Wednesday, April 1, 2009

DRY AGING OF BEEF -- EXPERIMENT #1 -- DAY 5


Here's our meat on day 1. Guy changed the cloth every day around dinner time. It's simple: just take the old cloth off and wrap the clean cloth around the meat. Finis. Back in fridge.
(The old cloth will have blood on it. Guy rinsed the old cloth well, hung it to dry and kept it in a clean bucket until all the cloths were ready to be put in the washer.)
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Here's the meat on day 5. It's gotten darker. Not too much mold, at least not yet. The humidity was at 75F before the meat went in the fridge. After the meat went in, the humidity rose to 85F, which is still ok, but Guy wanted to keep it to 75F. So he bought two rechargeable silica gel canisters ($17.73 incl. shipping) and put one in the fridge. The humidity came down to 78F, which made him happier. He also put an open box of baking soda in the fridge to keep it fresh-smelling.
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Here's the other end of the meat. So far, everything is going well. Every time he takes the meat out, we start drooling. Soon we'll be tasting these delicious steaks.




9 comments:

Donna-FFW said...

Cant wait to see the end result:) Oh btw, blogged a bit bout your muffins today:)

Sara said...

I love reading this series, I have never aged my own meat but would like to try sometime. I think my butcher ages all the meat I buy already.

Elyse said...

The meat is looking great, Judy!! I love that this has become such an intense process. You've got a meat refrigerator, meat cloths, and now some silicon cannisters to ease the humidity! Maybe you should sell your dry aged meat?! A new business venture? By the way, Donna (FFW)'s shout out about you was FABULOUS!! All of her compliments about you and your food ring so true!! Looks like you were the first blogging friend to both of us!

Debbie said...

Thanks for keeping us up on the experiment. This is interesting.....

Lyndas recipe box said...

This is a very interesting process, Judy. Can't wait to see the finished product! Bet you can't wait to taste it!

Cheri Sicard said...

I have a couple of (I hope not too dumb) questions. How long will the process take over all? And also, is there a way of telling the difference between aged meat and spoiled meat?

Judy said...

Elyse--Thanks for your kind comments.
Cheri -- Minimum aging time is 14 days, but you can go 21. You can tell the difference between aged and spoiled meat two ways: smell and taste. You will definitely know if it's spoiled. Hang on for the gripping conclusion of this project. Three more posts coming up soon.

Kerstin said...

Oh wow - I'm completely impressed you're dry aging your own beef! I've only had it that way in steak houses, but it makes it SO much better. Can't wait to hear about the results!

Coleens Recipes said...

I am very impressed with your dedication to this project!