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SubscribeThursday, November 19, 2009
Review: How to Dry Age Steaks with Drybag
I know we haven’t even reach one major holiday and I’m already going to ask you to start planning ahead for your next one, whether it’s Christmas, New Year’s, etc. By then, you’ll probably be turkey’d out, so let’s talk beef. Specifically dry-aged beef.
We celebrate Christmas or Chrismukkah with family and our neighborhood friends, and the one thing that’s on the dinner table every single year is steaks or standing rib-roast that I’ve dry-aged at home. I’m too cheap to buy it professionally aged (especially since we usually feed around 12 adults at these parties) and with a spare refrigerator in the garage, it’s not bad in terms of convenience and price.
Earlier this year, back in May, I contacted Thea, the owner of Drybag Steaks about their product. How did I find out about them? Well, Drybag came to my site and mentioned the product in the comments of this post on salting steaks. I was interested. Pissed that the comment was spammy. But, still interested enough to contact them. After emails and phone calls back and forth, they sent me their starter kit which includes a vacuum sealer and several bags, retail $119 to test out their product. I am NOT paid to write this review and I do NOT get anything whatsoever if you buy from them.
The bags are different — during the aging process, they turn into a membrane that allows moisture to escape but do not allow oxygen to come into the bags creating the perfect seal for dry aging steaks.
I’ve now tested this method 4 separate times over the past 6 months. Also, I conducted 4 separate tests…twice with ribeye loin and twice with strip loin. I took about 300 photos during the 4 separate tests. THREE HUNDRED PHOTOS. I’m using the best of the lot – which means that the photos below are a mish-mash from all of the tests. So if the steaks look a little different between photos, that’s why.
A note of caution – for successful dry-aging, you must keep a steady temperature of 34F-38F. If you have an old, rusty, broken refrigerator, please do not attempt. Or, if you only have one refrigerator in the house and your kids open shut open shut open shut the door to sneak finger swipes chocolate cake frosting, you’re better off having someone else do the dry-aging.
I’d like to introduce you to hunk-o-meat.
And this here is the vacuum machine that they sent to me. But that’s not the secret weapon. Not yet…we’ll get to that in a minute.
This is how vacuum sealers used to look and work prior to Foodsaver. If you have one of these, you’ve probably have had yours for a long time. This one is called a snorkel vacuum sealer – it’s for the home market. You can also use a chamber vacuum sealer that commercial restaurants and butchers have (but it’s incredibly expensive, like $1000)
First, I want to cut the hunk in half. Hey wait. My strip transformed into a ribeye somewhere down the way. So learn from my mistake: do NOT trim the outer fat and when you first take the hunk-o-meat out of the cryovac that you bought it in, do NOT wipe off all that gooey bloody mess — Here’s why, explanation from owner of Drybag:
“To create the best (and, ultimately, safest) bond between the surface of the meat and the DrybagSteak material, it is critical that the meat be well coated with proteins–i.e. bloody and gooey like right when you crack it out of the cryovac if you purchase meat from Costco or Sam’s Club.” ~Thea, Drybag Steak
Put hunk into the secret weapon…the Drybag bag. Trim away excess, but leave some room, because you’ll need that extra space to insert into the vacuum sealer.
Vacuum seal that baby up.
Just a note – not all vacuum seals will work with this bag. i.e. my Foodsaver vacuum seal will not work (I tried.) The sealer that you want has the special nozzle doohickey in the middle that sucks out the air. See the nozzle? This is called a “snorkel vacuum sealer.” You can also use a chamber vacuum sealer that many commercial restaurants or butchers might have too. The reason why Foodsaver will not work is that these bags are very very thin (in order to let moisture out). Foodsaver will just burn right through the bag.
Get it good and tight. Oh and also, only Drybag bags work – it actually becomes a membrane. Don’t try to do this with other brand of bags. It won’t work. Foodsaver bags are thick and the whole point of DRY aging is to release moisture. Foodsaver bags will not release moisture. You’ll get sick.
Place it in the refrigerator. Important: you want air circulation, so place it on a heavy rack. Also use a thermometer in the refrigerator to make sure it’s between 34F-38F.
In fact, for test run #2, I propped the rack up with some boards so more air can circulate around the meat.
Notice that during one of my test runs that there is some trapped air inside the bag. This occurred part way through the aging process. This is not good. Trapped air = nasty stuff that gets in the meat. Remember I said I made a mistake– I trimmed the fat and wiped the bloody gooey goop from the loin? Well this is what happens. The membrane couldn’t get a good grip and cling.
It should be nice and tight like this:
After 7-21 days (I aged for 14 days) the steak is ready! See how the Drybag bag clings? You should have to peel it away like a membrane. It comes off easily.
Trim away the outer, tough layer.
Do that all the away around the loin.
Trimmin’
Now slice the steaks into whatever thickness you’d like. Look at the nice, deep red color that’s typical of aged steaks.
That’s some good lookin’ steak.
As for the taste? Fantastic.
Like most well-aged steaks, it had incredible depth of flavor, deep beefy, earthy, complex flavors that hit every part of the mouth.
