First time Dry Aging question PLEASE respond! Thanks.

[Gary]

Hello, first timer here. My local supermarket only sold half of a USDA prime ribeye. They did sell entire choice ribeye, but I wanted to dry age prime. So I only have a half prime primal ribeye which is about 9 inches long and weighs 8 pounds. A local chef just told me that I should not dry age that in my refrigerator for longer than 20 days. Well, I had anticipated a 35-day dry age for a party I am having on August 11. Is there any merit to what he said? Is 35 days too long? It’s currently 5 days in, on a rack on top of a pan of Himalayan sea salt, in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator with the drawer cracked. All replies welcome thank you.

[Ron Pratt]

Welcome aboard! Your “local chef” is entitled to his opinion of 20 days as well as all of us HAPPY users of the UMAi Dry Bag who find 28, 35, 45 and 60 day aging periods very tasty and worthy of the waiting periods. If you search the net about dry aging at home you will find a litany of methods. In fact since you said your meat is on a rack on top of a pan of Himalayan sea salt, in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator with the drawer cracked Then you got the sea salt idea from someplace. With a UMAi bag that salt is not necessary. As for keeping that meat in a drawer at the bottom now THAT is not a good idea even with the drawer cracked! You really need to move it to a shelf inside where the evaporation of the moisture from the passing through the UMAi Bag more readily and producing even drying. The 5 days so far is nothing to get concerned about, but you really should get it out of there and leave the sea salt behind as well! If you have any other questions please ask.

Ron

[john moran]

I’m guessing your chef wasn’t familiar with UMAI?? Also, did you ask the butcher to give you a whole prime? It probably came in the back door whole but not too many people who buy meat at the grocery store spend the $$ to buy a whole prime roast. I get them at the meat market. I use a chamber vacuum system and a whole roast doesn’t actually fit so I had to lop off a few steaks.

Also…”Himalayan Sea Salt”..sigh..First off “Sea Salt”…bet you can’t go anywhere and find salt that isn’t from a sea. (before you say anything the Utah Salt Flats was once a sea) As for the “Himalayan” part you might want to read: THIS – The salt thing is used for non UMAI aging with some methods in the fridge. It’s to stabilize the humidity. Where the salt comes from is pretty much moot. I’ve done a prime rib recipe where I literally bought a bag of sidewalk rock salt at Menards to cake on the roast. BTW – “Himalayan” salt is roughly $4/LB – Morton coarse salt $1/LB – Menards rock salt 7-cents/LB….just sayin’.

As usual I’m with Ron…get that thing out of that drawer and on to a rack. I put mine on top for best air circulation. Save the salt for winter sidewalks. I don’t know if this matters but until I start to see the bark forming, I flip mine over every few days. I think some say to just leave it alone…Meh.

Also..I’m on day 30 on my latest prime roast (still no smell). Thanks to “egg”ing from Ron…I’m going an extra week and attacking it on day 37. Previous agings have gone 28 & 32 days IIRC.

[Gary]

Folks, thanks very much for the responses. This website is awesome. I spent over $120 on this 8 pound, half, prime ribeye. So I want to do it right. I’ve taken yall’s advice and moved it to the second-to-top shelf of my fridge, after only 4 days is the cracked lower drawer. It’s on a rack, on top of a bakers pan full of 2 lbs of course Himalayan pink salt. Two more questions: 1: Why not use the salt to keep humidity down? 2: Is 33 days too long for half a prime? I haven’t sealed it in a bag or wrapped it in anything. Thanks again folks! I’ll update with pictures. It’s my first dry age and I’m excited…maybe even over analyzing a bit. I’ll follow you all’s lead!

[john moran]

Whoooahhh – Being this is an UMAI forum I had assumed you had this roast in an UMAI bag…Disregard most of what I said then (except the rant about “Himalayan Sea” salt..I stand by that).

I’ve read about various methods of aging in a fridge but they all seemed too dicey for me. Prone to absorbing other smells in the fridge, too difficult to control humidity…etc…too risky for my budget. UMAI bags are the way to go. I’ve indefinitely postponed building a dry-cure cabinet for aging steaks and dry-cure sausages. I’ve used UMAI bags and casing with 100% success.

[Ron Pratt]

Me too! I have to wonder how he got here in the first place. This shows once again that I shouldn’t just assume and instead ask more pointed questions when the OP doesn’t mention specifically using a UMAI Bag. Ron

[Gary]

I’ve seen plenty of dry age processes in cold temps without a bag. Is that was this site is about? Selling bags?

[Ron Pratt]

BINGO! Please sroll up and look at the masthead. Ron

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