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. But 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 special. They allow 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. That’s why it’s taken me so long to get this review together. Also pay attention here: 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.

First, I want to cut the hunk in half. Hey wait. My strip transformed into a ribeye somewhere down the loin.

And trim some of the fat away. Okay, A LOT of the fat away. There’s enough fat INSIDE the rib loin that I don’t need the fat that’s on the outside.

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. The sealer that you want has the special nozzle in the middle that sucks out the air. See the nozzle? 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. Don’t try to do this with other brands. 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.

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.

So, I took it out, snipped off the end and re-vacuum sealed the bag for a tight fit.

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. 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.

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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.

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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 allow air to breath through. And the Drybag bags do not work in other vacuum sealers like the Foodsaver. 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, just buy the bags.

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FINAL THOUGHTS:
I did have a little bit of trouble getting used to the nozzle 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 FlavorSeal 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 roasts, not individual steaks. And a whole roast 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 nozzle-vacuum sealer 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 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 nozzle-type 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. See his photos.

I’m a big fan of Japanese artisan sake and wanted to post an article about sake and food pairing. But I’m not the expert, so when author, instructor and publisher of one of the most comprehensive websites about Japanese sake (SakeWorld.com), John Gauntner,  offered to write a post, I practically did a back-flip! And then, to top it all off, Morgan of Vine Connections (a former client of mine) came over and brought a caseful of sake for me to try. So, I invited friends Michael, Debbie and Barry to come by and party. Our meal was non-Japanese, which was perfect because we really got a chance to experience how clean, crisp Japanese sake plays so well with other foods, especially cheese, manicotti, smoked wild boar and home made bread ~Jaden

by John Gauntner

I’ll just come right out and say it: sake holds as much potential for pairing with food as wine. It’s true. And the rules and principles are the same.

Sure, it has its limitations. Sake is subtle; it has a much smaller presence or “footprint” than wine. It’s generally more demure, more delicate. And it has a lower overall acidity and no tannins. All this limits it in some ways, but helps its pairing potential in others.

But know this: sake is NOT limited to Japanese food, nor even to Asian food. Perish the thought! Sure, sake has limitations. Food that is too strong in any facet – spicy, rich, hot – will overpower sake. But take away those obvious mismatches, and what remains in western cuisine works very well indeed with sake.

Sake and food is hardly rocket science. It works just like wine does. You want to compare and contrast. So you look for similarities or contrasts that bring out the best of both the food and the sake. If you’re lucky, you get a synergy that makes both food and drink better than they would have been alone.

Interestingly, though, traditionally in Japan sake and food have not been paired as precisely as wine and food in the west. Sure, they have always enjoyed sake with food in Japan. But sake was used to support the food, taking a supporting role. “Ryori ni jama shinai,” they say. “Sake that does not interfere with the food.” Sure; this is changing. But historically, and often today as well, this was the thinking.

So what do you look for? What do you latch on to when pairing? Lots of things. Sweetness or dryness, fruity aromas or earthy ones, flavors that can run from rice-like to herbal or nutty. Structure, volume, acidity, texture, and length of finish are valid too.

One more biggie with sake and food is umami – that elusive savoriness that some call a fifth flavor element. Without it, sake is too simple. Too much umami and it’s cloying. But matching umami in sake and food is a great pairing principle.

There are a number of situations where wine doesn’t quite work, but sake is near perfect. Vinegar-laden food is one example, including leafy green salads. Soy-tinged food is another, which is important as that important flavor element finds its way into more and more dishes. And sake asks no quarter of wine when oysters are on the table.

One thing you can’t do is pair a sake to a dish based on the label alone. That works for wine quite often; not so with sake. Why not? Flavors and aromas are not consistent enough across regions, nor across grades of sake. The label alone will not tell you enough. You have to taste it to know how to pair it.

Fortunately, it is hard to have a real mismatch with sake: even if the pairing is not perfect, you have leeway. So feel free to experiment.

See the chart for a few suggested pairing strategies, starting with either the sake profile or the food. These are just examples; the principles will take you off on your own. Try appealing pairings for yourself and discover just how food-friendly sake truly is.

Sake – Food Pairing Chart – Starting with Sake

(I’m working on getting these charts bigger and downloadable)

Sake – Food Pairing Chart – Starting with Food

More information on Japanese Sake

Japanese Sake Grades
How is Sake Made?
How to Read the Labels
How to Serve Sake
Sparkling Sake: sake2me
Sake World – John’s  website about sake
esake.com – Over 350 pages and 400 photos. A great resource!
The Sake Notebook – list of 250 recommended Japanese sake and Sake’s Hidden Stories – an ebook by John Gauntner

The world has gone bacon crazy, and unfortunately it has nothing to do with the food item actually made from pork belly. I’m talking about products sold in tubes, squeeze bottles, jars, cans and tablets, all flashing the word “Bacon!” as it’s only selling point and not an ounce of real pork in its ingredients. Apparently, that one word is so powerful, the products are still flying off the shelves!