And like all steaks, taste and flavors depend first and foremost on how long you’ve aged the steaks, how well you cook the steaks, the breed of the cattle, what they were fed, how they were raised and where they were raised. In fact, you should probably read up on Artisan Steak Tasting.
But take your favorite steak and amp up the flavor and beefy-ness by 10x.
I think what you want to know is:
Q) Does it taste better than professionally aged steaks?
A) About the same. But that also depends on how long the professionally aged steaks were aged. And also results depend on making sure you follow the directions of Drybag (correct sealing, correct/steady temperature, air circulation) and the type of beef you are starting with. Good restaurants and butchers might be aging PRIME steaks…and I tested with CHOICE steaks. That makes a pretty big difference. But I’ll take affordable home-aged steaks over pricey butcher or restaurant steaks any day.
*
Q) Is Drybag more effective than home-aging without Drybag?
A) Both yielded same results for me, tastewise. When I dry age without the Drybag, I cover the meat with several layers of cheesecloth – which I have to clean every few days. The cheesecloth ends up getting dirty, bloody and crusty. I know, that sounds gross. The Drybag saved me time over changing and washing cheesecloths and worrying about exposed meat in the refrigerator. But it is an expense. The machine with bags plus shipping will set you back $130. Cheesecloth is cheap.
*
Q) Can I use my current Vacuum sealer and bags and do the same thing?
A) No. Don’t try it. The bags are special bags that turn into a membrane to allow moisture to evaporate away. And the Drybag bags do not work in other vacuum sealers like the Foodsaver (the material is too thin.) They will work with vacuum sealers that have the nozzle thingy that I’ve shown in the photo above. If you have one of those vacuum sealers – a retractable snorkel sealer OR a chamber vacuum sealer, just buy the bags.
*
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I did have a little bit of trouble getting used to the vacuum sealer that Drybag sent to me. But that’s probably user error more than anything (I hate reading instructions.) The vacuum sealer doesn’t work as well as my Foodsaver in terms of sucking all of the air out — I had to try 2-3 times to seal and reseal the bags. My biggest advice to you in terms of using the machine is to leave yourself PLENTY of bag space in case you need to snip and reseal.
Also, part-way through the dry aging, I had to resuck and reseal the bags as I noticed air pockets as shown in the photos above. But this is minor compared to the ease over dry aging the steaks with cheesecloth.
I can see myself dry aging with Drybags probably 4-5 times a year – remember you have to dry age whole loins, not individual steaks. And a whole loin is massive. In fact, I’ll be dry aging the standing rib roast that we’ll have for Christmas dinner.
For $119 (which includes the vacuum sealer, instructions and the bags) it’s totally worth it. But also remember that Drybag is in the business of selling the BAGS…not the machine. You can get a few bags for $20.
Target market would be small restaurants and families who have an extra refrigerator/freezer. Since you’re dry aging an entire loin, you better have a lot of friends over to eat…or have the freezer room to store the cut steaks! Totally not recommended if you don’t have an entire shelf in your refrigerator to dedicate to this roast. If you’re refrigerator is slammed already for space and you have a family that constantly opens/shuts, I just wouldn’t recommend dry-aging at home anyways. NOT SAFE as the temperature fluctuates too much.
I use the refrigerator in my garage where I store drinks and booze…and it only gets opened when I want drinks and booze…which…is…um….quite…often. 
But still, it doesn’t get opened very much, and I have a fridge thermometer right on the shelf that I’m constantly aware of.
Once I’ve dry aged the loin, I cut them into 1 1/4-inch to 1 1/2-inch steaks and vacuum seal (with my regular Foodsaver vacuum sealer) each steak individually to store and freeze. For my Christmas standing rib roast, I’ll leave it whole.
In terms of number of days to age, I’ve tried 7 days, 14 days and 21 days. The 14-day aging was my sweet spot. Not that 21 days didn’t taste better (it did!) but I’m just impatient like that and it’s hard for me to wait the full 21 days. For Christmas, I think I’ll do the full 21 days. But that’s just because impatience can’t get in the way. Don’t think my family will stand for having Christmas dinner 7 days earlier just because I wanna eat the damn roast.
Another note on the company who distributes Drybag. The company is called MacPak LLC. The woman who owns this company is Thea, not really the expert on the technology behind how the bags work nor on beef/steaks nor that I was expecting. She passed me onto another gentleman who was a consultant to answer my tough beef questions and the science behind how the bags work. I think MacPak is just a distributor of these bags. I wish the vacuum sealer that they are selling was a better quality sealer, but I would have no idea where to buy a vacuum sealer with the nozzle doohickey nor do I have the time to test them. But despite this, the bags work. Foodwishes also reviewed and tested Drybag.
I’m still unclear on the science of how these drybags work – how does the bag let moisture out and keep oxygen from coming into the bag? Hmmm…if you have an explanation, please let me know! I’ll enter into this post. If you know of other companies distributing similar bags, I’m happy to contact them and test to offer options.As whether I recommend that you buy or not, that’s really up to you. It’s expensive. An entire loin to dry age is expensive. But if you’re a steak whore like me, and can afford it, go for it. I like it and I’ll continue to use it. I am NOT paid to write this review and I do NOT get anything whatsoever if you buy from them.
