New guy just loving it and hooked already

[Brian Byerly]

I put up a strip loin about 45 days ago. Got a good seal on the first try. Left it in fro 30 days. Then I put in a rib loin on the second try. Left in for 30 days. Both were choice pieces of meat. They were great. I am now doing a prime piece of rib loin for about 40 or so days. Everything looks good. I can’t stop trying to improve my seals and my length of time. Can we go 60 days? I’m keeping track of everything. total weight. dry weight, trimmed weigth. total price per pound. I’m having fun and my wife thinks i’m nuts. I think i should do a boneless prime rib for about 60 days. Any Thoughts???????

[Ron Pratt]

First of all welcome aboard, Brian! Sounds like you’ve jumped in the deep end already – good for you! As for going 60 days or longer – of course you can, but the reward may not be that much greater IMO. I did go 60 with a rib eye and was surprised to find that percentage wise it did not lose much more weight than my preferred period of 45 days. My assessment was the 60 day was a bit more dry – OTOH it could very well have been the nature of the meat itself. Guess I should try another 60 to confirm my suspicion. Ron

[Ron Pratt]

What a coincidence!!! Tonight I went to our freezer to pull out a 45 day prime rib for our Saturday supper. I reached in blindly and found one from that 60 day aging! Recently I purchased a 48 blade JAACARD tenderizer which I had already planned to use Saturday so maybe I’ll have another opinion to post come Sunday. My rationale is in spite of my primal being aged 60 days it wasn’t that tender and a bit dry – so I can realistically report what the JAACARD did to help what should be a very tasty, intense chunk-o-cow!
Ron

[Brian Byerly]

Thanks Ron. My prime rib loin hit the 30 day mark yesterday. I won’t get a chance to pull it out and try it for about another week. So, I’ll be close to 40 days by then. Yes, i am in deep and eventhough my wife thinks i’m nuts she doesn’t think she can eat anything that isn’t dry aged anymore. And, i’m cooking on a BGE at high heat. Dry aged steak seared and cooked around 700 or so degrees is like heaven on earth.

[Scott Mark]

I agree that I can’t imagine eating unaged beef steaks again. I’ve got some pre-cut steaks in the freezer that isn’t practical to age, but after that… if production can keep up with demand I don’t see any reason to eat unaged beefsteak again.

The combination of dry-aging and long-term “hot-tubbing: (cooking sous vide) means that almost any cut of beef is tender enough to be served as steak or roast — doesn’t need to be further processed.

As to the final cooking of traditional steaks, you’ve got me very, very curious to compare the “hot-tub” method to the Big Green Egg method. People called the “hot-tub” beef the best they’ve had in their life, and while I take that with a grain of salt it’s a strong endorsement.

May 26, I plan to finish the steaks over a blistering hot natural-lump charcoal bed on a Weber. I don’t think I’ll be able to get a temperature reading but it’s going to be HOT. But the insides will be fully cooked – only need a minute or two to make a nice crust on the exterior.

[Ron Pratt]

toasty wrote:

quote :

As to the final cooking of traditional steaks, you’ve got me very, very curious to compare the “hot-tub” method to the Big Green Egg method. People called the “hot-tub” beef the best they’ve had in their life, and while I take that with a grain of salt it’s a strong endorsement.

.

Scott, thank you for being open minded! The hot tubbing is merely a poor man’s sous vide using a pot and hot tap water vs your fancy, expensive sous vide cooker. I’ve never implied hot tubbing alters the taste except that the center is already 90 to 95° before it goes on the grill for searing. That is opposed to cutting into a rare steak only to find that sometimes cold or at least cool dark blueish-red undercooked center.

Furthermore I’m not sure what you mean of the “hot-tub” method vs. the BGE method. As an avid egghead for 12 years and a very active BGE forum member I’ve never heard of the Big Green Egg method unless what you mean is the results of the ceramic egg which retains moisture in the meat unlike other cookers which dry out the meat.

Ron

[Scott Mark]

I _continue_ to be open-minded!

I don’t think that anyone who owns a BGE has a right to describe “poor man’s” anything. That doesn’t seem fair and I’m pretty sure the numbers will add up against the BGE. For my sous-vide setup AND Weber grill I’ve got $280 invested. Plus charcoal. I haven’t seen a BGE for less than $600. Am I wrong?

