Dry Aged Beef - What’s All The Hype About?

Dry ageing meat is a hot topic at the moment so I’m here to find out whether or not it’s worth dry ageing at home. Is the hype worth all the effort? Let’s find out.

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Director, Chef and Host: Andy
Videographer, Editor: Mitch Henderson
Production Manager: Dazz Braeckmans
Editor: Caleb Dawkins

[smartypants]

Love Andy:s style. In the world of online chefs he's a breath of fresh air
No ego, attitude, stupid jokes, pointless cooking 'challenges' etc...
Seems like a top bloke and his delivery is always clear and engaging

Thanks for the videos mate👍

[mixitube]

I have never come across a clear and more encouraging home dry aging video like this. I love how you gave contrast begining with the more professional dry aging set up. I feel it's doable now. Saved this video to watch again and again. I'm definitely trying dry aging beef at home. Thank you Andy and your wonderful team.❤

[mckidney]

Quick note, new research shows that at that humidity temps should be 0-3. 3 and above already show bacterial growth.

[My_mid-victorian_crisis]

Between the 1920s and mid-40s, my family owned ranches and feeder lots in the US. It wasn't until the YouTube dry age explosion, that I understood some of my mother's stories. They would hang a side of beef in a shady North and East corner outside, in the winter. They would carve off a chunk, cut off the pellicle, and serve it to the hands. It makes much more sense now.

[spydermag]

My grandfather raised black angus rancher. Every 6 to 9 months we would get half of the cow. They would hang the cow for 30 days before breaking down for steaks and other cuts. It was the best beef I had.

I have used the dry aging bags that you use with a vacuum sealer and the results were amazing. I was able to snag a 4 bone prime rib that was 50% after Christmas.

[AxlMihai]

I have no experience dry aging yet, but I will surely try soon! I love the content, feels like listening to father talking about what he loves. Thanks, Chef and Not-So-Basic Mitch!

[brianpine]

I have an ink bird that controls temperature and humidity in my wine fridge dry curing cabinet. I also put in a small cool mist humidifier. Takes up some room, but works well curing my sausage and snack stick type sausage. Excellent videos, thanking for your interesting videos.

[carlosleon]

Cigar smokers use humidity systems for humidors that tend to keep humidity near 70%, you put distilled water in those, check boveda, cigar oasis, vigilant inc sentry... like so Andy gets this message :)

[kazwilson]

Did love Chef & Mitch's reaction to the grade 9 and how they got momentarily carried away by the yumminess factor and went off script 🤣

[panzer-head]

I learned more about steak in this 16 minute clip than the hours of cooking shows on U.S. TV. Thank you!

[nath]

Hey Andy, we used a small humidifier placed in the bottom of the fridge. We then used a inkbird humidity controller that automatically switches the humidifier between your set parameters. Love the vids mate!

[adambarron]

Working with salami, so not a 1 to 1, the humidity really matters at the start. If the humidity is too low at the beginning, a thick pelicle forms before any moisture loss. Essentially, you get a wet, sealed bacterial growth chamber.
Your high initial humidity to a drier finish probably cost you some volume, but a slightly more intense flavor.

For a home dry age without a designated fridge, try Umai dry age bags. Seal the meat in the bag, place on a wire rack in your fridge, and wait until days aged is reached. So long as you don't bury the meat, you can use your fridge as normal.
I used the bags for both strip loin and brisket at 38 days with no problem. Bags run about $30 for a 3 pack.

[mckidney]

As for the fridge and moisture - there is a trap in every fridge at the back wall - lower temperatures means less possible moisture. As temperature increases it does not just immediately go back.
Fan would help, except it would require much stronger pressure than a high flow desk fan. The solution is to isolate the back wall that contains the cooling unit - now that is dangerous with bar fridge - walls and glass are poor insulation and increasing the internal one can only be done in the margin before reaching the weakest external on (glass here).

So for tinkering:
1) Get a power meter - you need to be be checking for a increase in average cost. If you isolate too much, system will just overcompensate.
2) Household fridge can barely sustain 3C, so you need to be tracking the temperature as best as you can.
3) Food safe insulation.

As for your glass of water, it needs agitation to create mist. Simple piezoelectric speaker is used in cheap humidifiers and can be driver by an old MP3 player. I bet recording a PID cycle as a song and leaving it on loop has not been done on youtube :) But I have seen sterilized aquarium fountains for those looking at it...

However AS water in the system increases, it needs to be removed as well - you can use chemical traps (what is inside those food packets). Easy to sanitize and reuse in the oven.
Otherwise ice will form decreasing the fridge capabilities. Chemical traps also generate heat so potential risk when using weak fridge.

The only good solution is to increase the efficiency of the system: Better fans, better insulation and more and more air.
The perfect ratio is 3000x times the air to the meat and why it was done outside in the past. Without fans it would require 14(edit) meters of fridge for each 1 meter of meat :)
But on the positive note it means by doing only 1 piece, you are already doing 2 times better. :)

[markust]

I like the interaction and friendship of Mitch and Andy. good mates for sure.

[andreasleventis]

I dry age all the time, and I use the Umi dry bags, but you need a vacuum sealer. If you do it this way, you should also put a salt block in your fridge. Love you videos, mate and Kia Ora from NZ 💪🏾

[crazyg]

love this!
The refrigeration process removes moisture from the air in the fridge, that's just a fundamental part of the process. This is most easily seen when you have exposed meat in a freezer. it 'burns' (drys out) very quickly.
It would be worth trying a bowl of water at the bottom of the fridge, to try and maintain the balance. That water will definitely evaporate because of the refrigeration, but you can easily keep an eye on it and top us as required. Worth a try, I reckon!

[Keef.Guessin]

as a home cook enthusiast got to say I love all you FB and Insat vids, thanks.

[TimFalk]

Absolutely right! It's definitely worth it for steak lovers. I bought a small dry ager for it a couple of years ago, which measures just 90 x 40 cm.
It fits 8-10 kg of beef loin. An aging time of approx. 60-65 days has proved to be ideal for me. I mainly use the back of a heifer for maturing. I get this freshly slaughtered from my butcher. I can choose the cut on site, as I am allowed to enter the cutting room. The meat then costs me a quarter to a third of the matured meat available in the shop, which has only been aged for 21 days. At the end of the aging process, I have 6-7 T-bone and porterhouse steaks weighing 700 to 900 g each. The flavour and tenderness are second to none. Usually prepared in the Beefer and served with chimichurri. An absolute highlight for my family and me...! 😋

[trumanhw]

Good point you made that it got progressively drier
... obviously, as the meat dried the humidity drops.
Very very informative video, thank you!

[BlackOni]

Firstly, great video, thanks for making it! I had three questions-

1: Why do you only season it with salt for the taste taste?
2: Why don't you season before? I tend to find the seasoning penetrates the meat much deeper if I season a day before, or even an hour before cooking.
3: What's the benefit to cutting it at an angle? I've learned that cutting against the grain of the meat helps each bite be a more pleasant chew, does the angle take that a step further?