You might want to look on eBay or garage sales for the chamber or snorkel vacuum sealer if you are bitching about having to buy another vacuum sealer. I see from the comments below that some of y’all are hung up about the fact that it’s a vacuum sealer machine and that you can’t use your Foodsaver machine. Fine. Let’s call this machine something other than a vacuum sealer. Let’s call it a “Magical Steak Aging Sucker Pucker.” All better now?
And if dry aging steaks doesn’t appeal to you, how about tenderizing and flavorizing your steaks using this post on salting steaks!?
UPDATE #1: Commenter Bruce has the best explanation I’ve heard so far:
“I’m guessing that the bags work by having tiny holes of just the right size. Oxygen molecules (O2 – two oxygen atoms stuck together) are a bit bigger than water (one oxygen with two hydrogens, but hydrogen is really, really small)”
UPDATE #2: I love my readers! This is from Ron, who’s a regular participant in the Big Green Egg Forums. He uses a 4-inch sleeve of the Foodsaver bag OVER the Drybag bag — and then seals with this Foodsaver. I haven’t tried this method….curious to find out how that works. See his photos and his videos.
UPDATE #3: The owner of DrybagSteaks has emailed me more information about the science and testing of these bags.
Dry aging of beef in a bag highly permeable to water vapour
Effects of dry aging of bone-in and boneless strip loins using two aging processes for two aging times
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66 Responses to “Review: How to Dry Age Steaks with Drybag”
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Julia - "Jaden, these were AMAZING! I made 2 slabs of St. Louis style ribs last…"
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Jessica @ How Sweet — 11/19/09 @ 12:01 pm
I’ve never even attemped something like this. My hub would love it.
Maggi — 11/19/09 @ 1:06 pm
I would TOTALLY go for the bags! I dry age our standing rib roast each year for Christmas, but the whole “you can’t use your current FoodSaver that you spent a bazillion dollars on” is a deal breaker. I certainly do not need another food sealer appliance.
Thea replied: — January 29th, 2010 @ 2:04 am
Maggi–
If you want to dry age safe and sound, but don’t want anther piece of equipment, you could try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytQGVYuHHKg&feature=player_embedded
or check out the alternative instructions on the eggheadforum.
–Thea
sygyzy — 11/19/09 @ 1:27 pm
This is an interesting idea. I trust that it works but I just don’t buy the whole idea of having to buy a special vacuum sealer (when I spent enough on my Foodsaver) plus special bags. Their sealer looks really “cheap” to be honest. Why would anyone make a sealer with a “special” nozzle. Bags seal fine with the channel.
As for the bags. Again, “special” bags? People used to think Foodsaver bags were special but we soon found out you could get generic brand bags that are made from the exact same material.
Thanks for taking the time to do the review. I have nothing against buying good products but I’ll be researching this a bit more before purchasing.
Well to be fair, Drybag focused in the business of selling machines, their focus is the bags. Yes, they do sell the machine, but you can get this vacuum sealer from any other source. It’s an old-style sealer waaaayyy before Foodsaver came out with theirs. This is how vacuum sealers used to work and look. So look on eBay or garage sales.
The bags are special b/c they are thin enough and allow water to evaporate. So as long as you can find a bag that allows water to evaporate AND is save to vacuum and seal then you’re golden. But good luck finding that – let me know if you find another source.
~jaden
Chris Mower — 11/19/09 @ 2:35 pm
Thanks for this post. I personally haven’t used any techy equipment for freezing my meats and stuff yet, but I’d like to. Seeing how I hold your opinion in high regard, I’ll be giving this specific product a hefty consideration.
Bruce K — 11/19/09 @ 4:25 pm
I’m guessing that the bags work by having tiny holes of just the right size. Oxygen molecules (O2 – two oxygen atoms stuck together) are a bit bigger than water (one oxygen with two hydrogens, but hydrogen is really, really small)
Winnie — 11/19/09 @ 4:33 pm
Very informative post Jaden. I really appreciate all the time it took to test this out and take all the great photos! I just ordered about 40 pounds of grass-fed beef from a local farm, but I’m not sure if there will be large enough cuts to do this with. If so, I will definitely look into it. Thanks again!
TheKitchenWitch — 11/19/09 @ 6:35 pm
You know, I really appreciate your honesty. You shoot from the hip and tell it like it is–and I had to laugh when you said you didn’t like the original, spammy comment left by the Drybag people. When will they learn?
Very informative post. You sure put those hunks to the test!
Diana — 11/19/09 @ 7:01 pm
Great post and product review! I know I don’t have enough room in our current fridge, but I’m gonna have to get out the vacuum sealer we got as a wedding present to see if it has a nozzle.
Fran — 11/20/09 @ 12:55 am
Wow! What a great, educational post. I never thought of dry aging at home, but in these tough times it is such a great idea! Thanks for the detailed information.
server jobs rhode island — 11/20/09 @ 5:04 am
Dry bag is a solution for beef lovers who wants to prolong stocks of meat. I gained a lot about pros and cons on how to properly use dry bags.
the domestic mama — 11/20/09 @ 7:16 am
I love the old food arts- weather it’s dry-aging or brining or winemaking and canning. It’s fun to get in touch with what our ancestors did WAY before the modern conviences came about. Now, I need to learn how to preserve fish in salt- I think I will go google that now!
