Comments on: Review: How to Dry Age Steaks with Drybag

By: "C~W"

"C~W" — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:17:12 +0000

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”

By: Thea

Thea — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:51:18 +0000

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.

By: RRP

RRP — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:57:03 +0000

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.

By: "C~W"

"C~W" — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:42:38 +0000

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”

By: bill

bill — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:53:39 +0000

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.