where to buy antibiotic/hormone free subprimals?

[Ron Pratt]

DING DING DING – you caught my attention with your Big Green Egg comment! I’ve been an avid egger for 11 years now and own 4 of them. Trust me it gets in your blood!

[Charlie]

RRP, I have a friend who had a Big Green Egg years ago and always hear how great it was. I see them at the BBQ store and want one but have been putting it off. Now that I have wore out my old tin can grill I will be investing in one soon. Any special features that I should be looking for. (XL Egg and Large table for steaks and pizza!)

[Ron Pratt]

Charlie,
As the moderator here I don’t want to “cross-pollinate” so to speak, but I don’t think giving you a link to us BGE aficionados is out of order since ours is NOT the BGE corporate forum. When you get there give me a holler…I’m RRP there also.
http://www.greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=showcat&catid=1&Itemid=112
Ron

[Charlie]

RRP, Thank you I am waiting on e-mail for activation… hope I didn’t misspell it in the field since there was no verification and its taking awhile

[Joe]

Hound,

Thanks for sharing your experience dry aging grass fed beef. I am going to ask some local farms here if they can have their butcher leave some subprimals whole for me.

Which cuts have you had the most success with? I have always thought bone in cuts age better than boneless and fattier cuts age better than lean, but I have noticed a lot of people aging boneless sirloins, so who knows?

Thanks again,
Joe

[Ron Pratt]

Joe,
I believe you see the commercial agers use bone in cuts primarily to control shrinkage and hence trimming loss as the bone mass slows the moisture loss on that “half” of the sub-primal. OTOH while you can age a bone in cut in a Drybag certain precautions must be taken so as to not puncture the bag. When all said and done a boneless piece is simply easier to age at home the DrybagSteak way.
Ron

[Joe]

That’s an interesting point. Have you developed any techniques to age bone in cuts using the dry age bags?

Do the bags tend to puncture due to the pressure of the bone pushing up against the bag, or more due to a jagged edge on the bone itself?

[Ron Pratt]

Joe,

There is a risk of puncture from the bone edges. Then even as the meat ages it shrinks the bag which has become adhered to the meat by that point and MAY be stressed to the point of tearing a pin hole or worst. Furthermore if you were to move the sub-primal sometime during the aging you might cause wear at some point between the bone and the bag. I guess I’m just not sold on aging a bone-in piece in a Drybag…sort of akin to wearing a raincoat in the shower I guess!

BTW some time back a poster insisted he wanted to use a bone-in and it was suggested that he use some sterile food safe paper perhaps to cover the bone tips before sealing. OTOH including a foreign substance such as the paper could introduce bacteria so you want to be careful and realize that risk exists.

Ron

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