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[Anonymous]

I just started drying my first New York strip loin. My cheap Foodsaver “Gamesaver Sport Plus” doesn’t have a hot enough strip to seal the dry bags so I took the advice from another posting on this forum and used the large bucket of water method to force out all of the air. Seems to have worked fine. The meat has been aging for 8 days and has a nice deep burgundy color and a hard leathery rind. No sign of spoilage.

I’m excited!

But I have a couple of questions: do I really get that much more flavor if I age the meat 35 or 40 days than if I just do 14 to 21? Also, has anyone ever tried to use the trimmed rind and fat to make a beef stock? Would it be safe to try? Seems like some very rich broth for a great French onion soup could come from those trimmings.

This is my first dryaging project but I also cure and smoke my own bacon and pastrami. I smoke my own salmon and I brine my own corned beef. I do a 10 pepper beef jerky from a dry cure of 10 or more exotic peppers, many that I dry and grind myself.

I love this stuff and look forward to learning from you guys and swapping recipes.

[Ron Pratt]

First of all, Don, Welcome to our forum. We’re still a young forum and an old timer is someone who has been here a year or two!

As for your question about the length of time I would politely say if you are aging 14 days or shorter why even bother? 21 days is the bare minimum. The results of even 21 days pales to 35 to 45 days. Typically in 40 to 45 day the results I have experienced mean about a 21% weight loss untrimmed of course. Remember that the weight loss is nothing but the tasteless water dried from the meat. That removal is what enhances the beefy taste plus tenderizes the meat.

As for salvaging the hardened outer shell that is our option I suppose, but most people here find that part unappealing. OTOH we would be all ears to hear of your results if you try it.

It’s obvious you have read other posts and gleaned information, but if you didn’t get an answer you needed please ask!

Ron

[Anonymous]

I will age it longer. Might as well make this an exercise in self-discipline as well as aging. The reason(s) I asked is the company says to age the meat 7-21 days AND I am impatient to see the results. If the extra days make a difference I will stay the coarse a couple more weeks!

And I will give the trimmings a try and pass on the results. I think there is richness in those trimmings to be used!

Thanks for your reply.

Don

[Ron Pratt]

Don – may I offer a compromise since you are aging a NY strip. That primal is thinner and I have found 28 to 35 days works better than say 45 days. Larger and thicker ones such as rib eyes and sirloins benefit from the 45 day IMO.

As for the trimming – keep in mind I seem to be in the minority here – I do skim cut the hardest exterior, but leave the rest on. After I grill my aged steaks I further trim my wife’s steaks as she does not care for the “rind” – while I do. I then save her trimmings and enjoy them cold – the toughness reminds me of dry beef jerky. Ron

[Anonymous]

Interesting. I’ll shoot for 30 days. It’s a small portion as a first try so I may be fine at 30.

It seems that mostly the texture of the rinds makes them unappealing. I can see that. Mostly I’m looking at drawing out all of the concentrated flavor in the rinds for a very rich stock.

It’s all a new work in progress for me so I will keep in touch with all of my results. But that rich beef stock with Vidallia onions, a little garlic, butter, French or sourdough bread and some good hard Italian or Spanish cheese…maybe a drizzle of a little sherry and a few fresh herbs…well, I at least have to try…

Will keep you all up to date.

I’m excited.

Thanks.

Don

[Robbie Miller]

I just found this site via The BBQ Brethren and, being from Texas, do a lot of cooking on the grill. I’ve bought aged prime beef but never tried to age my own, except in Colorado when we shoot an Elk we will hang it after it is skinned for a few days till we get ready to leave. Can’t really say I can tell the difference. I cook a lot of Briskets and pork ribs on the smoker and the idea of aging a brisket sounds intriguing. After years of screwing with different ways and temperatures to cook brisket, I’ve finally discovered to ultimate way to cook a brisket and aging probably will make it better. I haven’t spent a lot of time on the site yet but I haven’t seen much, if anything about aging a poor cut of meat like brisket. Does anyone out there have any experience with aging brisket that you could share? Also, had anyone tried pork ribs? I’ve attached the brisket recipe below if your interested in trying a totally different way of cooking a brisket. Enjoy the site and an looking forward to a good forum.
Robbie

[Robbie Miller]

Well, I must have done something wrong because my recipe didn’t show up. When I figure out how to attached a file, I’ll submit it.

