition? The UMAi Dry® bag material allows moisture and air to exit, but if it has no where to go (meaning being drawn off) by the air circulation then the bag could balloon. That also means disaster in the making for the meat to rot instead of dry age.
Ron

[Anja Mengewein]

Thanks a lot for your reply!!

I greatly appreciate it.

My late reply is due to time zone, as I am in Germany.

Unfortunately, for some reason my last post didn’t go through.

I did an experiment to see if it was my meat off gassing (very interesting suggestion) or if it was a hole in my bag.

As I re-sealed the bag, air instantly came back in. I found the culprit. Multiple holes where the other extremity of the bones meet the rack.

I taped it and re-sealed. It’s still leaking.

Should I consider re-bagging it as I’m on day 10?

My meat looks good and doesn’t have any foul smell but air leakage could be a long term problem.

My fridge is latest generation with a stable temperature between 1C and 2C (33.8F and 35.6F) and my first try, 45 days bone in ribeye worked as a charm.

Thanks a billion for the help.

Vielen Dank aus Berlin.

Anja.

Ps: don’t know how to attach pictures.

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