How To Butter Age Steak 60 Day Butter Aged Ribeye Steak
Butter makes food better… everyone knows that… but does everyone know aging meet in butter beats out the flavor of the dry aging process? We didn’t either until we teamed up with our friends at The Local Butcher and Marketwho helped us create our own Butter Aged Steak to bring home to compare to Dry Aged and No Aged beef.Where this may take 60 days to make, you can certainly create this in your refrigerator at home, and after two months have a delicious reward.
Ingredients:
- 6 Blocks Salted Butter, Room Temperature
- Rosmary
- HJF Apron:
Instructions:
Proper Preparation & Cooking Of Dry Aged Meat:
Your set up is a huge part of the dry age process, but so is knowing how to treat the product when its ready to eat. There are important two factors you need to consider when approaching the preparation and cooking stage: palatibility and food safety.
PALATABILITY basically refers to how enjoyable it is to eat, both in terms of flavor and texture. Assuming all your aging parameters were correct and theres no spoilage, the only hindrance to perfect palatability is going to be the rind, or hard outer shell that forms during aging. The rind does not soften during the cooking process and so needs to be removed. Dont be stingy with your trimming here theres no point in aging steak only to have a poor eating experience by leaving rind on there.
When trimming back your rind, you may notice that there are parts of the muscle itself that have turned a brown shade. In most cases, this is nothing but oxidization of the myoglobin, a harmless color change. As long as you feel the darker areas and they seem to be the same consistency they will be fine to eat, despite not being appealing in color. Theres always a chance that the discoloration is not simply part of the myoglobin cycle, but a more concerning issue like meat that was close to an air pocket or seam which held mold. You should be able to make a judgement call here using smell and touch, but if in doubt, trim it away. Food poisoning is not fun, FYI.
AND SO TO SUMMARIZE
What Is The Best Way To Cook Dry Aged Steak
The magic of the dry ageing process is all in the preparation the actual cooking is largely the same as cooking a standard steak.
This means starting slow to cook the meat to your desired finish, then searing on each side for a perfect crunchy crust. Our chefs have this process down to a fine art, bringing out the very best in every cut for that flawless finish.
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What Is Dry Aged Steak
Dry aged steak refers to a method of preparing a cut of beef before it is cooked. As the name suggests, this involves ageing it.
Dry ageing is not the same as leaving a piece of steak in your fridge at home in order to age. It uses specialised equipment that allows chefs to control the temperature and humidity around the meat, and avoid unwelcome bacteria growing on it.
Different chefs will dry age steak for different lengths of time, but it is usually more than a month at minimum. When done right, dry ageing results in spectacularly tender, flavourful steak unlike any youve ever tried.
With Careful Attention And Patience It’s Possible To Dry Age Beef At Home For Steaks With Unparalleled Flavor And Tenderness
Dry-aged beef in a cast iron skillet. Damn, that looks good. This is the only method I know of that’ll get you that steakhouse-quality charring without the benefit of a grill or an 1,800°F broiler.
Sometimes I get emails from readers that say something along the lines of “You said in article X one thing, then, a couple years later, in article Y, you said almost the complete opposite. What gives? Don’t you believe in science, and doesn’t science deal in facts?”
There’s only one kind of science that isn’t open to contradicting itself: the bad kind. Science needs to be open to accepting and considering contradictory evidence and redefining “facts,” by definition. Heck, if new theories weren’t allowed to be formed and conclusions debunked with further experimentation, we’d still believe in crazy things like spontaneous generation, static universes, or even that searing meat seals in juices. And then where would we be today?
I bring this up because, a few weeks back, I went through great pains to test and explain precisely why you cannot dry-age meat at home, no way, nohow. Today, I’m going to explain to you exactly how you can dry-age at home, how relatively simple it is, and how it can vastly improve the eating quality of your steaks and roasts until they are better than what you can buy at even the best gourmet supermarket.*
*And, unlike many sources that claim similar results, I actually have the blind taste tests to prove it!
