Dry Aged Beef -- At Home!

Dry aged beef is amazing. If you love steak, you owe it to yourself to try it. But do you want to pay for it? Probably not.

Two weeks ago, I had dinner out with friends, and saw a 35 day dry aged rib eye on the menu for $50. Given the quality of the restaurant we were in, I was really tempted. But I also know a fair amount about cooking, and what it takes to cook streak so its really tasty (dry aged or not), and decided, it wasn't worth it. I can cook a better rib eye than most restaurants at home, honestly. But...

How hard is it to age a steak yourself?

After reading The Food Lab, by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, it turns out its not that hard. An internet search found several accounts of other people doing it, with very similar processes, so I decided to give it a try.

In my research I discovered there's a thing called wet-aging, too. Basically, its bullshit. Don't pay for it, it does little to nothing for flavor. Moving on...

So, how do you do it?

EQUIPMENT:

Mini-Fridge -- You can skip this, but not recommended. Aging meat will give out strong aromas which other food can pick up, and it pick up flavors from other foods. Plus, using your household refrigerator with the door opening and closing all day does not provide a stable environment. I found a used mini-fridge on Facebook Marketplace for $20. If the steak thing doesn't workout, I can still use the fridge.

Wire rack -- This is to make sure the meat gets full circulation on all sides. In my case, the wire shelf in the fridge works fine.

Small Fan -- Well, maybe. Several sources recommend it. I bought one, and decided not to use it because the fan itself produced too much heat for the fridge to keep cool enough. More on that Below.

Thermometer -- This is critical. The meat must be held between 32°F and 40°F. Too cold and the meat with freeze, which stops the enzymatic processes we want, and too warm it it will spoil. I bought a cheap refrigerator thermometer to keep in the fridge to make sure it's consistent. I already owned an Infra-Red thermometer gun and a Thermopen instant read, which I used to check the fridge more accurately before starting (more below). You can probably get away with just one. If that's your choice go for the most accurate you can get.

Meat - Because the aging process drys out the outer layer of meat, you want to start with a good sized piece. When its done, you'll cut away the dry layer. The bigger your piece to start, the more finished product.  I bought a Prime grade rib roast, with 3 ribs, with the fat cap still on. The official name for this cut is "109A." When its done, it can be cut into rib eye steaks. The more fat the better, because the fat will dry out, and end up being cut away at the end.

That's it! Now on to the fun!

PROCESS:

Before I bought my meat, which wasn't going to be cheap, I decided to check the fridge was working as I needed it.  I spent a couple days letting it run while empty and checking the temp. Using the IR thermometer and fridge thermometer I got it dialed into my ideal temperature range (32°F to 40°F).

With the IR gun, I found that the temperature varied in different parts of the interior, so I adjusted until all areas were at least below 40°F after a few hours with the door closed. I also noticed that the fridge thermometer was reading at the bottom of the "ideal" range. As long as it stays consistent, that's fine.

I installed a small computer fan, to try to improve air circulation and get a more even temperature. But after a day, the internal temp of the fridge was consistently above 40°F, even when set to "MAX". This was no good.

Placing my had in front of the fan, I found it was blowing warm air. The fan motor was generating too much heat for my tiny fridge to keep up with, so I removed it. If the fridge was bigger, I suspect the fan would be a good idea, but since its about as small as they come, I think its fine without.

Once I was satisfied the fridge would maintain a safe temperature, I bought the meat. When I got it home, I unwrapped it and dried it off. Using paper towels, I patted all the excess liquid and got it as dry as I could.

Straight from the butcher's shop, 7.56 pounds of Prime Rib Roast.

 Then came the hard part: I put the hunk of meat on the shelf in the fridge and closed the door.

Day 1: In it goes.
Note: The temp on the thermometer is too high, because I kept the door open too long to take pictures.

That's it. Done. Now wait 6 weeks. Well... Sort of.

After 1 day I checked the meat and temperature. The meat looked a little redder, some juices had dripped onto the bottom of the fridge. The fridge thermometer continued to read the same as during testing. The IR gun gave different readings all around the interior, all within range. The surface of the meat itself read 35°F. Perfect!

Next I inserted my instant read thermometer, to get the internal temperature of the meat. This is really the most important part. The outside will dry out and protect the rest over the first week or two, so its the internal temperature that needs to be consistent. It read 32°F, right at the lower edge of ideal. I turned up the fridge temp a bit and closed the door.

The next day I performed the same checks. the interior of the meat now read 34°F. Happy with this, I closed the door and will leave it alone for awhile. My plan is to turn the meat once a week, checking the temp at the same time. Turning will help ensure even circulation of air, and promote even drying.

How long?