The Teacher Cooks — 11/20/09 @ 8:53 am
WOW! I know it took you a long time to do this post. It was very informative! This is why I love your blog!!!! Now am going back to your post on salting steaks before putting out the money. But then I won’t have any excuse to go out to get a great steak!!
Mary — 11/20/09 @ 11:45 am
Nice and very informative. I do not have the patience to dray age though. I tend to be a NOW person. I do know of a couple that will love this, will pass on to them and maybe if I am lucky they will invite me over for one of their dry aged steaks!
Thanks for the experiment!
Cate O'Malley — 11/20/09 @ 11:48 am
ok, now that I’m craving some steak…
RRP — 11/20/09 @ 12:28 pm
I am a Drybag fan. To date I have only aged two sub-primals – a 12 pound New York strip loin for 21 days and a 14 pound rib eye for 28 days. Results have been great and worth the effort! Actually once you get over the shock of laying out $100 or more for a chunk-o-cow do the math and you’ll see a nice cost savings over buying aged beef, let alone buying individually cut steaks. In my case every steak that I cut saved me $3 alone let alone much much more for dry aged meat. One last thing…I have been able to successfully insert a 4″ sleeve of Food Saver bag into a Drybag and seal all 4 layers together with an older model Food Saver that has a 5 second setting.
genius. love that Foodsaver sleeve idea! I’ll try that next time. ~jaden
Kim Y — 11/20/09 @ 12:38 pm
This is a very informative review. This topic has been discussed a lot recently on the Big Green Egg forum. Several people in the group have used this product and have had very favorable results like yours. Thanks for the review and tutoral.
J — 11/20/09 @ 1:03 pm
You might consider not trimming the exterior fat at all until you are done. For one thing, traditionally it derves as a protective layer, and helps to slow the drying, but controlling how quickly the water wicks out from the surface. Secodnly, it can be trimmed to a quarter inch or less AFTER aging, and you won’t have to trim away hard leathery surface flesh. The fat, when traditionally aged, isn’t something in the way, it protects the meat throughout the process.
Your trimming doesn’t need to be as agressive. Rarely are dry-aged steaks (when purchased from a butcher who ages) trimmed so much. One reason is that they have that fat still around them, keeping the majority of the meat from getting too dry on the exterior. The other is, frankly, because dry-aged fat is far denser, has better mouth feel, and greater flavor than the soft wet fat of an unaged steak (especially the fattier rib eye).
Try it again without trimming the fat until AFTER. You will lose much less flesh to trimming. Some of us (tradiottnalists) don’t trim the steaks very much at all except from the very ends (exposed flesh). The thinner brown outer surface softens when grilled, and (to beat a dead horse), there’s less of it anyway because the fat will have kept it from going too leathery.
I do it without the dry bags, about 28 days (4 weeks), but the dry bags will allow you to age longer (say 7 weeks) without drying too much. Dry aging does two things, allows the meat to condense (water loss) and it allows the enzyems to break down the meat and add flavors in the process. The dry bag slows the drying to maximize the length of the enzyme effort.
Nice post. Just don’t throw away the best part!
Great pics.
Thanks for the advice! I’m off to the market now to get my Xmas roast – will not trim this one until after. ~jaden
Dawn in CA — 11/20/09 @ 4:52 pm
You’re a better woman than I for having the patience to dry-age your own meat! I looooove dry-aged steak, but honestly, I’m not ready to go down that road. That said, it sounds like the bags/machine are a worthwhile investment if you plan to dry-age even a few times a year. Thanks for the honest review. There really is something celebratory about a great steak around the holidays.
Single Guy Ben — 11/20/09 @ 8:17 pm
I don’t eat red meat too often, so I don’t think I’ve ever paid attention to whether the meat has been aged or not when I order at restaurants. I never knew I could be eating a really old piece of meat! LOL. Thanks for the primer, now I’ll pay more attention to aged beef and see if I can detect any difference in taste.
RRP — 11/20/09 @ 10:36 pm
Here’s an updated “how to use a Food Saver with Drybags” post I made today on the Big Green Egg site. It even has an embedded You-Tube contact to a 5 minute video I made to show what/how I did it.
http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=764307&catid=1
Thea — 11/21/09 @ 12:09 am
Heed “J”‘s advice The aged fat is what imbues the “umami,” so you want to preserve as much of a fat cap as will fit in the bag. One side needs to be the open surface of meat, though. (Avoid aging a fat encircled tenderloin, for sure!)
Thank you for an informative and fair-handed review!
Dawn — 11/21/09 @ 12:29 am
Hi Jaden,
Do they address food safety at all in the directions? With traditional dry aging, the microorganisms change the PH and eat up all of the bad germs. I’m assuming the temperature is important to keep germs at bay, but can’t imagine the temperature slows down the growth of bacteria enough for 14 – 21 days? I’m intrigued, but food safety class has me skeptical.
