VacMouseketeers POST HERE!!!!

[Larry Poms]

Here is a great recipe for pancetta: mistermeatball.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-make-pancetta.html
I highly recommend using the drybag. I ran a humidity test in my refrigerator and it got down to below 30%. Depending on the contents and how many times the door gets open, it can drop into the teens. That is pretty dry.

[Ivan Remigio]

The Food Pyramid! Day 2 of my venture into dry aging. Should be an interesting one!

[Ron Pratt]

Welcome aboard, Ivan! Are those two bagged meats on the angle individually cut steaks that you are trying to age? If so you may end up with a heap of trimmed waste. They look like they may be rib eye – right? And what is the larger horizontal piece of meat?
Ron

[Ivan Remigio]

Hi Ron. Thanks for the warm welcome. The two bagged meats on an angle are rib roasts and the larger horizontal piece of meat is a brisket. Yes, they are individually cut steaks; so I take it we don’t age these?

[Ron Pratt]

Ivan – a couple problems there – when the meat has already been cut into steaks there is probable chance that the raw meat surfaces have already been contaminated with bacteria and once sealed inside a DryBag that bacteria can multiply and ruin the meat. Even if it were not contaminated if you are like most people you will trim the aged edges and surfaces of the meat. Beginning with steaks already cut then trimming them considerably more since “both faces” will be hardened you are losing a lot of meat in the process. As for your brisket – I assume that is still in one solid piece – right? – the problem there is going to be the same of trimming off all brown hardened part thus losing much of the very edible meat you began with. BTW this is the same principle why they do not recommend aging a tenderloin for instance.

The best cuts for aging are the full sub primals of beef such as rib eye, strip loin, sirloin etc. and these typically start out in 12 to 18 pound solid pieces of meat and are aged in tact – not cut. Lamb can also be aged.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m just trying to help you.
Ron

[Ivan Remigio]

Thanks for the info Ron. I definitely want to do things the right way. Looks like its going to be steak dinners this week. 🙂

[Ivan Remigio]

Best thing about 3 day aged steak, no scraps.

Ron would you recommend dry bringing aged steaks? or does the salt overpower the more subtle notes of aged beefy goodness. Btw never had an aged steak before.

[Ron Pratt]

LOL – not sure that 3 days conveys the “dry aged” label, but better to have them now and enjoy them. If you meant brining the steaks in the conventional salty water solution like you do for poultry then my answer is no – don’t do it! OTOH a trick I learned a few years ago from Cook’s Illustrated is to salt my steaks well – I use coarse kosher salt myself, rather than fine grain table salt – 4 hours before I plan to grill them. What happens is the salt draws the water out of the meat, but in turn the meat than draws the watery salt solution back into the meat. The salt level is more uniform throughout the finished steak instead of just a surface seasoning.

Sorry you haven’t at least knowingly had dry aged steaks before. The meat is more tender and the drying process is the slow, controlled removal of the water in the meat thus intensifying the beefy taste.

Ron

[Tim Hewitt]

Why is it called a VacMouse?

[Ron Pratt]

VacMouse® creates a tiny space for air to flow—tiny spaces… mice…get it? (Experts in the field say an adult mouse can squeeze through a tiny 1″ hole.)
Ron

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