Best Practices for Cooking a Dry Aged Steak

[Thea]

Calling all Meat Geeks!

What is your advice for the customer asking this question:

“I have a question. If I was to do a rib roast you cook the roast the same as you do with a non-aged piece of beef?

My normal way I cook a rib roast 10-12 lbs. is salt and fresh cracked pepper on the outside into a pre-heated 500° oven for 5 min per lb. (10 lbs. 50 min) turn off do not open the oven and leave the roast in the oven for 2 hours. It comes out perfect every time.

I do put the roast out at least 2 hours before cooking to come to room temp before cooking.”

Counting on the deep and varied knowledge of this group to provide plenty of wisdom!!

[Ron Pratt]

Thea,

My advice is more general in nature since I haven’t cooked meat in the oven for 11 years now. First of all with a piece of meat that large I do not believe non-aged vs. aged will be too much different. That is unlike individual steaks where aged steaks will clearly cook faster due to the reduced moisture, but a 10 pound roast is a solid chunk. I’d say if the person has had perfect success with their method in the past then keep on doing it that way. I would suggest though they invest in a $15 to $20 thermometer with a wire cable and probe to monitor the meat temp as I find cooking to temperature is a better assurance to the perfect result than cooking to time.

Ron

[George Chharawala]

I generally only do my roasts on my Big Green Egg. My method is to slowly smoke it at around 220. I use red oak for the smoke and find it really kicks up the roast especially if its dry aged. I then remove it at about 100 F and let it rest while I increase the temperature to around 500-600 F on the egg. I then put the roast back on for about 5-12 mins looking to take out at around 120 F. Let the roast rest till the temperature is stable about 130-135. It is really important for the roast to rest after its taken out of the Egg or Oven. I then have a perfect Medium/ Rare roast.

I would be careful though with the salting of dry aged roast as salt bring all the moisture to the surface and if the roast is cut too soon without ample time to rest then the juices will all run out. After the roast is cut up you can sprinkle some Fluer de Sel on top. This gives a slight salty flavour that is very smooth.

If the budget allows I really recommend a Thermapen for a thermometer, very accurate and quick.

I agree with RRP that cooking to Temperature is really the only way.

[Jim Butler]

I’ve done a lot of roasts in my time, including the methods described about with the “hot” oven.
My favorite now is similar to that, but reversed, ala Alton Brown’s method.
Roast goes in at 220deg until it hits about 118deg, typically 3-4hrs for mine, then you take it out, and let it rest while you do the veggies and salad. Before serviing, back in to a 500deg oven it goes for browning/crisping.
The wonderful thing about this method is that due to the slow-roasting, when you slice into the roast it will be the same color all the way through. So if you want med-rare, that’s what the whole slice will be, instead of the “pink-dot” syndrome, where you have a little bit of pink meat surrounded by a few inches of well-done meat.

Jim

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