Dry aging Wagyu strip loins and top sirloin

[Anonymous]

Last week we made the trip down and picked up a big pile of beef…..Wagyu beef 🙂 The guy at the ranch that I’ve been dealing with has been trying to tell me that the steak cuts off these critters are bigger than normal, but as with most things, I was taking what he was saying with a grain of salt. After all, how big could they be?

Answer:
BIG – notice the tape measure…

Roughly 20 lbs each (we got two). Reminder from the title of this thread…these are STRIP loins. I didn’t know strip loins this big existed.

As expected, the marbling is superb. As good as you’ll see.

Sorry for the terrible lighting here…for some reason didn’t think to turn on the overhead lights…

So, after wowing over this fine specimin of meatsies, I put it in a drybag. Nothing special here.

Except for the fact that is a LARGE bag. Untrimmed. Its exactly the length it was when it was delivered to me. If the tape measure above didn’t give you the sense of scale, this should.

Another shot of the end grain with better lighting once it was in the drybag, although I think you can actually see it better in the other picture with the crappy lighting (go figure).

The plan is to let one of the strip loins go 30 days and one to go 43 days. I’m going on vacation just after the 30 day mark and get back at 43 days 🙂

While this is all going on, I also picked up top sirloin. These were about 15-16 lbs each. The thought here was to get one for “general cooking” purposes for the wife, while the other I get to dry age. To give you a scope of the marbled wonderment that is this top quality Wagyu, here’s a couple of pictures of the one that I cut up for “general cooking” purposes.

Since I’ve never cut up a top sirloin, I first cut it in half length ways to get an idea of where the different parts were.

Then I trimmed lots of fat off and ended up with chunks that looked like this (this was about 1/2 of them).

All this went in the fridge downstairs to age. The fridge is very full and very smelly already (same musty odor I detected before when dry aging, just much stronger now due to the quantity of beef being aged). I’m also aging half of one of the top sirloins for a friend that went in on this deal with me. As you can see, I’ve got pantyhose on the full top sirloin I’m aging for myself…couldn’t get a great seal on the bag for some reason.

Also picked up these goofy little Waygu briskets (only 9 lb each…I was really suprised)…going to cook one very soon and dry age the other. Should be interesting.

We also got 10 lbs of Wagyu ground beef. Made burgers last night…easily the best burgers I’ve made on the Primo. Fantastic. No pics, would have been pics of empty plates 🙂

Once this is done, my next goal is to figure out how to age the Wagyu steamboat round I picked up too. It’ll be a challenge, as it weighs close to 60 lbs…….

I’ll keep this thread up to date with progress pics as the meat ages. And obviously once I cook it!

[Ron Pratt]

WOW!!! Those pictures made me drool in anticipation! That beef has a wonderful marbling which will just intensify the taste during the aging. The shot of your refrig with all that meat is like a shot of a vault of personal valuables! The only thing I might suggest is to remove the piece of panty hose as that will restrict the moisture release and is really only a helpful tip/trick to help get the air out during the air extraction process.

PS – I’m sincerely jealous of what you have there! B)

This thread will definitely be on my “to watch” list!

[Anonymous]

Thanks…we’ll see in due time if its worth all the investment (money and effort 🙂 ).

Question on the pantyhose…I thought it was more of a trick to keep the bag material in contact with the meat until the bond forms (after a few days), which is what I was using it for. Is that wrong? I was planning on removing it shortly, since that top sirloin was bagged on Friday (3 days already…time’s flying!!).

[Ron Pratt]

I can’t say that I’ve seen any other discussion of this trick beyond just using the hose at the outset in order to compress the bag onto the meat – then seal and remove the hose right then. I’d think that since you are already 3 days into it you can remove it.

Just a thought here as I have said to others – be careful in handling so as to not disturb the mating action you have already had. I sort of cringe when I see pictures taken of primals in process of drying that people take out for the mere sake of taking a picture! My belief is: bag it, place it, and DON’T move it until it’s done!

[Anonymous]

Wow they look great!!! No…. I stand corrected they look sensational. The marbling is so even I can just imagine how tender they will be.
I have always wondered how the Wagyu would go in the bags so I will be looking forward to your final report, and i’m with you RRP that fridge looks like a treasure chest and yes I am also jealous.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the kind words guys 🙂 One of the guys that went in on this deal with me did some of the top sirloin (just wet aged) as steak last night…he said it was fantastic…on par with a good NY strip from the local meat market. We’re really excited to try this stuff once the dry aging is done.

I cut the pantyhose off the top sirloin in the fridge this morning. There’s a few air pockets here and there, which I guess I expected. Hopefully it doesn’t create any problems. I had similar problems with a brisket flat I did previously and it came out okay. I guess we’ll see.