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A Few Things To Remember
Dry ageing beef using professional equipment will deliver a different result to your home setup, so dont expect your efforts to match that of your favourite steak house or butcher just yet.
Also be wary of meat spoilage. If you think your efforts have failed and the meat spoiled instead of aged, dont push it further.
How Does Meat & Wine Co Dry Age Steak Differently
The difference in our dry aged steak is our exclusive butter ageing method.
Traditionally, dry ageing allows a natural crust to build up on the cut of beef. This is an essential part of the ageing process, but it does increase waste as it has to be cut away prior to serving.
While we allow some time for a crust to build up, we then add a layer of butter and animal fat, which mimics the effect of the crust, without the cost or wastage of meat. It also allows us to add extra flavour to each batch, which we rotate regularly for new butter-infused flavours each time you visit.
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How Long Should You Age Meat For
Heres where the art of dry aging becomes a rabbit hole Lets chat for a moment about tenderness. Yes, dry aging can help tenderness, but its mainly undertaken to intensify flavor. After about 28 days of aging, the meat is about as tender as its going to become. Technically speaking, for you sticklers, it has the capacity to continue to tenderize, but its practically negligible beyond this point. What you are looking at now is intensity of flavor, and nutty notes from the mold and controlled decomposition .
Short answer the length of time you leave meat to age depends on numerous factors. What cut are you using? What kind of mold do you have in your fridge? Is it more intense than other strains? How much of that mold is in there? And most importantly: what is your personal preference?
Generally, it takes at least 30 days before you can start to taste any signature dry aged flavors. My personal preference is for something between 60-80 days. That may change as I get to know my own set up better . After a certain point, dry aged steak turns from a delight to a delicacy. Meaning the more funky it gets, the fewer people it will appeal to. Kind of like a light blue cheese versus a gorgonzola. One is much mustier than the other, and some palates find that too overwhelming.
Look At Any Steakhouse Menu And Dry
If youve heard the term dry-aged beef before, you probably associate it with a high price tag on a steakhouse menu. Dry-aged steaks are always pricier than the rest of the steaks, so it stands to reason they must taste better, right? Unfortunately, its not as cut and dry as that dry-aged steaks taste different, but whether theyre worth the hefty price tag is up to your taste buds.
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Here are my tips and tricks I promise though its so easy! And that melted garlic butter on top is to die for!!!!
Perfecting that steak can be a bit tricky.
Sometimes that sear is just perfect but the inside is nowhere to be cooked. So by the time the inside is cooked, your crusty exterior is basically, well, dead at this point.
So here it is that juicy, crisp steak cooked just the way you want it, topped with a garlic compound butter that is off. the. hook.
Really.
You can put that butter on anything and everything dinner rolls, toast, chicken or seafood. You name it. You can also prep the butter ahead of time and freeze as needed.
I mean, you never know if theres going to be a butter shortage so lets just play it on the safe side.
I’ve Got Some More Questions
What about wet-aging? What is it, and does it work?
Wet aging is simple: Put your beef in a Cryovac bag, and let it sit on the shelf for a few weeks. Tell your customers that it’s aged sell it at a premium.
The problem is that wet-aging is nothing like dry-aging.
For starters, there is no oxidation of fat in wet aging, which means that there is no development of funky flavors. A minimal amount of flavor change will occur through enzymatic reactions, but they are, well, minimal. Additionally, wet-aging prevents the drainage of excess serum and meat juices. Tasters often report that wet-aged meat tastes “sour” or “serum-y.”
Wet-aging can offer the same tenderizing and moisture-retaining benefits as dry-aging, but that’s about it. In reality, wet-aging is a product of laziness and money-grubbing. It’s easy to let that Cryovacked bag of beef from the distributor sit around for a week before the bag is opened, allowing it to be called “aged” and sold for a higher price. I don’t buy it. When you are being sold “aged” meat, be sure to ask whether it’s been dry-aged or wet-aged. If they don’t know the answer or are unwilling to share, it’s best to assume the worst.
To anyone who was in the office the day I opened up that package of rotten wet-aged beef, my sincerest apologies. As Robyn described it, it smelled like “rotten excrement taking a poop.”