My point of the question was twofold: on the one hand, I’d like to compare a room-temp tender steak (like ribeye) on the BGE compared to a hot-tub (sous-vide) steak that is only flash-finished on the BGE. On the other hand, I want to compare hot-tub long-cooked (up to 6 hours) Top Sirloin steaks against others.

I agree that hot-tubbing does not alter the taste, but it certainly alters the tenderness. Which means that a tough but very flavorful cut (enhanced by dry-aging) can be made fork-tender partially through the dry-aging and mostly through the hot-tubbing. The combo can make a tough, flavorful cut into beefy ambrosia. It can do amazing things when one has more time than clients.

My hope is that a dry-aged Top Sirloin steak that gets 6 hours in the 132F waterbath will outshine a dry-aged Ribeye, regardless of how much time the ribeye gets in the waterbath. And at 1/3 to 1/2 the cost per pound and MUCH less fat trim. That’s my hope.

Finally — the only BGE method I meant was not truly a method – it was just what BrianB described in his note:
And, i’m cooking on a BGE at high heat. Dry aged steak seared and cooked around 700 or so degrees is like heaven on earth.

It sounds like he is pretty happy with it. And, reading the websites, most BGE owners seem very happy. It would be nice to experience the difference sometime.

[Brian Byerly]

Didn’t mean to start any arguments here. I’m just a guy that likes to cook over wood/charcoal and the BGE is the best way i’ve found to do that so far. Whether it is a pork butt cooked low and slow for 20 hours or a steak on high heat for just a few minutes that’s the way i like it. Dry aging steak was just another way to ratchet up my BGE experiences and i’m glad i took the plunge. Cook it anyway you like as long as you’re happy with it. That’s what matters most.

[Scott Mark]

I don’t mean to have any arguments. I think I need to learn more about the BGE, and I need to learn how it differs from other cookers/grills. It gets hot? I can make a Weber VERY hot. It has a cover to preserve moisture? The Weber has a cover. I’m not saying that the BGE isn’t a big win. I’m saying that I don’t know what makes it a big win.

In my quest for the best (low-cost) beef, the dry-aging is pretty much a given. Now I’m looking for the most-correct cut of beef, and the best way to finally cook it.

[Brian Byerly]

The BGE is a ceramic cooker that uses lump charcoal. It can bake bread, bake a pizza, cook a brisket or pork shoulder for a half a day or better, smoke jerky in it and achieve high heat and grill a steak like you would get in the best steakhouses. You can even cold smoke cheese in one. I’ve cooked for about 20 hours at 235 degrees and a few minutes at around 800 degrees. Becareful…if your cooking over 400 degrees or so open the lid slowly otherwise you will get an oxygen blast and your eyebrows will be fried. Done that once or twice. It seems almost impossible to dry anything out in a ceramic cooker. At least i haven’t yet.

I read everything i could find on ceramic cookers before i bought my first egg. Just like i read everythind i could find on this method of dry aging steaks before i bought into it.

Now i’m happy cooking dry aged steaks on a ceramic cooker. Just my opinon, I like it.

[Barry]

Keep up the good work, Brian!

[Brian Byerly]

I took my prime rib loin out last Saturday at 43 days. cut a 16 ouncer and grilled it on the BGE. It was great. Very tender. I’m going to do another choice rib loin for 42 days and see how it compares. The prime cut was pricey even at my Costco. I’m going to have to keep grilling because hot tubbing is something i cant’ do right now.

[Scott Mark]

BrianB wrote:

quote :

I took my prime rib loin out last Saturday at 43 days. cut a 16 ouncer and grilled it on the BGE. It was great. Very tender. I’m going to do another choice rib loin for 42 days and see how it compares. The prime cut was pricey even at my Costco. I’m going to have to keep grilling because hot tubbing is something i cant’ do right now.

“Hot tubbing” _IS_ something you can do right now. There are many guides on the web that describe how you can do a very acceptable job with a zip-seal bag, a large pot of water, or an insulated picnic carrier, and almost any thermometer.

For steak, you aren’t worrying about food safety (as long as you finish the exterior of the beef on your BGE at a reasonably high temp). You are just trying to get the meat to the desired doneness. If you’ve aged it 43 days, you’ve got the tenderness you want without having to hot-tub it for an extended period of time.

I encourage you to give it a go, even if you don’t have fancy equipment.

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