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.
On the day of expiration, we cut the beef out of the package and rinsed it under cool water.

The beef was patted dry with clean paper towels.

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.)

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.

The wrapped meat is placed in a dedicated refrigerator, where the humidity and temperature must be within specific ranges.

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.

The steaks are incredibly tender and flavorful because of the extra aging.  Salt and pepper are the only seasonings needed to enjoy the filets.

CHEESE STEAK SANDWICHES BETTER THAN PHILLY'S

Last night, Guy and I enjoyed our first two aged steaks from our dry-aging experiment. Simply rubbed with sea salt and black pepper and grilled to medium-rare, they

momentarily transported us both back to Trenton, New Jersey,

where we always ate good aged beef. Earlier in the day, when we cut the whole rib and froze it, we had a few scraps left over. They were from some of the steaks that were just a bit too big. I butterflied the scraps, then pounded them thinner with my meat mallet, and had enough for two steak sandwiches.
I cooked the steaks in a skillet with some onions. When I turned them to cook the other side, I placed slices of horseradish cheddar cheese on them. Topped with salsa, these steaks were amazing. Even though the rolls were not Trenton rolls from Italian Peoples Bakery,(just the very best bread and rolls in the whole world) they were fresh and pretty decent.

The only problem that Guy and I will have now is that, no matter what I cook, no matter how good it is, it will pale in comparison to the steaks we ate last night and today. Dry-aging of beef at home is not only doable, it's a must.

DRY AGING OF BEEF -- EXPERIMENT #1, DAY 14

With our tongues hanging out in anticipation of a juicy flavorful aged steak, Guy and I trimmed the darkened, moldy covering on the meat. Next, we cut straight through to separate out a roast. We were surprised to learn that there was no bone in the meat. Duhh. Why didn't we know that? We further trimmed off the cap (the thin strip of fatty beef that surrounds the eye). This will be reserved for braising.

And here's what we wound up with: a 3-1/2 lb. boneless rib roast, 9 beautiful rib eye steaks, and a little over a lb. of rib caps for braising. We reserved 2 steaks for tonight's dinner, and froze the rest with our vacuum sealer. First, I weighed the steaks and made sure that we froze what would be typical for us -- between 12 and 14 oz. This yielded 5 steak dinners for us, counting the 2 steaks for tonight; 1 company dinner using the roast; and 1 braised rib dinner most probably with leftovers for lunch or another dinner.

And our dinner tonight was heaven for sure. Just salt and pepper on these beauties; nothing else is needed when you have aged beef steaks. They went on the grill and were cooked to medium rare -- we savored every tender, juicy, flavorful bite.

DRY AGING OF BEEF -- EXPERIMENT #1 -- DAY 10

Today is day 10 of our beef aging experiment. Here is the beef on day 1:
Here it is again on day 5:

And, finally, here it is on day 10:

You can see how much darker the meat is. You can also see some mold growing on it. This is the dry-aging process working on the meat. In four more days, we're going to be eating a steak from this rib.

Each night at dinner time, Guy changes the cloth and checks the humidity and temperature of the fridge, which have been holding steady at 36F temperature, and 75F humidity.

So far, the experiment is going well.

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.

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

New Bern, NC, has been our home since fall of 1993. We do love this beautiful and historic coastal community. There are boaters and artists, but no beach bums, because you have to drive 45 minutes to get to a beach. And that's the way we like it. But, from the beginning, we missed our local butcher. He aged his beef for 3 weeks and it was to die for.
So, after 15 years of moaning about steaks with no flavor, Guy decided we would age our own beef. After all, you can find instructions for anything on the internet.

The first step was to purchase a dedicated refrigerator. Since we had decided to start with a rib of beef (because it's the easiest to age), we measured the rib at Sam's Club (where we intended to purchase a whole rib, USDA Choice, for $4.97/lb.), then hunted for a refrigerator that would accommodate it. Problem #1: We had no room anywhere for the fridge. Our garage is full to the brim and so is the rest of our small house. Solution: We put the fridge on top of our garage fridge. (What a hoot! We are two people and we have 4 fridges: 1 in the kitchen, 1 in the garage, plus the dedicated aging fridge and a wine fridge. Do you think we are food-obsessed?)
Next, Guy purchased a refrigerator thermometer and a humidity thermometer, both needed. The temperature of the fridge needs to be about 36F, right above freezing, and the humidity should be between 70 - 85F. We also purchased a package of 100% cotton cloths at Sam's Club, in which to wrap the meat. Since the cloths have to be changed once a day, we needed enough to get us through a couple of weeks. We put the cloths in the washer, with no detergent, to rinse them well, then dried them in the dryer.

Finally, the beef.

We brought the beef home and Guy rinsed it in clear, cold water, then patted it dry with clean paper towels. Then he wrapped it in one of the cotton cloths. Into the fridge it went.

I'll be reporting more on this experiment as it progresses. In the meantime, we're both dreaming about a delicious aged steak cooked on the grill medium rare.

And here's a little postscript: After our trip to Sam's Club in Greenville, NC, we had lunch at the Red Lobster, then planned to go across the street to Kohl's. But my eyes caught a glimpse of a brand-new building: The Fresh Market. So we took a little detour. And bought some of their aged beef -- a filet mignon. I guess we didn't have to age our own beef after all. If only we had known The Fresh Market was coming. It's okay -- Guy says he needs a project to keep him busy.