Yeah, it was that bad.
What about those fancy “dry-aging bags” I’ve been reading so much about?
I’ll pass on the special equipment.
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What Cuts Should You Use To Dry Age Beef
You cant dry-age individual steaks youll be left disappointed when you have to trim them down to half-centimetre cuts and are left with a thin, well-done piece of beef charred on the grill.
You need to choose high-quality large cuts of beef, so rib roasts with the bones still in or whole rump caps, for example, are ideal. You also want a piece of beef with the thick fat cap still in place, which helps when you trim your aged piece of beef.
How Does Dry Aging Beef Work
Dry aging beef is a slow and methodical process that has to be monitored in order for it to work properly. Butchers use primal or sub-primal cuts of meat to lessen excessive trimming of the crust that forms during the aging process, and set the cuts in rooms that are humidity- and airflow-controlled. Primal cuts are initially separated from the animal during butchering, and sub-primal cuts are carved from the primal cuts into more specialty pieces. The butcher either hangs the meat or places it on racks to expose all sides of the meat to the airflow. Oxygen presents itself into the molecular bonds of the meat, allowing the natural enzymes in the meat to slowly break down.
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How To Dry Age Steak At Home:
Theres lots of questions surrounding dry aging in the home setting, and Im gonna answer all of them here for you. On a weekly basis, particularly leading up to the Holiday prime rib season, I was getting emails from folks who werent even exactly sure what dry aging was, asking if they should do it to their roasts. The potential threat of ruined meat and upset stomachs was both high and alarming, so instead of saying no, dont do it!, I instead decided to write this guide. I enlisted the help of Diana Clark, a meat scientist at Certified Angus Beef®, to ensure that this guide was more than just a personal opinion on how it should be done. The dos and donts within are all based on professional scientific recommendations. Also thank you to Texas Beef Council and Dr Davey Griffin from Texas A& M for extra assistance in answering the hard questions.
Dry aging is an expensive process, both in equipment required and meat investment cost. Its not something you can do with a bag or plastic box, and you need to be prepared to cut away a fair chunk of the final product you worked so hard to create. Now, if youre still on board after reading all that, heres what you need to know:
Aging Your Meat Results In A More Tender And Flavorful Steak
Once upon a time, you could go to your corner butcher and buy an aged USDA prime cut of beef. If you have had a good, aged steak, you know it is more tender and flavorful than what you typically buy in the store. The reason for this is that aging allows natural enzymes to break down the hard connective tissue in meats and for water to evaporate away, concentrating the flavor.
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Selecting And Preparing The Meat
Choosing The Right Cut Of Steak
Cuts of steak can be broken down into three sections. Startingon the upper back and moving down to the mid-back are the ribs, theshort loin and the sirloin.
- The rib area contains cuts such as the Rib-eye Steak, the RibRoast, and the back ribs. This is the least tender section of thethree.
- The short loin area produces the T-bone, Top Loin Steak, Tenderloin and the Porterhouse.
- The Sirloin gives the Sirloin Steak, and the Top Sirloin.
- Other steaks like the chuck, round, and flank come from those areas and tend to be tougher cuts of meat.
- Strips steaks, such as New York Steak are cut from the T-bone area.
If you are looking for the most tender cut of beef, it is thetenderloin. Other cuts from this area are filet mignon,chateaubriand and tournedos. Though these are the most tenderthey are also less flavorful.
The rib-eye, or rib steak can be a little less tender but far moreflavorful. Small streaks of fat throughout the meat mean moreflavor. So with more marbling you get less tenderness but moreflavor.
Finding a balance between the two, gives you the best steak. Top loin and sirloin are slightly less tender but have more flavor thantenderloin. With cooking cuts of meat such as these there is noneed to marinate or even cook past medium rare.
Some of the most flavorful but least tender cuts of beef aretri-tip or flank steaks. These are also favorites on thebarbeque. Your best bet is to marinate these cuts beforecooking. Also, leave the fat on until after the meat is cooked.
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