the interior meat is protected. That’s good news for home
dry-agers!
Timing
Q: OK, I’m nearly convinced. How long should I age my
meat?
I had tasters taste steaks aged for various lengths of time. In
order to ensure that all the steaks were fairly ranked and that
differences in actual cooking were minimized, I cooked
them in a sous-vide water bath to 127°F before finishing
them with a cast-iron pan/torch combo. The steaks were
tasted completely blind. The final results were largely a
matter of personal preference, but here’s a rough guide to
what happens over the course of 60 days of aging:
- 14 days or less: Not much point. No change in flavor,
very little detectable change in tenderness. Few people
preferred this steak. - 14 to 28 days: The steak is noticeably more tender,
particularly toward the higher end of this range. Still no
major changes in flavor. This is about the age of the steaks
at your average high-end steak house. - 28 to 45 days: Some real funkiness starts to manifest
itself. At 45 days, there are distinct notes of blue or
cheddar cheese, and the meat is considerably moister and
juicier. Most tasters preferred the 45-day-aged steak above
all others. - 45 to 60 days: Extremely intense flavors emerge. A
handful of tasters enjoyed the richness of this long-aged
meat, though some found it a little too much to handle