Shoutout to the guy who convinced me to dry-age in my own cooler

I was really skeptical about dry-aging at home honestly. I mean I have a small walk-in cooler in my shop over near Portland and I figured it wasn't big enough or controlled enough. But this old timer at the meat expo last fall told me to just try it with a smaller primal cut for 14 days. So I grabbed a ribeye primal on a Tuesday and wrapped it in cheesecloth on a wire rack in the back of my cooler. Checked on it every morning before opening and the smell was a little funky at first but not bad. By day 10 the crust started forming and I got super nervous but on day 14 I trimmed it and cooked one steak for myself and my god. The flavor was way richer than anything I ever bought pre-aged. Has anyone else tried this in a standard cooler setup or am I just lucky it worked out?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_viola1d ago

Laughing at myself because I did the exact same thing but with a whole striploin and absolutely panicked when the crust started looking like a science experiment gone wrong. My wife threatened to call the health department day 12. Trimmed it up and served it to some buddies and they asked where I bought it so I guess it worked. Your funky smell was probably just the good kind right? Did you use cheesecloth or just let it sit open?

milaw141d ago

@the_viola Total GAME CHANGER once you learn to trust the good mold.