How to age a steak in the refrigerator

How To Age a Steak In The Refrigerator?

Aging a steak in the refrigerator is as easy as four simple steps. Here is our guide on how to age a steak in dry age fridges. Steak Locker makes the process of dry aging steaks straightforward, and minimizes the risk associated with the dry age process.  The Prime Rib or the whole rib, also known as the eye muscle and is the least utilized muscle in the cow. This makes its yield the most tender, it develops the most marbling and generates generous portions. 

The purpose of dry aging is to maximize the flavors in your beef. During the dry aging process, the meat will lose some of its original weight. As your sub primal cut is dry aging, slowly dehydrating and losing water, it concentrates the flavor but also loses about 15-25% of its starting weight. This is predominantly the reason that this type of high-quality product costs at least 70% more than the non-dry aged product. However, it is worth it as it will reward you with the most tender and truly naturally flavorful beef, not possible without dry aging and made straightforward with our dry age refrigerator.

Step 1:

Our first step on how to age a steak in the refrigerator is to make friends with your butcher or meat source and ask them to ensure it is “Bone In” and a Prime or Choice graded sub primal cut. Boneless cuts can be used but we do not recommend taking them beyond 35 days because the bones are what add structure and flavor to the meat.

If you are looking for a high quality boneless cut of meat, our friends at Meat N Bone would be happy to help. 

Step 2:

Unpack the beef and pat it dry with paper towels. Do not trim the meat. You may wrap the cut loosely in a triple layer of cheesecloth if you wish, as it is a little cleaner. However, be aware that wrapping the cut is a lot more labor intensive as you have to change the cloth every week.

Set the meat on the Steak Locker rack with all sides exposed to the forced air flow. Ensure the UV (Germicidal Light) is always on while the meat is in the dry age fridge.

Step 3: 

We recommend letting the cut rest for at least 28 days or up to 75 days. This is because the longer the beef ages, the more complex and intense flavours it develops, therefore the tastier it gets.  At 28-35 days subtle mushroom and umami flavors develop, from 45-75 days bold blue cheese notes will develop. You can read more in our detailed guide about our dry aging time scale in our blog post ‘How long can you keep Dry Aged steak in fridge?’

Step 4:

When ready to portion out a steak and not the entire cut, use a sharp knife and cut off a 2.5-inch steak along the bone. Shave off and discard the hard, dried outer layer of the meat. Cut away any dried areas of fat, but leave behind as much of the good fat as possible to maximise the flavor.

What to do after learning how to a age steak in the refrigerator:

You are now ready to cook  your dry aged steak which you can do so using a cast iron or grill. You can place the remainder of the primal cut back into the Steak Locker for additional dry aging time. Alternatively, if you do not desire additional dry aging time, cut the entire sub primal into steaks and freeze them individually. We recommend using vacuum sealed machines and bags to prevent freezer burn.

Our steak locker meat aging fridge range is multifunctional- by this we mean that our steak lockers do more than just dry aging steaks. With the Steak Locker, the curing of charcuterie, cheese and fish are possible, we will include further details about this in later posts.  

To find out more about steak locker dry age fridges, visit our product page.

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