I have now added "Dry Aged Steak" to my repertoire

Hey, internet, have you heard about dry aging beef?

I’d heard about it before, and even tried it once last year, but I got it wrong. Today, I got it RIGHT and oooooh man! This is clearly how steak is supposed to taste. I didn’t even notice at first that my steak was basically rare. The texture is so different that I wasn’t aware of the doneness level. See, one of the things that puts me off rare steak is how damn chewy is can be, no other word for it. However, as I’ve said, the texture was so different that I didn’t even notice until I happened to look down and see that the steak was a dark mahogany color, which I normally eschew. It tasted good though, and it didn’t have that raw meat ickyness I don’t like, so I shrugged and kept eating. I was really pleased with the result.  

It’s pretty easy to do. You get a good piece of steak, rub salt all over both sides and let it sit (uncovered) in the refrigerator, on the lowest shelf please. You’ll need to have it on some kind of rack so that all sides of the meat are exposed. Put paper towel under the rack, just in case of juice flow. Now, from what I understand, 7 days is probably the maximum you need. I went with four days. On day one, I put salt all over both sides. On day two I turned the steaks over, putting more salt on both sides. One day three and four I turned the steaks, but didn’t add any more salt*.

Then I cooked them like I would normally, seared in a pan and popped in the oven for a few minutes. We had it with a tomato sauce I’d made and some pasta, but next time I think potatoes and a whisky cream sauce will be more the order. The steak has such a strong flavor (in a good way) that it doesn’t need to have the tomato sauce fighting for prominence.

Mostly I’ve only ever seen people do this with large hunks of meat, like three pounds of prime rib or something, but the little steaks I was working with turned out admirably. The only thing is that you have an obvious time element to work with. This is a planned meal, and you have to know you want it at least three days in advance. Not a big deal, it’s no thanksgiving turkey scenario where you have the soak the motherfucker in brine for a month before you even begin to drown a baby duck in rabbit tears if you want this to turn out right, but you do need to plan when you’re going to eat and all that.

So yeah, point being, dry aging: it works bitches.

Go tell the world.

*The last time I tried, I added salt everyday, which resulted in a steak that tasted of nothing but salt and it was terrible.