This is the interesting part, especially if you're willing to pay for an aged steak at the butcher's or in a restaurant. During the first two weeks, aging does nothing for flavor. As the enzymes inside the meat go to work, they will tenderize the meat, but not impart much flavor. I personally would not pay the prices for meat aged this little. If I want more tender meat, I'll buy a different cut.

Flavor changes begin to happen around three weeks and get more intense as you go, with four to six weeks being most people's ideal range. After six weeks, I'm told the flavors get really, really intense and most people find them overwhelming.

Most restaurants who sever dry aged beef stay in the 28-35 day range, which is four to five weeks. Those are aged by professionals in purpose designed, highly controlled conditions. Since I don't have those conditions, and most sources I found for home aging recommended six weeks, that's what I'm shooting for.

One Week

After 1 week, the meat looks a darker and kind of weird, but the internal temperature is perfect.

I flipped it over to ensure even drying all around. I also relocated the thermometer so its not directly beneath the cooling unit. 

Week Two

Flipped it back over. Internal temperature still a consistent 35°F (again the thermometer in the photo is wrong because the door was open for a few minutes to clean up some of the blood that dripped and dried.)

14 days after starting and the outside of the meat is totally dry. Handling it to flip it again it was hard and leathery. It looks pretty rough. The surface temp is 39°F and the internal temp is 35°F, so I'm right in the sweet spot.

What looks like white salt crystals are forming on the outside of the meat. I think that may be fat, but I'm not sure, since it looks different from the fat cap.

I expected to get some odors or bad smells, but so far nothing. Which I think means it not rotting, it doesn't seem to be, there are no gray areas. I'll check it again next week.

Week Three

Three Weeks: its really dark now, Purplsh-brown, almost black, no odor. 

By week three, the last bits of the dark red seem to have vanished and its really dark purplish-brown. There's no odor.

Week Four

Week Four: Not much change in appearance from last week.

Four weeks now, two-thirds of the way there! Visually, it looks pretty much the same as last week. I flipped it again to ensure even circulation, but at this point I'm not sure its necessary. The outer layers are tough and leathery and dry. 

Temperatures are remaining consistent. The prod from the thermometer slips easily into the tough looking meat, and read 35°F still, which is perfect.

I didn't notice any smell when I opened the fridge so I got close and sniffed. There's a light, almost chocolate aroma coming from the meat, which I didn't expect. Its now 28 days aged, and could be cooked and served, but the real flavor is only just beginning to develop now, so I'm going to give it more time.

Week Five

Week Four: Not much visual change since last week.

Almost ready! Its now 35 days aged, a perfectly acceptable age for severing, but I want to go a little longer. The chocolaty aroma I smelled last week is a little stronger, but only right after I open the door. The smell is not at all unpleasant, and not as cheese-like as I expected. 

Next week we carve it up!

Week Six

Today the meat is done! Forty-two day dry-aged rib eye steaks! 

Visually, not much change from last week. There is still almost no aroma when opening the mini-fridge. The steak feels leathery and a bit greasy. Poking the meatiest parts, it feels tough like jerky.

Six Weeks: all ready to carve up!

Before trimming and carving, I weighed the roast. When I bought it, it weighed 7 lbs 9 oz (3.43Kg). After six weeks of aging, it came in at 6 lbs 2 oz, a net lose of 1 lb 7 oz in moisture. 

But it's going to get lighter. All that tough, dried outer shell needs to come off. I'm not a butcher, so my trimming was probably not the most expert thing, but with a boning knife and a chef's knife, I carved away the tough outer fat and meat in thin slivers, so as not to take off too much edible meat. It wasn't difficult. 

When I was pretty sure I'd gotten down to the good stuff. It looked like a lot! 

The scraps after trimming the roast.

The trimmed roast, doesn't look too different from a normal rib roast now. 

 Once again, I weighed the beast. Now it was down to a lean 4 lbs 15 oz, a total lose of 2 lbs 10 oz from when I bought it. Now I understand one reason dry aged steaks are so expensive! By weight alone, based on my purchase price, value per pound jumped 158%.

I divided the roast into three bone-in steaks, each about 2" thick. They weren't perfectly uniform since the end pieces had more meat trimmed off them.

Once divided into steaks, you can really see the color of the inside -- its a nice purple with some brown areas. But there's no rotting smell at all, so all good.

Each bone-in steak was about 2 pounds, that's a lot of meat! I'm not one of those ultra macho guys who eats tons of steak in one sittings, there's no way I could eat a whole of in a single sitting, and the idea of reheating left over dry-aged steak makes me cringe. So I de-boned one and cut into two boneless rib eyes, each about an inch thick. 

Boneless dry-aged rib eye steaks. I decided to cut off a that big chunk of fat at the bottom after taking this photo.

Once all the steaks were carved up, I vacuum sealed them in individual bags. The boneless steaks went immediately into the sous vide to cook up medium-rare. Once sous vide, they'll store for months! (Though I'll probably eat them all in a week.)