-Dawn
bIG bOYS oVen — 11/21/09 @ 2:56 am
OMG! those photos did solicate my eyes! I realy need to try them! thanks Jaden!
Chris — 11/21/09 @ 11:56 am
Great and informative post, Jaden! You nailed the problem with dry aging at my house….boys. I’m going to try the Alton Brown method in a small fridge I have set up in the garage, I just have to test it out to see if it maintains the right temp.
PS: It’s funny seeing several Eggheads here, I feel like I accidentally clicked on the forum
Eelbrood — 11/21/09 @ 1:32 pm
You were “Pissed?” I stopped reading there. I don’t read about food to be slapped with vulgarities. Talk about food, not your bladder.
Barbara — 11/21/09 @ 3:52 pm
Sometimes reading through comments is anexperience in itself!
Anyway…this was a most informative post on a subject I know nothing about. It’s why I love blogging. You gave an honest review and I loved it.
jo — 11/21/09 @ 4:09 pm
I’ve been dying to try them since I saw oliver Ranch talk about them. I have this vacuum machine http://www.vp210.com/ and I am hoping it will work with one of these. Very tired of paying dry aged prices when I want a treat. Thanks for doing the long test!
SteamyKitchen replied: — November 21st, 2009 @ 4:37 pm
Jo- here’s Thea’s response to you:
“To be perfectly honest, without trying it, I cannot promise anything. I can tell you that I have found the odd chef who had this type of table top sealer, just about this size (not sure of the make), and we ran tests with it. The trick is going to be adjusting the heating strip so that it does not melt through the single layer material of DrybagSteak. As you probably know, vacuum bags are laminated, multilayer bags that are either co-extruded or somehow laminated after being blown (I’m not plastics’ manufacturing guru). The inner layer of the bag is a softer, more easily melting plastic polymer that seals the bag while the outer, tougher (less oxygen permeable) layer forms the structure–and does not melt. Thus Ron’s difficulty with getting the little sleeve of channel sealer vacuum bag to adhere inside the DrybagSteak material when he does his adaptation for FoodSaver/channel sealers.
Anyhoo–that’s my two cents’ worth. ~Thea”
the lacquer spoon — 11/22/09 @ 1:39 am
Hi from Tokyo
Few restaurants offer aged steaks in Tokyo. It’s amazing to know how they are cooked at home… thanks!
Steve S — 11/22/09 @ 2:52 am
Hi Thea,
Would the bags work with this sealer http://www.provacuumsealers.com/ ?
Thanks
white on rice couple — 11/22/09 @ 5:39 pm
Wow, thanks for the extremely informative write up! I’ve heard of the dry bags before, but you’ve really illustrated it well. This is monstrously valuable post.
Ronda — 11/22/09 @ 6:10 pm
I had a few questions about dry aging and contacted Thea at Drybag Steaks. She responded within an hour and gave me clear, concise answers. She is so knowledgeable and very generous with her advice!
Dawn — 11/22/09 @ 11:12 pm
Rhonda, that’s awesome! I will email her next week – I really want to try this but have some questions. Thanks for the GREAT review, Jaden. I’m excited to try this!
-Dawn
Nate — 11/24/09 @ 2:24 am
Thanks for going through all the hard work for us. I think I’ll just stick to your oversalted steaks method, though. Salt is cheap.
Terptek — 11/25/09 @ 2:03 pm
Here’s a writeup from the askthemeatman website that gives a simple, ol’ skool butcher approach to aging steaks. It’s a nice alternative to the vacuum sealers, and better for the environment eliminating plastic bag waste.
from: http://www.askthemeatman.com/is_it_possible_to_dry_age_beef_at_home.htm
“Be sure to follow each step carefully, for safety’s sake.
1. Only the top grades of beef can be dry aged successfully. Use USDA Prime or USDA Choice – Yield Grade 1 or 2 (the highest quality of Choice) only. These have a thick layer of fat on the outside to protect the meat from spoiling during the aging process.
2. Buy a whole rib-eye or loin strip. [You cannot age individual steaks.] Unwrap it, rinse it well with cold water, and allow it to drain; then pat it very dry with paper towels.
3. Wrap the meat in immaculately clean, large, plain white cotton dish towels and place it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator – which is the coldest spot.
4. Change the towels each day, replacing the moisture-soiled towels with fresh. Continue to change towels as needed for 10 days, to 2 weeks. (See Step #7 for cleaning towels.)
5. After the desired aging time, you’re ready to cut off steaks from each end, trim as desired, and allow the rest to continue to age in the refrigerator.
6. If, after 21 days, you have not eaten all the meat, cut the remaining piece into steaks, wrap each steak in freezer-proof, heavy-duty plastic wrap, and freeze. The steaks will keep for several months in the freezer.