[Ron Pratt]

Welcome aboard, Robbie!

The question about aging a brisket has been raised before and I’m sure to date there have been no responses. My speculation is that to most people the aged exterior of the meat is unappealing so they trim back to red. In doing that with a brisket there’s going to be a lot more wasted meat than if you didn’t age it.

As for your file attachment your best bet is to cut and paste. OTOH posting a photo you need a server such as PhotoBucket in which the picture resides.

Stick around…are you planning to age some beef sub-primals? Once done you’ll love the taste plus see how easy it is to dry age your own meat instead of paying through the nose for someone else to do it!

Ron

[Donald Belzowski]

My New York loin is very small as my first experiment. It was only 10.5 lbs. when I bought it and I trimmed off at least a pound of fat first. Also, it was too long to fit into the space I had set aside for it, so I cut off about two pounds as fresh steaks for that night. This may only be a 7 ib. piece of meat. How long should it take to age thoroughly if size is a matter?

Right know it has a very hard and dark rind and has shrunk at least 3/4 to 1 lb. Could a small piece like this dry age much quicker?

I will also be doing a second piece. I plan to do a batch of smoked jerky and use top sirlion as my meat of choice. Since the smoking process is an experiment and my smoker is small could I dry age half of the top sirlion and what could I expect from that cut and served as a steak after aging?

Thanks,

Don

P.S. This is not my first post. I have three posts above this one but all of the data is gone??

[Ron Pratt]

Don,
First of all yes a NY strip loin can and will age quicker. Consider the shape – it is basically long and thin, unlike a thicker ribeye or an almost round sirloin. By reading your first post and counting forward I assume you have been aging this for 16 days now. My personal experience with strips has been mine lost 18% of the weight in 21 days. Applying that % to your guessed weight of 7 pounds then in 21 days you may lose 1.25 pound so it sounds to me like you are on target.

As for your comment about lost posts, I’m not sure what you mean as those posts are right here in this thread and are attributed to you. I am only the moderator here and not the webmaster so I don’t know if there had been a problem necessitating a reset whereby bonefish has credit for your posts or what…just the same your posts are here and under your name.

Lastly about the smoking – not sure how heavy of smoke you intend, but the rind – unless trimmed of the hardest of the hard will be rather tough and just might cause the smoke to lay on a coat of creosote more than just smoking the meat…but let us know your results!
Ron

[Donald Belzowski]

Sorry. I wasn’t clear about the smoking part. I want to use my smoker instead of my dehydrator to make beef jerky. Since it is a first time experiment I only want to use about half of a top sirlion. My question is how well would the other half of the top sirlion dry age?

Thanks, guys,

Look forward to your advice.

DonBel

[Ron Pratt]

So you want to cut the sirloin in half and smoke one half to make jerky and dry age the other half – right? You should be fine!For my tastes a sirloin and a rib eye are both great tasting steaks and especially after dry aging! The only precaution I would offer is make sure you have used a well sanitized or sterilized knife to cut the sirloin in half. Reason is you COULD introduce bacteria to the new cut face of the meat.

[Donald Belzowski]

Thanks for the quick reply. Sorlion to me has great flavor but is harder to cook rare as I like and be nice and tender. I will definitely dryage a large part of the lion!

The meat will be cut by the butcher so that brings me to the clean knife issue: is there a solution I could make to dip the meat into for a certain period of time and then rinse and pat dry that would sanitize it before bagging?? Seems there could be something easily available that would help prevent spoilage before the bagging.

Could a solution of, say, a teaspoon of sodium nitrite in a gallon of water and a soak of about an hour then a thorough rinse and pat dry help in any way? Or could just a mild acid solution with vinegar or lemon juice and some salt and a good rinse be useful?

With a good rinse and dry before bagging I don’t think either would affect the flavor. Just not sure if it would help.

Any ideas or advice out there? It’s an interesting topic to me since, although this is my first drying attempt I’m sure others have lost large, expensive cuts of meat due to unexpected spoilage. An effective quick rinse could save a lot of grief and money if it worked.

Please post your thoughts…I’d love to hear your ideas and we can bat them around and see where they go.

Newbie DonBel

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