Concerned my seal isn’t proper

[Kyle Gowen]

I don’t feel as if my ribeye is aging properly. This is my first time doing this. I just pulled it from the fridge and flipped over. It seems very moist and it feels as if air is slowly getting into the bag. Is this normal? It has been aging since Friday

[Ron Pratt]

Could you post a picture or two?

With your meat having only been in a bag for 5 days now then the first thing that comes to my mind is my heartfelt assurance to NOT WORRY!

Did you feel you had a tight vacuum against the meat when you first bagged it 5 days ago?

What is the nature of the shelf you placed it on?

What is the refrigerator that you have it in?

What sub-primal are you aging? Is it a bone in rib-eye or a boneless rib-eye? a NY strip? a sirloin? or what?

I’m trying to help you, so please let me help you!

Ron

[Kyle Gowen]

Hey Ron!

I’m hoping you are right! I guess I’m having troubling uploading pictures via mobile. Any tips on how to use this forums ‘attachments?

This has a lot more air in it than my one downstairs. It is in my regular fridge, but it has its own rack. I have it on one of those cookie racks so it is getting air from all directions. It is a ribeye roast without the bone.

I’m thinking my foodsaver’s sealer was too hot? Maybe there is air somewhere. One side has about 95% coverage and the other is maybe 30%. The side with little coverage looks more dark brown then ruby red. I’m guessing this $120 roast is ruined :dry:

[Ron Pratt]

First of all lets get one assurance made…it is highly unlikely that the meat is ruined! I know guys who don’t even use the UMAi bags and just leave their meat sitting raw in their refrigerator for the whole aging process. I might add that those guys are normally single men without a wife to get hysteria!

Unless the meat has been punctured or heaven forbid “tenderized” which can cause bacteria to be driven into the meat you are fine! Also as long as your refrig is working properly you are fine!

If you are still concerned then carefully try to locate the leaking hole by pushing the air out slowly. When located just put a piece of strong tape over the hole.

Ron

[Kyle Gowen]

Once again, I hope you are right. I’ve dry aged raw meat in my empty bar fridge downstairs before, but it was sterilized, and I kept a large Pyrex tray of salt directly under the meat. I can’t find a hole so I’m going to let it ride. I’ll see where it’s at in a few weeks

[Ray McHenry]

Hi,

I have done several successful dry ageing with the Umai system. Due to some domestic and work issues I haven’t done one for quite a while until just recently and I had exactly the same issue as the OP.
I was very worried about this and also could not find a hole in the bag. I decided to terminate the dry ageing at 21 days because of more air in the bag than I had expected. To my delight the meat is fine but obviously not as good as if it had had the full 35 days.

[Kenneth]

Just tried bagging a whole boneless 15 pound prime rib using a Food Saver V2244 – very frustrating! wasted one bag already trying to get a seal. Experimenting using heat seal three times to get something that resembles a firm weld on the dry bag. Finally got it to draw a vacuum, but within a few minutes there was considerable air in the bag with the results looking nothing like the photos on your website. I suspect I have a $200 mistake sitting in my refrigerator. I may try again tomorrow and, if encountering more failures, I’ll just steak it out and freeze the pieces and forget the dry aging thing altogether.

[Ron Pratt]

KenS-
Sorry to hear of your frustration sealing the bags. I wish you would have done what I did…I must have used my first bag 6 or 7 times to learn how my sealer was going to work with the UMAi Bag.

On the other hand you don’t even need a sealer as a perfect vacuum is not necessary! In fact what you can do is place the moist meat into the bag and then using your hands press the bag against the meat while forcing out as much air and not leaving any air pockets. Then at the open end insert a drinking straw or a piece of tubing in and then grab the bag tightly around the straw or tubing and finish sucking out as much air as you can. When done quickly remove the straw or tubing and tightly close the end using a bread twisty.

Unless your meat was contaminated before it went in the bag you have NOTHING to worry about!
Ron

[Kenneth]

So, what’d the point of the so called “Vacuum Mouse”?

[Ron Pratt]

KenS,
“UMAi Dry is not a vacuum bag, but a memebrane that allows moisture and oxygen exchange. The purpose of the vacuum sealer is only to bring the meat into contact with UMAi Dry bag. If 75-80% of the meat surface is in contact with UMAi Dry bag at the beginning of dry aging, the process will be successful. UMAi Dry bag may separate as the meat shrinks during aging, that is perfectly normal and will not affect the aging.”

The VM was chosen to help the sealing by most sealers on the market – yet there is a multitude out there and some work better than others.
Ron

[Kenneth]

Can I leave the VM out of the process?

[Ron Pratt]

You can, but based on what you have experienced so far it sounds to me you are better off using the VM. Sorry if I sound like I’m preaching, but my advice is to not cut anything off the bag and instead seal it with your machine and if it doesn’t seal, or burns through the seal then cut it off and seal again. You can get 4 to 6 attempts using just the one bag and not wasting them all. I am not familiar with your model, but does it have any optional settings?
Ron

[Kenneth]

Thank you for your coaching during this process. I will try one more time today to make this happen.
My Food Saver model has only two controls- Seal and Vacuum & Seal.
I still do not understand why to use the VM if the bag itself is a semi-permeable membrane. To me, it seems like a impediment to drawing an initial tight vacuum on the meat because, I assume, it’s job is to let air into the bag, which is counter to what we are trying to achieve.
The meat has lost it’s natural surface juiciness during all of this handling. Should I lightly wet the surface of the meat before trying another bag?

[Ron Pratt]

Like I said you do not need a tight vacuum. Personally I see no reason for you to re-bag it!

The VM was decided upon testing a variety of products and devices. Before the VM I discovered that my machine had a 3 and a 5 second sealing and at 5 I was melting the bag. Also I found I could use a short piece of a Food Saver bag which acted as a buffer the same way that a VM does. Let me find that link to YouTube so I can show you that.

As for your statement of “it’s job is to let air into the bag” – the UMAi Bag is actually allowing the moisture in the meat out which is what dry aging is in simple terms,
Ron

[Ron Pratt]

Here’s the YouTube link of how I tricked my FS to seal a UMAi Bag. This was done before the Vac Mouse was put into use.

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