Fat cap necessary ?

[Michael]

Hey all.

So I attempted to dry age an entire scotch fillet (boneless ribeye, depending where you’re from 🙂 ) a while ago, and the result, though it tasted ok, seemed to have dried out too much (and the resultant steaks were TINY – they shrunk heaps !). Cooking the steaks resulting in something that was quite tough and dry. I’ve still got a few left, so I’ll play around with my cooking technique, see if the problem is me. (I tried both a reverse sear on my kamado bbq, and a few quick flips on my frying pan).

Something that I’ve noticed, in comparison with what I’ve seen online, is that the beef I bought was trimmed, so there was no fat cap at all. Does lack of this layer of fat have a detrimental effect on the dry aging process ?

[Ron Pratt]

No the cap isn’t necessary but I have to wonder why it was trimmed. That is rather unusual. Where did it come from? Butcher shop? grocery store? Was it sealed in cryovac? How long did you age it? Any record of the percentage of weight loss? Ron

[Michael]

Clever me didn’t take before or after measurements – I was too excited, and just wanted to get into it !
I dry aged for 28 days. When I took it out, it had a lovely, rich, beefy smell (was tempting to start munching on it raw !), the colour, however, wasn’t a deep red – I’d say it was more akin to a cured meat (reddish brown).

The meat was ordered from an online butcher (at the time, didn’t find a local butcher that had the meat I wanted), and it arrived cryo vaced. Not sure how common it is, but a lot of primal cuts, when purchased here, seem to be trimmed (ie, ready to cut into steaks , with no excessive fat).
I did (later) find a butcher that sold the cuts I was after, but they too said that they arrive cryo-vaced from their supplier, already trimmed. I may purchase a smaller piece from them, and see how that dry age goes – those cuts, though trimmed, seemed to have a lot more fat content within the beef.

[Ron Pratt]

Well…personally only 28 days for a boneless rib eye is too short – try 35 or even 45 and I think you’ll find better results. As for trimming closer that must be the local standard where you live. Normally meat bought sealed in cryovac should serve as your benchmark fat cap wise as that is more the industry standard. Trust me on this but aged fat is wonderful! Ron

[Michael]

I’ll try 45 days next (was planning to, but again, started to get impatient !) – but will that help much with the dry/tough issue ?

[Ron Pratt]

45 days should definitely make most all sub-primals more tender, but I hesitate to answer your dryness concern. After all dry aging is a matter or extracting the tasteless water in the meat. With a rib eye at 45 days you should experience about an untrimmed 21% weight (water) loss. My point is if you are comparing a non-aged steak against a 45 day aged one then yes it may seem dry, but that’s the point of a more concentrated beefy taste. OTOH I should ask if you are cooking to time or to temperature? Aged steaks cook faster and can be dried out/over cooked if you cook to time. Ron

[Michael]

I cook to temp – but I’m going to prepare another one tonight, as see how that works out.

Thanks for all the tips/advice 🙂

[Author]

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