7. To clean the towels for re-use, soak the soiled towels, immediately upon removing them from the meat, in cold water overnight. Next, soak them in cold, salted water for 2-3 hours to remove any blood stains. Then launder as usual. [In olden days, butchers used to cover sides of beef with cotton "shrouds" during the aging process - this is essentially the same thing.]“
B in Bangkok — 11/26/09 @ 6:31 am
Wow, This is GREAT information, with the ability posted by RRP (Thanks) to use Food Saver machines, this I will try for sure!! In Thailand good quality Beef is either so over priced or just not available and I had pretty well given up on eating beef except at very high end Restaurants. (even more expensive and many times disappointing) So I will be giving this a shot
On another note, I tried the salt method from this by you.. http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html This turned out Fantastic!! I was totally pleased!! I also used the same salt method on a pork loin roast. It was Soooo good it was like gone on 60 seconds with everyone fighting for the last bit!! ( It was a 4 Kg Loin for 4 people, 3 of them Thai’s who normally do not go for large main meat course’s )
Thanks Sooo much!! I will be back often!!!
B@Bangkok
Bob M — 11/28/09 @ 6:06 pm
Your brother need to use Poly sorin! Much better but, they don’t have the ad. budget:-)!
Organic Baby Clothes — 11/29/09 @ 3:07 pm
After all the Thanksgiving turkey, this post really made me wanna eat red meat! Wonderful post and very informative. The machine is a bit of an investment though. I try to stay away from gadgets that you buy, use once or twice and tuck away on a high high shelf… I might research and try the cheese cloth/kitchen towel method though.
RRP — 11/29/09 @ 7:09 pm
In answer to Organic Baby Clothes I understand your reluctance but if you step back and look at the big picture you’ll find that buying large sub-primals of meat actually saves money let alone aging them yourself vs. buying aged meat. Once you have tasted aged beef you’ll be hooked! Like-wise I have shown how to use a Food Saver with Drybags. Whether you buy a Sinbo brand or a Food Saver brand those sealers are also a cost saving machine worth their investment in any serious kitchen. They are not some device that is seldom used! I for one know I will never be without one.
Chau Tran — 12/17/09 @ 2:58 am
Steamy Kitchen, Thk you for a good review. Please answer this question since you have dry age beef using the drybags and the traditional method. How much waste does the traditional method create? It seems like the advantage of the drybags is that you only have a 10% or so waste of meat. While I haven’t age beef the traditional way, I’ve read you can have up to a 40% waste. That’s $ down into the garbage right there. The cost of the drybags alone far outweigh the cost of throwing good beef away.
Ppl dry age beef b/c they can afford to and don’t want to spend upwards of $50 a steak at the fancy steakhouses (Morton’s, Ruth Chris, etc). The cost of dry aging at home with the drybags per steak is significantly less than paying top dollar for a good steak.
BTW, the method of putting a foodsaver bag sleeve inside a dry bag will only work if the sleeve is the same width as the drybag. The heating element of the foodsaver is too hot for the drybags unless you find a way to thicken the drybag.
I have successfully used a deni magic vac vantage food sealer (a channel vac sealer similar to the food saver) and pulled an excellent vacuum seal with the drybags. I’m emailing the sellers of drybags to see if they are interested in repeating my methods.
RRP — 12/27/09 @ 6:55 pm
Chau Tran,
I have found my sub primals release 18% of their weigh via moisture loss when I use Drybags. I don’t call that waste and since I actually prefer to leave the dark brown meat layer on and not trim it then I don’t feel I have waste at all. That dark layer is tasty and I find it is just part of the tasty bark I get when I sear. Granted I will trim away any heavy aged fat, but I would have done that whether aged or not – so again I don’t see it as waste. I recently sealed a prime rib in a Drybag again using my method of a Food Saver bag sleeve inserted inside the Drybag and then sealed with a Food Saver. Works for me!
RRP
Joseph Dang — 12/29/09 @ 8:46 pm
Chau Tran,
keep in mind many of the big steakhouses do not dry age their steaks. Ruth’s Chris, Mastros, I know for sure wet age their steaks.
Thea replied: — January 29th, 2010 @ 2:08 am
Ah… but Joseph, the BEST steak houses do go to the trouble to dry age. Lobels, Smith and Wollensky, Manny’s. It is easier to NOT age authentically. As Jaden has pointed out again and again, good beef takes a little effort–finding the artisanal source, salting or dry aging. Once you try them side-by-side with a so-called “wet aged” steak, you won’t go back.
–Thea
The drybags worked! « the thoughts of a meat geek — 1/3/10 @ 12:28 am
[...] start-to-finish process was nicely described in this blog post from steamykitchen.com (@steamykitchen on Twitter). I purchased some bags and was able to seal [...]
Scott Mark — 2/9/10 @ 10:23 pm
How might the dry-aging technique meld with the gucci-salting technique?
I’ve got Drybags coming in the mail, and I’ve got access to a respectable amount of salt. Has anyone got advice on doing the salt draw after dry-aging (and trimming) the meat?
-Scott
SteamyKitchen replied: — February 11th, 2010 @ 1:09 am
sorry I missed this email! I dry age and then salt using my method. you won’t get as much moisture out (b/c it’s been dry aged) but it definitely affects flavor! nicely salted steak throughout.
RRP — 2/13/10 @ 7:53 pm
Here is a prime rib from a sub primal that I had aged in a Drybag for 35 days. While it did in fact lose 19% of its moisture weight it was still juicy inside – I believe you can even see that glisten in this picture. As for salt I did hit the exterior with kosher salt in a shaker. I hot tubbed the meat for 1 hour to an internal temp of 85° before putting it on a 625° fire in my ceramic cooker called a Big Green Egg for a total of only 3 minutes for sake of the sear. This was extremely delicious and my next goal will be a 45 day aging.