I’ve seen “bakon” vodka (Twitter member @MarcSeattle said it tastes like “bac-os mixed with motor oil”), zero-calorie bacon flavor spray packaged in a hairspray-like bottle by celebrity chef David Burke, cardboard bacon air freshener that you can dangle from your rearview mirror and even bacon-flavored lip balm. When did pretending to staple two strips of fatty pig to lips become sexy?

I recently visited a friend who happens to be a vegetarian. Before I could even put my purse down and exchange pleasantries, she excitedly thrust a jar at me, “This is my newest obsession…bacon flavored mayonnaise…Baconnaise! Isn’t it genius!?” Though I have to admit, it’s not that bad in a sandwich. And I get the excitement, especially for those who are omnivores-turned-vegetarians but miss the whole meat flavor thing.

For me, I’d rather have the real deal. Spraying “bacon” flavoring on my eggs in the morning just seems so pathetic! And there’s no better way to enjoy steak than to slather it with a butter made of real bacon and real blue cheese!

Step-by-Step: Bacon and Blue Cheese Butter

First thing you’ve gotta do is cook your bacon and then mince it up in teeny tiny pieces. You should also crumble your blue cheese if it’s not crumbled already.

Soften your butter to room temperature — I use unsalted butter because the bacon and blue cheese are already salty. Smash, smush and mix with a fork.

Grab a large piece of parchment paper and plop down your bacon near the edge.

Now time to dust off your cigar-rolling/cigarette rolling or whatever rolling skills you have and roll the butter tight in the parchment paper, smoothing and evening out the butter so that it becomes a nice, tight, even log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Though, really, size doesn’t matter in this case. If you want a bigger butter log, go for it. But make sure you’re rolling and smoothing tight because you don’t want air bubbles or lumps.

Twist the ends tight (to compact butter even more). Refrigerate until firm, an hour should do the trick …or if you run out of time, stick it in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Ladies and gent…may I present to you umami-ness….Bacon and Blue Cheese Butter. Open that baby up and slice into 1/2-inch coins. You can use this butter on vegetables, fish, baked potatoes….ooooh….baked potatoes….

….or top a hot, just-taken-off-the-grill steak with a slab of this precious Bacon and Blue Cheese Butter.

I’m a firm believer that if you want to learn something, find a pro and ask them to teach you. Of course, you’ve got to find a nice pro who’s willing to share.

For eight years now, I wanted to learn how to make a savory breakfast-y cheese soufflé, but never really found the right person to ask. I was seeking something easy, fool-proof and a method that didn’t deal with delicately folding egg whites.

It’s breakfast, it shouldn’t be complicated and I certainly don’t do “delicate” anything early in the mornings. After all these years, I finally found my Cheese Souffle pro in Mount Dora.

We took a family trip to the very charming historic village last month and stayed at the quaint Tremain Street Cottages owned by friends Brian and Rachelle:

Oh, before I go on, don’t be fooled the town’s name, as there isn’t really a mountain at all. The town is 184 feet above sea level, and in flat Florida’s record books, that counts as a mountain.

Brian introduced us to Jim, innkeeper of the Mount Dora Historic Inn who invited us over for breakfast and cooking lesson. Eureka! Jim is a gourmet chef and lavishes his inn guests with homemade breakfast every morning.

The best part about his method is that there’s no stiff peaks, no delicate folding and Jim’s method only uses one mixing bowl. And it works, I witnessed the quick making of and the rise of the savory Three Cheese Soufflé.

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How to Make Cheese Souffle

Really, only one mixing bowl. All of it comes together so quickly and effortlessly! This foolproof method only works for savory cheese souffle – not the chocolately sweet souffle.

Basically, shredded cheese goes into the bottom of the souffle dish, eggs are cracked into a mixing bowl, beaten. Then spices are added to the mixture and beaten one more time. Pour that egg mixture into the souffle dish and bake!

After 55-60 minutes in the oven at 350F….this is what comes out:

Guys, I doubt you can find an easier method of making cheese souffle…totally easy.

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Mount Dora, Florida

If you’re in Florida, I highly recommend taking a visit to Mount Dora, we stayed for the weekend and just had one of the best mini-vacations ever.

Quiet, quaint and small-town. The downtown area is packed with fantastic eats – including some of the best sushi I’ve had in Florida at Mount Dora Sushi

Uni Shot with Quail Egg, Ponzu Sauce and Sriracha Chili Sauce:

Crusty, fresh pizzas at Pizza Amore

A dog-lovin’ town…we happened to crash the “Yappy Hour” in downtown (yes, they really do have a Yappy Hour!)

But most importantly, good karma. Rock on, Buddha…rock on.

More information on Mount Dora at What To Do In Mount Dora.