[Daniel lara]

where did you get them and how much per pound

[Anonymous]

The meat came from Strube Ranch. The ranch is located in East Texas, but they feed and warehouse the meat in my neck of the woods (warehouse is in Omaha, just under 3 hours away from me). We took a day and ran down there and picked up the meat in person….shipping it was crazy expensive ($150/50 lbs if I remember right).

As for how much it cost, it was $24/lb for the strip loins and $6.50/lb for the top sirloin. This top sirloin should have been more….we were planning to get one grade down, but they were out so they gave us the highest grade for the same price.

VERY expensive, I know. In a few weeks we’ll find out if its that much better than the Choice+ stuff I can get in town for a third the price.

[Jim Minion]

I have cooked a lot Wagyu from Snake River Farms, Kobe of America and some smaller ranchers out here in the west. Cooking it beyond rare does not help the flavor.

Did over a ton of brisket, start at pit temps in the 190 degrees for the first 3 hours then raise the pit to 225 degrees. Start checking for finish at about 180 to185 degrees internal.

New to forum looking forward to trying this out.

Jim

[Ron Pratt]

Welcome aboard Jim! You Sir are a legend in the cooking world in case folks here don’t know it! Glad to have you here! You probably don’t recognize me, but C~W from many boards also stops by here as he too has gotten into aging beef the DrybagSteak way. BTW I was a good buddy of Dr Chicken for years (Dave Spence) and I know you guys came up with a recipe or two a few years back.

[Jim Minion]

RRP It has been a while, I believe it is you I can thank for pizza sauce recipe.

CW is how I got here, looks interesting.

Jim

[Ron Pratt]

LOL – I have tweaked that pizza sauce recipe since then! WELCOME ABOARD!

[Anonymous]

Hi Jim….great to see your smiling face here as well. We have some good experiments going on.
Thea, our boss lady is the originator of the drybag steak website, and a grand lady she is.
RRP (Ron) is the original tip man..
Ask questions…I think you might enjoy this one.
“C~W”

[Anonymous]

Jim,

Welcome from me as well! I’m really looking forward to trying this stuff…the wet aged sample steaks they sent were pretty much fantastic. Next Saturday is the 30-day mark when we open the first of the strip loins….its getting hard to wait! I’ll reverse sear, removing at 115 internal temp for a 30-45s sear on each side at high temp….usually hits right at rare to medium rare 🙂

We actually found out something INTERESTING this weekend…the guy that went in on all this with me was using some of the fantastic ground beef we got to make burgers and his wife looked at the package and laughed…as it turns out, his wife’s mom is 2nd cousins to Larry Strube (owner of Strube Ranch). My friend’s wife has spent time on the ranch! Small world…

I do have a question about the brisket…we did one of the two briskets a couple of weekends ago (wet aged). We found it to be too greasy. I cooked it faster than I would have liked to (on at 7 AM, off at 6 PM, started around 225, ramped to 275 or 300 towards the end). I was thinking that after dry aging the other one, I’d cook it much slower at a much lower temp like you suggested. Do you have any other suggestions for these Wagyu briskets? They seem to have a LOT more marbling than I’m used to with brisket and I’m wondering how else I might modify the cook to get the best results.

Nick

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the delay, but here’s my pictoral on opening up the first of the two Wagyu Strip Loins.

This was aged for 33 days. Starting weight was 20.5 lbs, finish weight (still in bag, prior to trim) was 19.5 lbs. I was expecting much more loss…will be interesting when I cut open the next one closer to 50 days.

First two pictures are of it still in the bag…fat side then meat side. As a reminder, this is the large size drybag, untrimmed. These pieces of meat are huge…

Here’s the endcap while still in the bag….can’t wait!!

Here it is (meat side up), first fresh out of the bag and second lightly trimmed.

And here we are….—-12—- 1.5″ thick steaks. They range from big to HUGE.

Here’s a closeup of my favorite one :cheer:

This is one of them cooked up. Used EVOO, salt, pepper, and the reverse sear method on the Primo (Finney method). Cook at low temp indirect (225ish) until internal temp of 115, then ramp the grill to high temp (600-700ish) and sear direct at around 45s a side.

And here’s that bad boy cut open…….

It was YUMMY 🙂 I did end up trimming a bit more of the rind off before freezing the remainder. I plan to let the other strip loin go close to 50 days…maybe a little more, I’m not sure yet. The “dry aged flavor” wasn’t as pronounced as what I’ve done in the past, so I’m hoping that the longer aging will make a big difference.

With that said, it was probably one of the best steaks I’ve ever had. Anywhere.

:woohoo:

Oh, my partner in crime on the adventure was in Vegas when I broke it open. He said that he saw Wagyu on the menu at a steakhouse in MGM where he was staying. $96 for 8 oz. :silly:

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