Is the dry bag layer at the end of aging edible?

[Windy]

Hello everybody! I have just ordered my first set of bags and in waiting for them I began to wonder how to avoid as much loss as possible to my aged meat. I’ve previously aged commando and only just scraped and thinly sliced any dodgy looking areas of the bark so as to retain as much of it as possible. My fear with the umai bags is that I try to thread the needle too closely and end up leaving some of the bag residue on the steaks. If this happens, does anybody know if the bag material is safe to eat and if it is, does it taste horrible?
Thanks!

[Ron Pratt]

Welcome aboard! I’m afraid you have a misconception about the UMAi Dry Bag. When you remove it it will be coming off in one piece. In all my years of using them I have never had one even tear upon removal, but I suppose it could happen. Even if it did you could easily grab the offending part and still remove it.

BTW how long do you plan to age and what sub-primal will you be aging. Also by your moniker I assume you might be in Chicago. Right?
Ron

[Windy]

Oh wow, yes I was way off. I assumed that the bag bonded to the meat in such a way as to become part of the rind/bark. This excites me even more as it would appear there would be little to no waste if one was to be fine with leave all/most of the bark intact.
Thanks for the quick reply also, this was exactly the information I required.
I’ll be doing mainly subprimals of ribeye and ny strip, aging from 30-60 days, maybe eventually longer just to try/brag about, depending on how my obsession with this evolves over the coming weeks/months/years. I’ll probably do a mix of aging commando and umai bagging depending on how things evolve.
I never realized my name could imply Chicago until just now hehe. I’m actually from a Canadian city across the river from Detroit called Windsor.

[Tim Wegner]

OMG the bark off my 45 day dry aged ribeye was amazing! I make my own African biltong & jerky so I tasted nibbles of my ribeye as I trimmed it. It was yummy…I cut squares of the rib cap and skewered them drizzled a bit of olive oil on them and seasond them with my custom rub. Them BBQ’d them. Absolutely delicious!!! I’m making broth/soup/au-jus stock out of the rest and as in write this it is simmering. It taste out of this world….Scouts Honor!!!
Be glad to share specifics with anyone who wants to know…

Cheers!

[Ed Falis]

Don’t keep us in suspense. Tell us what you did with it!

[Tim Wegner]

So I cut about half the bark into squares approx 1″x1″ and put them on a skewer brushed them with a bit of olive oil and some of my rub and grilled them,,,,,SUPER YUMMMY! The rest I slowly simmered for a whole day with garlic,celery onion, carrots and some herbs and spices making it into a soup, gravy or au-jus base, it was to die for….

[Ed Falis]

Oh yeah!

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