Newb: Rib roast from supermarket. Not cryovac packed.

[Dan]

Hello to all! My first post and I have some concerns regarding my 1st attempt at UMAi Dry.

I purchased a 12lb. bone in rib roast from my local supermarket and began my first UMAi dry age effort on Nov. 27th. with plans to serve for Christmas dinner (a 28 day age). After doing more research it seems that it is necessary to start with a primal cryovac packed product and not a repackaged product.

I have a Foodsaver vacuum sealer that seemed to do a good job at first try but on the second/third day it became quite clear that I did not have a good seal and was nowhere near 70-80% of surface contact but maybe 50% at best. I cut the front of the bag off as I had several inches of excess and resealed using a new VacMouse and now on day 10 the package looks very good to me but since this is my first attempt and the fact that I didn’t start with the full primal cryovac cut that I may be exposing myself and my family to some dangerous bacteria.

There is no off putting odor whatsoever, at this stage and the meat has developed a nice dark mahogany color similar to pictures I’ve seen on the internet. Would the meat have begun to go bad already if there was unwanted bacteria introduced from the supermarket repackaging as well as my handling of the meat for bagging? Can I assume that there will/would be foul smelling odor long before it’s time to trim and roast?

I have pictures but I don’t know how to attach them.

Thanks for any input.

[Ron Pratt]

Sounds like you may have lucked out this time. Problem with supermarket display case beef is you have no idea how long it has been in there, how it was handled and even more importantly it is sometimes blade tenderized. That tenderization is common practice at COSTCO. What that means is any surface bacteria has thereby been driven into the meat. While eating that meat soon after purchase doesn’t cause a problem BUT dry aging a blade tenderized piece is asking for trouble.

Now about your meat – if you do have surface bacteria it will stay there and you’ll be trimming off the hard exterior anyway so I’d say you are fine. Just let your nose continue to be your guide!
Ron

[Dan]

Thank you for your reply Ron.

I do know that at least according to the butcher this was a just received batch of roasts and had not made it out to the self serve case yet. As far as blade tenderizing, is this something that would be visible?

I also opened up a Flickr account so I could post some pictures. So here they are. Hopefully they post properly.

[Author]

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