Photos:
http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=821113&catid=1
RRP — 2/13/10 @ 8:02 pm
Slight correction here – I first placed the meat in my grill at a dome temperature of 300° and after it went from 85° to 125° internal then I removed it to rest while upping the dome temperature to 625° for that 3 minute sear.
Mary White — 2/21/10 @ 5:40 pm
Can aging food especially meat in plastic cause cancer?
"C~W" replied: — March 15th, 2010 @ 7:49 pm
Mary…this isn’t plastic and should not be confused with Poly… The bagging material is a quasi porous material, developed especially for drybag meat processing. Go for it if your so inclined.. Just my opinion.
Dry Bag Steak | Lip Smacking BBQ — 3/6/10 @ 12:00 am
[...] Found this great overview of the Dry Bag [...]
"C~W" — 3/15/10 @ 7:43 pm
A few tips for the drybag users. I developed a new wrinkle in closing the bags and preventing the bags from being sucked up into the snorkle tube.
First.. I used two toothpicks gently inserted into the snorkle tube to assist in inserting the bag to the snorkle. These worked perfectly in keeping bags open and the bags were sucked tight to the meat.
Next, I used jumbo 2″ size paper clips, unbent and reformed into desirable shapes to fit into the snorkle with two tips about 1/8 to 1/4″ long. The outside shaped like a arrow head.. And/or other similar shapes. Use your imagination.
I will suggest that you not try to drybag steaks less than 1.75 to 2″ thick. And if you do individual steaks, to not go longer than 7 to 10 days. Otherwise you get a very hard crusting and a lot of wasted meats.
Also, use the recommended VS-280 sealer and save a huge amount of headaches. The long term investment is worth it.
I just finished cut two loins.. and ribeye and a NYstrip from the drybag process ending in 18 to 20 days. I used the two toothpicks on these bags.
If you try the silver metal jumbo paper clips idea, you don’t need to make but a short diagonal pre seal on the bag ends. Thats a pain in the derriere.
The reason for the diagonals is only for the large bags as the ends of the sealer wires will burn a hole. When you do a small diagonal, you allow room for the full seal at the end process. This will make your sealing much, much easier to insert your snorkle and the wire/toothpick extendors.
Good luck.. if you need pictures e.mail me at bbq-dude@mchsi.com
RRP replied: — March 15th, 2010 @ 9:00 pm
C~W,
Great points and as always you are the problem solver! May I add my 2 cent viewpoint having to do with your suggestion of just aging separate steaks vs. full sub-primals? Until people get accustomed to seeing the dark flesh of dry aged beef – even for a short 8 to 10 days they will have a tendency to say “oooh” when they turn up their nose and proceed to trim it back to red. When they do that then they need to answer the question of “why did you bother aging the meat, only to have cut it off?” I trim off any excessive hard, aged fat, but only an extremely thin layer of the crustiest (if there is such a word) of the exposed beef flesh. I’ve learned that is where the taste is and besides when the steak has been seared that dark brown is part of the delicious bark.
"C~W" replied: — March 15th, 2010 @ 9:46 pm
I agree RRP… I never trimmed off the flat part of the steaks, only the edges. I had overkill on my 20 oz. T-bone cure, as well as two smaller thin ribeyes. Two NY strips last night were delicious, non trimmed and tender, very juicy, very tasty. Gotta love em. Now I am hooked.
I cut the dryaged Ribeye, and NYStrip loins today and bagged and sealed in Foodsaver bags. Now in the freezer. Looking forward to some super duper steak.
Cheers..
"C~W" — 3/15/10 @ 7:47 pm
BTW… I didn’t mention this. The clip extenders and/or the toothpicks remain inside the bag with the meat when the sealing is finished. You can rewash the metal clip extenders and use them over and over again. You only need about 2 to 6 depending on how much your going to seal up.
Good luck again.. These are great eats.
“C~W”
bill — 3/17/10 @ 7:53 pm
Have been dry-aging strip loins for several years.
The use of a drybag has brought about my first failure.
Though the drybag sealed well (had to be peeled from the strip loin) the meat took on an very unpleasant taste. Had to throw out about a $70.00 extremely beautiful Certified Angus short loin.
The dogs are eating at it, but even the dogs are not all that enthused about this chunk of meat.
Bought 6 Drybags, got 5 drybags left I will not use, anybody want a bargain?
Drybags + a ruined strip loin = over $100.00 down the hole..plus 4 weeks wasted.
My uneducated opinion, if the Drybag will let the water readily evaporate — what is to stop something not so benign from coming in the opposite direction?
Please remember this wasn’t my first dry-aging load of turnips.
My usual method is to “paint” most of the lean portions with approx 1/8 inch of freshly rendered beef tallow.
With the Drybag I had hoped to eliminate having to remove the tallow covering and dispose of it, clean up, a little inconvenient and slightly messy procedure, but I never had a dry-aging failure with my “paint” method either.
