2nd try: Dry Aging with the SteakAger

Note: You can check out my first attempt here.

Now that the SteakAger is running correctly, it's time to start my experiment over again. If you missing my first try, here's an overview of my plan:

I'm going to start with a 45 day dry age and then do a 30 day and then a 21 day dry age. Once they come out of the SteakAger, I'm going to cut them into steaks, grill up one to see how it taste, then vacuum seal the rest and freeze them. When I have all 3 lengths completed and get them all cut, vacuumed, and frozen, I'll pull one of each and defrost and grill them for a taste test. The reason for freezing the 21 day run is that I want to try to get all the steaks as close to the same condition before cooking for the test. It will be a long wait for the final taste test, but I think it will be worth it.

I'm going to try to make this as "scientific" as I can by trimming all the roasts to 12" and keeping track of the weights. This one is weighing in at 14.81 pounds after trimming.

Here's the bagged roast:


Here it is after trimming with the remaining cut into steaks:


And in the SteakAger:

Lemonhead said:

Does or will the whole roast fit or must it be trimmed to fit ? I’ve always been interested in one of those so I’ll be paying Attention. Good luck !

Click to expand...

I've got the 15 and the steak currently in it was trimmed to 12" long. The interior width is about 13.75" so 12" is the longest roast I would put in mine. You need that extra space for air flow around the meat.

7 days in:

Cook said:

As is always my suggestion...you'll lose less product to post-age trim if you do not trim pre-age.

Much of the dry aged beef you see in commercial operations is aged as the whole primal. That way, when it comes time to trim for service, they are able to enjoy the entire piece of meat they were after. By trimming before aging, you are going to lose valuable protein during your second trim.

It's just a suggestion.

Click to expand...

I agree, but the inside of the SteakAger is 13.25" or so and the Ribeye I bought was around 16". So there had to be some trimming so it would fit. I don't mind as I can cook and eat the trimmings. :mrgreen:

Day 14 of 45:

Day 21 of 45:

Day 28 of 45:

CopyNPaste said:

All you really need is a nice wine fridge with temp control or a mini fridge with temp control. You can buy a 30 dollar humity and temp monitor on amazon. At least that's my plan next year.

Click to expand...

Yep. There are several Facebook groups that do the fridge or wine fridge method with mods for better air flow and installation of UV lights to control the bad bugs.

But I'm to lazy to do more than plug it in and go. Had I know the issues I was going to have when I first got the SteakAger, I would have waited until all the kinks were ironed out. But now that I've got it and it's working, I will say I'm loving it.

Day 35 of 45:


10 days until ribeye 1 of 3 is done.

Almost done. Day 42 of 45.

43 days down.

I pulled the ribeye from the SteakAger today after 43 days of dry aging. I was disappointed that there was ice stuck to the back side of the roast. Since that was the tip where there's a large chunk of fat, it ends up not mattering. I had to break the ice with a hammer to get it out since the ice was hitting the fan unit at the top of the SteakAger and was to thick for me to break with my hands.

Let's get to the pictures, eh?

Here it is after I got it out of the SteakAger. Notice some of the ice is still stuck on the back side of the roast.


I checked the temp near the ice and the roast was at 38 degrees, so the ice didn't seem to effect anything.

A quick cut of the iced over fat and the two ends and then I attempted to cut the remaining roast into 1.5" pieces.


I definately need to practice my cutting as I think only two of the 6 steaks are actually 1.5". LOL!!!

Next I had to trim the bad stuff off the steaks and get them to their final sizes. A quick vacuum seal and then into the freezer.


I was shocked at how much I needed to trim to get down to the good meat and fat. I hope I didn't cut off to much.

So, here are some numbers for those of you that like that kind of stuff:

Whole roast weight: 19.16 lbs
Roast weight after trimming to fit in SteakAger: 14.81 lbs
Weight after 43 days in the SteakAger: 12.34 lbs
Total weight loss from dry aging: 2.47 lbs
Weight of final 6 steaks: 6 lbs

And the numbers that really matters:
Roast price: $172.25
Dry aged steaks cost per pound: $28.71

Anyone know how much butchers sell 43 day dry aged ribeyes for? My local butcher only sells 21 day dry aged beef, so I can't compare the costs.

Saturday I'm going to go pick up a new ribeye roast and start the 30 day dry age part of the experiment.