How long should you dry age your beef?

welcome to the two guys in the cold Channel today we have a bonus strip loin some dry aging steak wraps from the sausage maker and we're gonna be answering the question how long should you dry aid your beef so with that question in mind we need to take something into consideration dry aged beef delivers flavors that are very subjective depending on how long it's dried for so the real answer to this question lies in personal preference but there is one thing that is incredibly important for you to know that I discovered through these experiments when you dry aged beef at home in your refrigerator and if you stick around to the very end I will reveal that along with my recommendations on how long you should dry at your beef that will deliver amazing results every time we're using the sausage-makers dry aging steak wraps to dry aged beef at home in our refrigerator because it is the easiest hands-down best way to dry aged meat at home not a lot of fuss and if you want to see a video about that click that link in the top right hand corner so we're gonna put that in our fridge and here's now we're gonna roll this experiment out I'm gonna dry aged that strip loin for a hundred and fifty days and then we're gonna cut steaks off at day 30 45 60 100 125 and then at 150 we're gonna cook those steaks up all at the same time and then I'm gonna let you know the differences between each one of them 30 days have passed it's time to cut our first steak off and this is what that's gonna look like we're starting to get a nice deeper red it doesn't smell too much like dry aging but the pellicle is definitely formed quite nicely and we're gonna go ahead and cut that off now I have had some people ask can you remove that plant-based material without having to cut it off absolutely run it under some water and it comes off like gelatin so if you have plans for the pellicle you can easily remove that plant-based wrap and then use the pellicle for whatever you want so that's what our 30-day steak is gonna look like and here's why I love these wraps so much is because they're super versatile right here you're gonna watch me cut a little piece of that dry aged wrap off and use it like a band-aid to reseal that dry aged meat so that I could put it back in the fridge this also works great to reseal salami while it's hanging in your drying chamber but you can use this to make pancetta Brucella you name it I love the size of the the rat because you can custom fit it I've done 16 pound roasts all the way down to duck breasts and other things that are too controversial for me to even mention because the internet cannot handle it and we are moving forward notice I'm starting to get a little bit of mold growth we're now at 45 days into the process we're gonna cut steak number two off and what's interesting is that at 45 days you are gonna get those striations of mold your color is gonna be a little bit darker and you're gonna start to smell that unique dry aging smell cheesy notes earthy notes and it's it's gonna be faint but it's definitely gonna start to happen at about 45 days if you dry aged in your refrigerator so we're gonna go ahead and put that back in the fridge and let me show you what this particular steak looks like notice our pellicle is gonna be a little bit thicker not by much but this is what our 45 day old dry aged steak is gonna look like and we're gonna set that to the side so at this point we're looking at 60 days now 60 days is when things start to change dramatically this is when the characteristics of your steak are gonna take on radical transformations as far as aroma flavor and texture at this point it's undeniable the cheesy notes the funkiness is really gonna start to come out the pellicle is gonna be a little bit thicker the texture is gonna slightly change and now we get into what they call extreme dry aging this is 60 days on up so currently this is 100 days of dry aging and this is territory that most people don't venture into when they dry aged meat but today that's exactly where we're going so notice the colors it's gonna be a lot richer you're gonna get start to get those rubies the pellicle is definitely getting thicker and a little more firm it's a little bit more difficult to cut into and the aromas are very specific funky is a great word to describe it in a really good way though I mean think of like a really funky aged cheese you know there's not a lot of people that go for it but those that do really love it this is what that 100 day old aged steak is gonna look like and the texture has definitely changed the aromas are strong and let's move on to the next one this one is a 125 days strong smell the texture is more firm the pellicle was more thick let's go to the last steak right here 150 days as we finish up this particular strip loin look at the darkness of it look at that pellicle it's incredibly thick as compared to let's say the 30 day yeah look the color is dramatic the aromas are dramatic the texture is dramatic and I can only imagine that the flavor is gonna be dramatic there is nothing about this that is ordinary here's what we're gonna do starting from left to right 30 all the way to 150 we're just gonna put some salt pepper put it in a vacuum sealed bag and then we're gonna sube this for a couple hours as we prepare to do a reverse sear at which point my wife is gonna join me my daughter's gonna join me we're gonna taste these steaks and I'm gonna let you know exactly what I think [Music] [Applause] [Music] the time has come to jump into these steaks let's start at 30 days dry-aged the steak was definitely more tender it didn't have a lot of overwhelming dry-aged flavor but you could definitely tell that it was enhanced in some way it tasted delicious and was very juicy at 45 days it was also tender very juicy and started to have the subtle characteristics of that dry aged meat flavor cheesy notes earthy notes but it wasn't too strong at 60 days that this is where things got interesting the dry aged flavor became definitely more noticeable but at the same time the texture was starting to change slightly it was still juicy although a little more firm let's look at the 100 day old dry aged steak now the flavor was incredible like really strong really funky but I want you to pay attention to the texture here's what I noticed and this is what's important if you want to dry aged at home anything after 60 days your flavor although is gonna get enhanced your texture is gonna start to suffer look at the texture of that meat right there and this is because the low humidity in your refrigerator is gonna continually want to draw moisture out of your steak relatively fast unlike having your steak in a high humid environment at 125 days same thing the flavor really unique really funky but it's losing its moisture and the texture starting to firm up at a hundred and fifty days notice that it's almost beginning to dry out kind of like you were making prosciutto or some sort of charcuterie although the flavor was great now don't get me wrong super funky but because of the texture it made for a very unpleasant experience at 150 days so how long should you be dry aging your beef well let me tell you this if you want a nice tender cut 21 to 30 days is absolutely perfect if you want to start to experience that dry aged flavor and not lose texture quality you want to go 45 to 50 days your steaks gonna be tender juicy it is gonna have that dry aged flavor and it's gonna be absolutely delicious like I said over 60 days you're gonna start to suffer a texture loss be sure to check out our website at - guys into cooler calm where we go into more detail about this project and that side is made possible thanks to the patrons of the channel if you like what we do and you want to support our work check out our patreon link and don't forget to subscribe like comment and share we post new videos all the time we'll see you in the next one

Channel: 2 Guys & A Cooler

Views: 29,263

Rating: 4.9584198 out of 5

Keywords: Umai Dry Bags, Dry Aging Steak Wraps, The Sausage Maker, Dry aged meats, cured meats, The perfect steak, aged beef, dry aging at home

Id: v_qXoF4D2xo

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 29 2020