TIL dry-aging beef at home is way easier than I thought

I always figured you needed a fancy setup but after reading a forum post I tried it in my spare fridge with just a fan and some salt blocks. Took 21 days and the flavor was incredible, has anyone else done it with just basic gear?

3 comments

3 Comments

pipergonzalez11d ago

Caught a weird whiff of something funky from my own fridge the first time I tried this too. My husband kept asking if something died in there but it was just the roast doing its thing. The dry aged smell really does take over the whole kitchen after a week or two, I had to move my yogurt to the garage. The payoff was SO worth it though, that first bite was like a flavor bomb. Now I can't go back to regular steaks from the store, they taste like wet cardboard to me.

faith_smith11d ago

My buddy Bill tried this exact thing last year. He had an old mini-fridge in his garage that barely kept things cold, so he figured why not. He rigged up a little computer fan with a zip tie and put a small salt block from the hardware store on the bottom rack. After 21 days the roast had this deep, nutty smell and the crust was almost black. When he sliced into it the inside was this perfect dark red and the taste was something else, like a good steakhouse but better. He said the only problem was his wife complaining about the smell every time she went out to grab a drink.

adams8211d ago

Yeah that smell is no joke. It gets into everything in the room. I did a smaller batch once in my basement and my wife kept asking if a mouse died under the house. You really gotta plan where you put it or you're gonna hear about it for weeks. But man the taste makes it all worth it. Once you have meat that good it ruins the store bought stuff for good.