Sunday, September 19, 2010

DRY AGING OF FILET MIGNON

Guy and I have been successfully dry aging whole ribeyes at home for more than a year.  When whole Black Angus filet mignons went on sale recently at Harris Teeter, I questioned Guy about dry aging on this cut of meat.  He decided to give it a try.  We bought a whole filet mignon in the cryovac package and kept it in the original package until the expiration date.  We thought that would give the beef the most wet aging to develop some flavor.004
On the day of expiration, we cut the beef out of the package and rinsed it under cool water.
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The beef was patted dry with clean paper towels.
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Then it got wrapped in clean 100% cotton cloth.  (The cloth is never washed with soap.  It gets rinsed in cool water, then “washed” in the sanitary cycle of the washing machine with no detergent.  After they are dry, we fold them and pack them in clean resealable plastic bags.)
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Blood will get on the cloth.  The dry aging dries up some of the blood, so there will be less and less blood on the cloth each day.  Once a day, the old cloth is removed and a new clean cloth is wrapped around the beef.
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The wrapped meat is placed in a dedicated refrigerator, where the humidity and temperature must be within specific ranges.
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Filet mignon cannot be dry aged for 2-3 weeks like a ribeye.  We only dry aged this piece 4 days before we trimmed it and cut it into steaks.
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The steaks are incredibly tender and flavorful because of the extra aging.  Salt and pepper are the only seasonings needed to enjoy the filets.
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5 comments:

Sam Hoffer / My Carolina Kitchen said...

How incredible that you actually aged beef at home. I'll have to give it a try because we love our beef.

I finally got to a city and bought a bottle of the O champagne vinegar you suggested for a vinaigrette. They had the O lemon olive oil on sale, but sadly for me they had sold out (it was a bargain too). You're right. The champagne vinegar is fantastic. I made your haricots verts salad with tuna and olives and we loved it. Thanks for the suggestion.
Sam

Judy said...

So glad you like the O champagne vinegar. Hope you got their citrus flavor.

Kerstin said...

Mmm, I remember reading about your dry aged ribeyes - I'm so impressed you do this at home!

Ap said...

What is the reason you use a cloth to wrap the filet?

Judy said...

The cloth absorbs the blood that the meat will give off each day. It must be changed each day. The meat will shrink as it loses its blood. It will become more tender and drier but still be very moist when it is cooked.