One of the bone-in steaks will get cooked up tomorrow night to share with a friend of mine who paid for half the experiment, and the other is hers to keep.

All told, I spent about $1.43 per ounce to produce these delicious dry-aged steaks (not counting the one-time cost of $20 for the used mini-fridge). Last week I was at a fine local restaurant that was offering an 12 oz, 42 day dry-aged steak for $65, or $5.41 per ounce, nearly four times my cost. 

Regardless of the initial expense, this was super easy to do, and from a cost stand point, totally worth it!

For Next Time?

I will absolutely do this again! But with a couple changes. I did a little hunting around and found I can get full, grass fed, rib roasts shipped for about $225. That's a lot more cost effective, being about twice the meat for only about $40 more than I paid this time. That would dramatically increase the value of this whole process.

I could probably find even less expensive if I skipped the grass-fed part, but why bother? Grass-fed tastes better, is healthier to eat, and less cruel to the cows. 

A full roast won't fit in my mini-fridge, but I can probably get 5 ribs worth in, instead of just three (Maybe even six? I'll measure when I get it.) The remaining ribs can be divided up and eaten during the six weeks of aging, so I'll always have good steaks in the house, just not always aged. 

The other thing I'm going to do is try to increase the temp of the fridge a little. I think if I get the internal temp of the meat up a couple degrees, I'll get a little more aging flavor. As long as I keep it below 40°F, it should be fine. 

Oh Yeah, How Do They Taste?

Cooking up a dry aged steak is done the same as cooking a normal steak, but it feels different. Because the meat has far less water in it, it doesn't pop and sizzle like you expect in the pan. It does develop a very nice crust though, because it still has all the fat.

I cooked one up in a cast iron pan, my preferred method for rib eye, and it was delicious. The texture is dryer, and chewer, again because it lacks water. But the taste is delicious.

Another steak I sous vide, then finished in a pan. This method ensures perfectly to temperature steak, and it was just as delicious.

For me, I won't say dry aged is better than regular steaks, only different, and the price of buying a properly dry aged steak from a butcher or restaurant aren't worth it for me. But with this method, I will absolutely do it again. 

Handlebars: Take 2!

Phaedrus got some more upgrades yesterday.

When I first bought my motorcycle, a 2004 Honda Shadow VLX 600, I knew I'd be making changes. One of the first things I did was to take pics and work up what the natural angles and lines of the bike were.

Follow the pink line, that's the natural visual spine of the bike. Notice how the original bars and mirrors stick way above? Ugly!

The line from the seat, over the gas tank to the top of the speedometer (the highest natural point on the bike) looked pretty good, but the original handlebars, and especially the mirrors just stuck way up and shattered the natural lines. They had to go.

After a minor involuntary dismount, the handlebars got bend and it was a quick swap to low-profile drag bars. Then came the electronics upgrade with new control buttons, internal wiring, a Motogadget M-unit and a new custom (by me) wiring harness. All this looked a lot better.

But those mirrors. Ugly!

Not to mention cheap. At the time I wasn't ready to shell out for high quality mirrors, and didn't want to waste money on mid-range that I knew I'd be replacing. So I bought a pair of cheap ($15) mirrors. After about 3000 miles the plastic on one cracked and it wouldn't stay straight. I bought another set. Then the glass fell out of another at 60 mph.  Four thousand miles later, another cracked in the same place.

Time to get on with the upgrades.

The drag bars were cheap steel. This time I upgraded to high quality, thick walled aluminum street bars, with about a 2" rise.

To keep the natural lines of the bike, I knew the mirrors would have to under mount, so I got a pair of Oberon bar-end clamp ons.

I never liked the stock turn signals, which are big cruiser style. I always have intended to strip the bike down to a bobber style, with minimal accessories, so I really wanted to minimize the signals. Motogadget M-blaze LED bar end signals are ideal. The function as front and rear signals, plus as marker lights, and look like part of the handlebars, so all the other signals can go!

To finish it off, I needed new grips to accommodated the bar-end signals, so I got a pair of Motogadget rubber grips. They make metal ones, but I prefer the comfort of rubber, plus the insulation between my hand and the bar in winter helps a little with cold hands, and they're 1/5th the price.

Since I was doing wiring, I disconnected the power by pulling the main fuse. Its easier to get to than the battery cables.

This whole exercise also served as a test of the wiring harness I'd built and installed last year. Pulling the old bars was simple: I removed the body panels in front of the tank to expose the wire connections. Disconnected and labeled all the connectors. When I rewired the bike previously, I used nylon OEM style connectors, which made this supper easy. Then dismount the levers, and unbolt the bar from the risers. It took maybe ten minutes.

I removed the original turn signals, front and back. They'll go on Ebay to recoup some of my expenses. Bye-bye!

