How many of you do beef aging
 

In China every one likes "fresh beef".
If a restaurant uses the fresh beef, it must proudly point out.
I read that you guys do aging beef at 0-2c for 28 or even 45 days.
How many do smoke "fresh beef" and how many do smoke "aged beef"
How long do you do aging and at what temp.

I age low grade choice strip loins and rib roasts. Its a good way to tenderize and add flavor. You are a little off in your temperature range. Here in the US the temperature range should be between 32-38F for anywhere between 7-28 days. You could go longer but I find anymore then 21-28 days to be overkill or, for a better word, roadkill. But thats just my opinion.

Aging beef is done two ways, wet and dry.

Dry aging mainly done for steaks, which are cooked VERY hot and fast, to around medium rare. What dry aging does is remove water, which intensifies the beef flavor. Even dry aging for one day with a coating of salt can cause a 16 ounce steak to lose a whole ounce of water. I do that all the time.

A long dry aging requires a big chunk of meat, because you will have to cut off the outer layer of dried meat. You can easily throw away 10 to 20 percent of the meat, depending how long you age the beef.

For low and slow smoking, I personally think you are better off with fresh beef. I have not done wet aging, so I can't say whether or not wet aging would work for low and slow, BBQ style cooking. I do not use aged beef for low and slow smoking.

Here are a couple shots of a ribeye that was prepared 24 hours before cooking with sea salt, and placed on a wire rack for 24 hours, then seasoned with black pepper, and grilled over very hot coals. It lost a whole ounce in weight in 24 hours -- all water weight.

I cooked it over VERY hot coals. It is charred on the outside, and hot but red inside. That is a very American thing. Some Asians would consider it burned on the outside. But, that char adds both texture and intense flavor.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/pi...pictureid=4310

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/pi...pictureid=4359

CD

There are 2 ways to age beef:
1. Wet aging

2. Dry aging

Wet aging occurs in your refrigerator in the original cryovac packaging. I am not an expert but I wet age up to the expiration (freeze by date) date on the package.

Dry aging is quite different in that you are essentially dehydrating the beef to intensify the flavor. The beef is usually wrapped in a cheese cloth to absorb the liquid and hung in the refrigerator for 14-30 days or more. Then you slice off the ugly outside and cook it You should Google this and get more information before attempting. I sound like a lawyer....... barf, barf...

Marty is right, you are basically dehydrating your beef.

You can do that for a day, or a month. Doing it for a day is easy -- anyone can do it -- and it yields positive results. Doing it for a month requires some serious skills.

CD

dry age when you have the set up, wet age when time permits..I prefer to wet gae every cut of beef I cook...up to 50 days..BIG DIFFERENCE between wet age and not much age for any type of cooking..low//slow///fast//does not matter...it works!!!

You are talking Fahrenheit and he is talking Celsius. So your 32-38F and his 0-2C are very close to the same thing. 0C=32F and 2C=35.6F.

:blah:

I have read that dry aging isn't near as difficult as it's assumed to be. Seriouseats.com did a big write-up on it and he just used a mini-fridge I believe for his dry aging. Humidity wasn't a big issue. I believe their research though as long as you are using large whole cuts of beef. Aging small cuts like single steaks wouldn't work though no doubt, at least not for long periods of time.

Here's the article - Dry Aging at Home

single steaks (thick cut) work great!! appartment size fridge or one from a camper work great..
but as good as they are, I feel wet age a whole cut for a few weeks then slice up individual steaks works for me...the dry age is a better way, however too time consuming for my lazy arss..
wet age is soooo easy and soooo gooood!!!

How long do you let them dry age if you do it with single steaks? From what I've read if you have to trim them you ain't left with much meat, and most of the time if you let them go for a good amount of time they just end up rancid. Maybe that article I linked missed something.

Read up on my thread. I just cooked 28 day old prime rib roast I cut up into ribeyes. Came out amazing!

I like to put steaks on a trivet (with 2 layers of paper towels under it) in my refrigerator for 24-48 hrs before grilling. They seem to brown faster and more evenly. (Don't like 'em seared black)