RRP replied: — March 18th, 2010 @ 12:57 pm
Bill,
I’m active on a couple boards where we discuss Drybag results on a regular basis. Yours is the first bad report I’ve ever heard. I am highly suspect that your coating of rendered beef tallow was at fault, not the Drybag. You have introduced bacteria that was allowed to turn rancid inside the sealed bag. The fact you have used this method successfully before without the Drybag doesn’t surprise me since air could readily get to it.
C~W,
My longest and best beef yet was a prime rib primal I aged for 35 days. My next one will be 45 days. As for other experiences I have found 21 days is best for NY strip primals and 28 days for thicker rib eye primals.
"C~W" — 3/18/10 @ 11:42 am
Bill, what was your refrigeration method on THIS one, and time and temperatures? I feel I have missed something here. My personal feeling is that if one over dry’s the meat with the drybags, you may have bad effects.
I believe I will stop at 3 weeks maximum, and perhaps earlier in the drying process.
My refrigerator ran at 34 degrees with humidity of 25 to 30 percent.
The drybagged meat was on wire drying racks with good air circulation.
Regards..
“C~W”
Thea — 3/19/10 @ 1:51 pm
First of all, as owner of DrybagSteak, I am sorry to hear this customer is unhappy with the results of his DrybagSteak aging process. We hope he knows we appreciate his feedback and would like to respond to his concerns directly.
Second, his description of unpleasant taste after aging in DrybagSteak material is unique and surprising. In the two scientific studies with professional taste panels, there was no mention of off flavors resulting from aging in DrybagSteak material. In all restaurant tests, there has been no mention of unpleasant flavors. If anything, the LACK of the funky, oaky, musty flavors one gets with traditional open air aging has been the only consistent comment regarding unsatisfactory results in flavor.
Regarding aging time, the website only mentions aging times as standard to common practice. In fact, DrybagSteak has been used with aging at all of the generally accepted lengths of time with equal or better results to traditional air aging in controlled studied. Whether 14-, 21- or 28-day aging periods, DrybagSteak aged beef has produce excellent results, with most steak house chefs preferring the 21- to 28-day aged flavors.
One last note on the scientific side, DrybagSteak material is not a plastic bag, and defies many of our assumptions about plastic. It will allow a vacuum to be pulled, but is highly oxygen permeable. It will not “leak” moisture, but will release it from the inside area of greater moisture to the outside area of lesser moisture as a membrane would allow for osmosis. The microbacterial studies done by Kansas State University and twice published in Meat Science have shown that the material does not create a dangerous anaerobic environment on the surface of the meat inside the material. Strangely enough, the microbacterial activity on the surface of a traditionally open air aged piece of meat has greater diversity and potential for danger–particularly in an aging environment that lacks ultraviolet lighting to keep down mold growth. In other words, if you want to dry age “clean” and safely in any refrigerator or cooler, excellent air flow and the application of DrybagSteak material is the combination most likely to give you excellent results.
Please let us at DrybagSteak know if your results are otherwise.
"C~W" — 3/19/10 @ 11:17 pm
Nicely done Thea, nicely done. Concise and factual.
I had my first ribeye this evening from my first ribeye loin, drybagged for approximately 20 days. It was the most delicious ribeye I have eaten, and I am looking forward to the next, and the next, and more after that. Wow.
Thanks for making both the snorkle vacuum and the bags available.
“C~W”
Stephanie Manley — 3/27/10 @ 12:07 pm
Wow what a fabulous and informative post. I didn’t even know you could age steaks yourself. I look forward to giving this a try and making my steaks taste like they came from a high end steakhouse.
Barclay Terhune — 5/23/10 @ 9:22 pm
I used the heavy salting technique with some trepidation…it works. Until about 8 months ago my steaks where consistently lousy. Other than salt I do the following: let steaks get to room temperature, heat an iron skillet to a very high temperature, put olive oil and pepper on steak, sear the steaK on each side (ABT 4 MINUTES), put on a cookie cooling rack and let rest for 15 minutes. Have the oven heated to 425 put the steaks back into the iron skillet, cook in oven for 12 minutes, take out and let rest 10-15 minutes…I usually last 5-8 minutes. Really turns out well.
Finnegans Wake — 6/10/10 @ 4:15 pm
Someone earlier on mentioned ordering grass-fed beef. I’ve been buying grass-fed from local producers for a number of years, but always just a few cuts at a time. This month, some friends and I are splitting an entire cow (!).
Without getting on my grass-fed beef soapbox, let me just say that you can order in bulk and get great savings, not to mention that a lot of tradional butchers dry-age their beef anyway. Best of all worlds, IMO.
michael smith — 6/21/10 @ 12:57 pm
I didn’t read this whole blog but a comment on the vacuum pumps. Zip lock, maybe others too, have started making a manual hand pump you may want to look at. It doesn’t have a nozzle but a gasket that encompasses the seal on their vacuum bags. It would be easy to adapt to a nozzle. Mickey
RRP — 6/30/10 @ 6:14 pm
For those interested in the DrybagSteak product they now have a forum where you can read and ask questions of other users. Here is the link:
http://www.drybagsteak.com/forum