It’s week 3 of the Summer Fest! Last week we all made recipes using fruit from trees, and this week it’s all about Beans and Greens. If you haven’t yet heard about Summer Fest, it’s a four-week celebration of fresh-from-the-garden food: recipes, growing tips, even tricks for storing and preserving summer’s best with my co-hosts White on Rice, Away to Garden, Gluten-Free Girl and Matt Bites. Of course, It’s not a party without your participation! And I’ll tell you how in just a bit.

My choice in the greens category is Chinese Broccoli or Gai-Lan (guy-LAHN) my favorite Asian vegetable. Earlier this year, I grew gai-lan in our garden….and failed. The failure had nothing to do with the vegetable itself, it was just me traveling too much and giving very little garden love to poor gai-lan.

So, I’m going to give you step-by-step photo instructions on how to make this “most flavorful noodle dish in the world” recipe from Corrine Trang’s new book called Noodles Every Day.

Chinese Broccoli (Gai-Lan)

I have a modest garden, and there are some vegetables that my boys have laid claim to. One of them was regular broccoli and the other Chinese broccoli. They wanted to see how big the broccoli could get and refused to let me even touch them!

You have no idea the patience and willpower it took for me to NOT cut the broccoli! I had nightmares about this thing.

While the broccoli still tasted great, even after being plucked a bit past its prime…but unfortunately, that’s not how Chinese broccoli works. Once the Chinese broccoli stem starts shooting up, and before it begins flowering, that’s the time to pick and enjoy them.

If you wait too long and the flowers open up, the Chinese broccoli becomes bitter. You can also tell from the cut stems if the Chinese broccoli will be perfect or too old. See the bottoms of these cut stems? It’s milky-transluscent and smooth.

If the bottoms of the stem have a hard white circle in the middle (instead of smooth, milky and translucent) it will probably be past its prime and taste tough and bitter. Well, our home-grown Chinese broccoli grew VERY TALL and bloomed with small white flowers…but tasted so bitter. boo.

Photo below is store-bought Chinese Broccoli…see the beautiful stem-bottoms?

So, the lesson learned — I’m putting the kids in charge of a different vegetable this year…maybe something that grows super-fast and tall…corn?

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For this Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry recipe, you can use ANY type of noodles. Really, spaghetti noodles are fantastic in this dish. I happened to have Japanese style egg-noodles, so that’s what I used! Cook your noodles according to package directions.

While the noodles are cooking, marinate the beef slices in soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar, oyster sauce and rice wine. If you don’t have rice wine, use dry sherry or any dry white wine will do. The sugar and the oyster sauce will help the meat caramelize.

You want beautiful, carmelized meat in your stir fry?

Here’s the secret. DO NOT CROWD THE MEAT! Single layer, ladies and gents!

Once you add it to the wok or frying pan, LEAVE THE THING ALONE. Resist the temptation to shake, move it around or flip…until the first side has a chance to caramelize. Then flip.

See the nicely caramelized bits?

Once the meat finishes cooking, remove to a plate. Now it’s time for Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan).

Stir fry for a minute, scooping up the oils at the bottom of the wok all over the Chinese Broccoli. Bathe the oil over the Chinese Broccoli.

Now turn heat down, add 1/4 cup of water or browth and cover to let steam.

A couple of minutes later…test the Chinese Broccoli to see if done! A knife should pierce easily into the steam.

Now its the cooked noodles turn to take a bath in the sauce.

See it absorb all the juicy bits?

Now return the beef and broccoli to the wok and serve!!

Yum.

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How you can join Summer Fest

Summer Fest 2009 is a four-week, cross-blog celebration co-created (alphabetically listed) by A Way to Garden, Matt Armendariz of Mattbites, Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, and Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple, with guest appearances from Shauna and Daniel Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, Simmer Till Done’s Marilyn Pollack Naron, and Paige Smith Orloff of The Sister Project. And from you -that’s critical. Your contributions are desired, and needed.

Will you play along? Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? Starting today, with the subject of herbs, you can contribute in various ways, big or small. Contribute a whole post, or a comment -whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. The possibilities:

Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and some pretty great dialog starts simmering.

Or think bigger: Publish entire entire posts of your own, if you wish, and grab the juicy Summer Fest 2009 tomato badge (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites).

Summer Fest 2009 Schedule:

• Tuesday, July 28: HERBS. Any and all.

• Tuesday, August 4: FRUITS FROM TREES (also known as stone fruits, but we won’t scream if you toss in a berry or another fruit, promise).

• Tuesday, August 11: BEANS-AND-GREENS WEEK (either or both, your choice).

• Tuesday, August 18: TOMATO WEEK. How do you like them love apples?

What did my co-hosts make for the Summer Fest Party?

Diane and Todd make a salad with the TOPS of radishes, beets and carrots!

A beautiful Kale Frittata from Margaret of Away to Garden

Shauna joins us this week with her very first home=grown salad ever!

Simply gorgeous – Matt Armendariz shares one of his top 5 fav recipes of all time.