Then I mounted and test fitted the new bars, making sure to carefully mark everything to make sure it all went back exactly where I wanted it later. Measure twice, cut once.

Taping and marking where the bars meet the risers makes sure that every time I take the bars off, I can put them back exactly how I like them.

One mistake I made with the drag bars was positioning the buttons, they weren't exactly were my thumb naturally went. Since they depend on holes in the bars, I wanted to make sure I got them perfect this time.

With the bars mounted and positioned exactly how I wanted it, and taped and marked to ensure I could get it back there, I installed the grips and throttle assembly, making sure to allow enough space for the mirror clamps. I was careful to allow about a small gap between the throttle grip and the mirror clamp, to ensure the throttle didn't stick.

With everything in place, I put a piece of tape roughly where I thought the buttons should go and gripped the handlebars in riding position. Then with my eyes closed, I extended my thumb to touch the tape. I marked the tape at the middle of my thumb top to bottom. That would be the vertical center of the button hole, the natural position of my thumb.

Grips and mirror clamps installed, and the wiring holes marked for ideal position based on my natural thumb position.

Then I marked the left/right center by measuring to allow for the full width of the button housing and to the natural center of the pad of my thumb where I press buttons. All this ultimately put all the buttons in comfortable position.

Drilling the aluminum bars was much easier than the steel ones. I started with a 1/8" pilot hole, then stepped up with progressively larger drill bits to 5/16". I drilled both holes while the bars were mounted.

Wiring whole drilled.

I also marked the center top of the handle bars as mounted, and made a mark on the bottom end of each side to show the lowest point when mounted. Then I removed the bars.

The exit whole for the wiring needs to be in the center of the bottom of the bars. I used the marks I made while they were mounted and located the bottom center. I drilled three pilot holes, and progressed up again until 5/16" and all the wholes formed one slot. Wiggling the drill bit back and forth a bit chewed away excess metal to help make a smoother slot.

Finally, I cleaned up all the drill holes with a roto-tool to remove any burs, and smooth the sharp edges that would chew up the wires. The last thing I want to do is have wires shorting out from rubbing on the metal edges. 

Thne it was just a matter of routing my existing wiring from the other bars into the new bars. I used a left over piece of wire and tape to fish the lines through and that was done.

Then came the M-Blaze bar end signals. 

Motogadget's instructions are pretty clear. Before installing them, I used heat shrink to wrap the wires where they exited the bars as an extra layer of protection against abrasion, then installed the M-Blazes.

M-Blazes are sold individually as left or right side, and the Motogadget logo needs to face up when they're installed. If you look closely, you can see that they have two LEDs facing front, and one facing the back when installed correctly. 

Now back to the bike for another test fit. I wrapped the M-blazes in masking tape to ensure I didn't scratch them while working. 

Using the tape markings, I mounted the bars again and checked the routing of all the wiring. 

This time, I was able to find some black vinyl tubing, which gives a way more professional look to the wiring than wrapping them in electrical tape. Also, since the wires can slide easily in the tubing, they're more flexible and should have less stress on them. 

I decided to route the M-blaze wires in the tubing with one set of control wires, and the other side separately. Cut them to length, and install the nylon connectors I'd used before and they were done!

My custom wiring harness made the whole thing easy! I took a lot of time and effort to think ahead when I built it, and now I feel vindicated. I could have run wiring straight from the M-Unit, all the way to the buttons, in a continuous single piece, but I assumed I'd need or want to remove the bars, or replace broken parts eventually, so it made sense to add connectors. Glad I did. 

I rehung the clutch and brake levers, reconnected the throttle cable and reconnected the M-unit. The moment of truth: turn the key and test each button. Everything worked right off the bat.

It works!

Then came time to mount the mirrors. The go on easy enough and I thought I had them where I wanted them. It was raining out, plus I'd just installed new grips, so I decided to wait until morning to ride and see. Since I used WD-40 to help slide the grips on, I knew I need to give them at least over night to set up.

Left side - Now to figure out how to get rid of the mirror mount on the clutch lever?

Right side.

Clean look, and the under-mount mirrors make riding feel more open, nothing obstructing my view.

Nice and clean, no bulky turn signals.

Profile. The natural line from the bottom of the seat all the way up to the bars is clean. (Need a new seat, though!)

A little reprogramming of the M-unit to make the M-blazes function as marker lights, too (10% brightness) and its done. 

The whole process took me about 4 hours. The simple wiring harness and nylon OEM style connectors made a huge difference in how easy everything was. 

I'm about out of things to work on before getting serious about the body work. With the electrical and controls finished, and the lighting upgraded, plus velocity stack and pipes wrapped the next move is really removing the rear fender and replacing it with the seat to make it a bobber. That will mean cutting down the front fender to match and getting a paint job. Guess I need to start saving some cash!