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Firemonkey

Aged Strip Loin Steaks

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I decided that I was long overdue for some good, aged steaks. The only place i can buy a nice dry aged steak locally is Whole foods, but I just could not bring myself to pay about $25/lb for them. So I did what any low-budget afficianado would do...I headed for the local warehouse club to buy the packer cut strip loin. It went in my beer fridge, which is ALWAYS set to the coldest temp, and ALWAYS holds temps at about 33-34 degrees. It also runs plenty, which will create good air circulation in there. I moved out some of the non-essentials (Soda, Gatorade, etc) and moved all the beer to one half of the fridge. The meat went into the fridge on a rack, over a baking sheet, on the top shelf and sat there for 15 days. Then I pulled it out, carefully trimmed all the outer crust away, and cut it into 8 mighty fine 1.75 inch steaks. I grilled up a couple of them for dinner, and they were simply outstanding. ANY steak you cook yourself, the way that you like them, on your KK will blow away even high end steakhouses. But when you get a good one, its magical. Dry aging pushes the scale way over toward the latter experience. Behold: fetch?id=68354 After trim: fetch?id=68355 1 pound 10 OZ of trimmings... fetch?id=68356 Steaks, in the inside fridge: fetch?id=68357fetch?id=68358fetch?id=68359fetch?id=68360fetch?id=68361

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Re: Aged Strip Loin Steaks

Any ideas except the dog for the cuttings?

I have been thinking about this....

add it to ground beef for burgers? I have tasted it from my 21-28 day experiments and it has a rich flavor...just a tad chewy

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Re: Aged Strip Loin Steaks

I did not weigh in my tests, but the weight loss was profound.....

It makes the commercial prices seem way more palatable then before I did it at home.

I went both 21 and 28 days. I wonder if there is a plateau to the weight loss?

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Re: Aged Strip Loin Steaks

If you do this again' date=' weigh the loin before and after, even before trimming to see how much weight loss you have. That's the hidden cost factor, along with the trimming![/quote']

Yeah, I would have liked to do that, but I actually cut off a couple steaks from each end I when opened the COV to have for dinner that night. My kitchen scale doesn't go high enough to weigh the whole thing, so I will have to use the packaged price/weight as a beginning, then I can weigh the trimmings, and final product to come up with the moisture loss.

Whatever the loss, the whole loin was roughly $55 or $60. I got 8 trimmed and aged steaks, plus 4 more (even bigger than the pictured ones) that werent aged - its a definite bargain to do it yourself if you have the fridge real estate. Plus you get the boasting rights when your friends open the fridge to grab a beer and start drooling :D

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Re: Aged Strip Loin Steaks

Any ideas except the dog for the cuttings?

I have been thinking about this....

add it to ground beef for burgers? I have tasted it from my 21-28 day experiments and it has a rich flavor...just a tad chewy

I have done a rib roast for 7 days, and cooked it without trimming. I was not a fan of the flavor the outer layer had. It was hard to describe, but I didn't like it. Almost sort of metallic tasting.

Dave - no mold, thankfully. If any of my family saw any mold whatsoever on that chunk of meat, I would have to eat it all myself! Wait....i have an idea.... :D

I am actually glad there was no mold growth, I would be a bit squeamish about which molds were acceptable and which were not, and how far I would have had to trim to make sure i removed any trace.

I noticed that the color stayed more burgundy than mahogany. Is the color a product of the time and temp (was 34 too cold?) or a product of the cut?

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Re: Aged Strip Loin Steaks

I did not weigh in my tests, but the weight loss was profound.....

It makes the commercial prices seem way more palatable then before I did it at home.

I went both 21 and 28 days. I wonder if there is a plateau to the weight loss?

I read an executive summary produced by the beef council that cited all sorts of studies. Everything you ever wondered about the process. Here is an excerpt about shrinkage:

Ahnström et al. (2006) conducted a novel study to see if using a vacuum bag that is highly permeable to water vapor (8000 g/15 ?/m2/24 h at 38°C and 50% relative humidity) would allow products to age with moisture loss somewhat lessened compared to the loss from normal dry aging. In their study, Certified Angus Beef® brand striploins were obtained and divided into four treatments: dry-aged for 14 days (Dry 14), dry-aged for 21 days (Dry 21), aged in bag (refers to the highly moisture-permeable bag) for 14 days (Bag 14), and aged in bag for 21 days (Bag 21). There were no differences in weight loss in the striploins between the Dry 14 (6.5%) and Bag 14 (6.3%). However, striploins from the Dry 21 treatment had significantly greater weight loss than the striploins from the Bag 21 treatment (10.2% versus 8.8%, respectively). Trim loss was similar for striploins from the Dry 14, Bag 14, and Bag 21 treatments (15.0%, 15.3%, and 15.6%, respectively). However, it was significantly higher (17.9%) for the Dry 21 treatment. Sensory traits and shear force did not differ among the four treatments, which means that the use of this highly moisture-permeable bag may allow an alternative aging method to the normal, unprotected dry aging process.

The full document is here:

http://beefresearch.org/CMDocs/BeefRese ... 20Beef.pdf

From the research, it sounds like there is some merit to the bags insofar as the finished product at longer intervals, but for me, the cost of the bags themselves, and a new vac sealer (since they wont work with a foodsaver) are outweighing the benefits.

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Re: Aged Strip Loin Steaks

My dogs will eat a dead old rotten deer carcass they drag up from the canyon, and they seem none the worse for it. If the trimmings don't seem rotten or putrid, I would braise them in some water or broth and serve 'em up on top of the dog's chow.

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Re: Aged Strip Loin Steaks

If you do this again' date=' weigh the loin before and after, even before trimming to see how much weight loss you have. That's the hidden cost factor, along with the trimming![/quote']

Awhile back I dry aged a bone-in 21 lb. rib roast wrapped in 3 layers of very fine cheese cloth for 12 days. The meat lost 1 pound during the aging. I then trimmed the roast. Alas, I did not weigh the trimmings, but it approximated another pound.

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Re: Aged Strip Loin Steaks

The mold that grows on the meat is rendered harmless when you cut it off, down to good tissue that's not dried. remember the aging process is nothing more than controlled decomposition. The deep burgundy color is a direct result of the concentration of protein and evaporation(kind of) of moisture and fat.34 is not too cold,my cooler is set at 32-34 and has a pretty high relative humidity, I've seen some mold growing that resembled fuzzy fur at times,and had an aroma not unlike finely aged prosciutto(or old socks as my Polish butcher puts it). That's when I pull bring it out to the display case, after a trip to the meat barber!

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