Dry age beef

Jambon07

Hi all, does anybody have any info on dry age beef? What's the difference in wet aged beef? I have been told that many things about it that it's after confusing me. I am after putting in a dry age fridge and I have the tbones in 18 days so far but it is moist looking wit "fur" growing on it. This is only a new fridge and is meant to be a proper dry age fridge. Doors open once a week for roughly 2minutes. I thought the beef should be drying out.
Thanks

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Are you doing this commercially or at home? Beef is usually aged when you buy it.
Why buy something as specialist as a dry age fridge when you know nothing about the process?

"Fur" on your steaks doesn't seem to worry you!

Paulw

If there's "fur" then you must be doing something wrong.

Plenty of info online about dry ageing - http://www.finecooking.com/articles/dry-aging-beef-pays-off-big-flavor.aspx

am i bovvered

Are you aging the beef for commercial or private use ? If its commercial get professional advice, you are dealing with public health.
Are the t bones cut into steaks or still a full loin with the fillet ?
Usually beef is hung and the vacuum packed when you buy it, however it generally has too much moisture when opened and needs to be hung again to dry out, the length of time you rehang the beef for depends on personal preference. Just to note for commercial reasons the more moisture you remove the lighter the product becomes, therefore more expensive.
There should be no fur on your beef
it sounds like there is no where for the moisture to escape to, a simple solution would be to purchase one of those wardrobe moisture dehumidifier similar to this http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/wardrobe-dehumidifier
Also consider a sanitiser light.
However please consider that the longer you dry the beef does not always mean better beef, I have eaten beef dry aged for 40 days, it's very "gamey"
Good luck.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

If this is for commercial purposes please get professional advice.

And let us know where it's for sale, so I can avoid it.

dudara

Not a Consumer Issue - moved to Food & Drink

dudara

The Hill Billy

Contact the fridge suppliers & ask for their opinion.

Jawgap

Dry aged beef is beautiful!!

Are you buying the beef from a butcher or shop - if so you're probably getting meat that has already been aged. You might want to investigate getting freshly slaughtered meat. A butcher could help get you get some by special order.

The main difference between 'wet' aging and 'dry' aging is the different enzymatic processes the meat follows as it ages. Dry-aging leads to more glutamate being produced in the meat (glutamate is the 'G' in MSG!!) - the process also leads to a different amino acid profile developing which dictates the flavour - you get more of the 'sweet' amino acids.

The other thing dry-aging causes is loss of moisture. The meat is still juicy and succulent but with less moisture it means the flavouring is more concentrated.

Here's what Harold McGee has to say on dry aging......

So if dry-aged meat is so hard to find, you might wonder if you can just buy a regular steak and dry-age it in your refrigerator. You can...but it's probably not going to come out very well.

Depending on what else you've got in the fridge, you're going to end up with a piece of meat that may have picked up some other smells and flavors. Opening and closing the refrigerator door is going to mean that the temperature isn't controlled, so you're much more likely to develop mold growth on the surface. And finally, you'll end up having to trim a fair amount of the steak away before you can eat it. Dry-aging is very difficult to do well at home.

But if you want to try it, then what I would recommend is getting a primal cut, a large piece of meat from which you can cut steaks later on . Then the trimming won't be so difficult . Put the meat in a second refrigerator that doesn't get used often (if you're lucky enough to have one) . suspend it in a twine harness, or on a rack, so that the entire surface is exposed to the air .

Finally, if you're going to do it, how long should you keep it in there? If you bought the meat from a normal retail store, then it's already about a week old. Hang on to it and experiment—cut a steak off every once in a while and see if you like it. You can take it too far. Once it gets past about six to eight weeks—in my experience, anyway-the flavor becomes so transformed by the action of the enzymes that it begins to taste like blue cheese. It's a very interesting transformation, but for most people, steak that tastes like cheese is not a desirable thing.

duploelabs

Wet ageing is a preferred by butchers as dry ageing means you lose moisture and therefore weight and margin, but the results of dry ageing with regard to the quality of product are far more preferable