Hey guys. What's up. It's Alex.
So it's episode 3 of the dry aged beef odyssey.
I know it took me some time to get there
But for a reason because it's kind of a big deal today.
I'm gonna show you how to dry age beef yourself at home.
If you want to fully understand this episode
then I strongly suggest you watch the first two episodes
because there are a lots and lots of useful information and tips in those.
I recently learned about many new tips,
and I'm gonna share them with you on this episode
That being said, let's begin.
So let's start basic
from the outside, the dry aging is just a cooling and drying process.
Very simple.
So I think we need to start with a fridge.
We can, A) Buy a brand new fridge
although it would take some room in my studio.
Gonna be noisy. You know, I'm making video. It might be a pain.
Last very important, it's gonna be expensive.
Especially if we need to improve it afterwards.
So maybe not the best solution.
Or B) We can buy a second hand fridge
Very cheap one, but in this case, I'm a bit more worried about the condition in which we are going to age food we will be consuming at the end.
It's definitely to shabby for me, we need to find another solution.
You might be thinking, why not use the existing fridge?
I mean, it's cheap because I already own it.
And it's clean, I mean as soon as I clean it of course.
It's the worst example ever.
There are two main reasons for not using your own fridge for dry aging beef.
First one, temperature, opening closing this beast several times a day makes for the least stable temperature ever.
Second, the smell.
Dry aging beef will produce a specific smell.
A strong one, not a bad one.
But the thing is it will permeate the rest of your food and vice versa.
So basically your meat might end up smelling like chocolaty.
The only way I can think of that will fix this whole situation is fridge inception.
Let me elaborate.
I want to build a fridge inside my fridge.
So in fact, it's pretty similar to something I did in the past in the pizza odyssey.
Well I built a mini brick oven inside my previous domestic oven.
Yes, previous, because basically afterwards it did suffer from different kinds of dysfunction.
It's probably... Nothing's been proven.
A bit randomly, I found this big food Styrofoam box.
Which is super insulating and quite cheap.
It sounds just perfect, the only thing is that it's pretty big so I need to make some room in my fridge and I also need to clean it.
So two birds, one stone.
The polystyrene box fits perfectly in my fridge so let's make it dry age ready.
One, meat cannot be resting on a plate inside, otherwise the part facing down is never going to dry.
It has to be elevated on a rack or even better hanging into a hook which is the solution I am going for.
Two, I just mentioned it, but meat needs to dry out evenly, meaning that we need an air circulation inside.
At least for the first two weeks or until a crust forms on the outside.
For that I am using a small usb fan which I am installing upside down to make some room.
Three, I must be able to monitor the beef cut without actually opening an closing the door.
So I am integrating in the door a small temperature and humidity sensor.
Four, I am still going to have to open that door from time to time so to make it more practical
I am adding a handle
a few hinges, and a high tech sealing mechanism consisting of two rubber bands.
Five, as there could be some drippings, let's install a drippings collector which is known as a plastic containing lined up with kitchen paper.
Six, in order to further dry the air inside, I am adding just a few silica gel packets.
And finally seven, in order to purify the air inside and also to absorb some of the smell, I am adding two bags of activated charcoal.
So I think we are all set with the contraption.
We need to go and get the main actor, as my friend and butcher, John.
He is gonna prepare a massive ribeye just for us.
I think I am just gonna take my machine with me just to have their professional opinion on it.
To sum things up, in the back I got a big box with electrical wiring and a timer on top.
It does look like a bomb.
Let's just strongly hope I'm not getting arrested by the police.
Aw, that would be a nightmare.
[Music]
Uh, I'm a bit worried because John told me I need an air input and an air output on my machine.
Which is some kind of a pain because I don't want any cross contamination actions happening between the fridge and the machine.
Unless I can be using a filtering system.
I still have a few bags of left of activated charcoal
and as they are a common feature for Asian kitchen extractors,
I am going using them to filter the input and output.
Cool.
The dry aging machine is complete and let's hang the ribeye inside.
I'm sure this is not stupid.
But I'm not entirely sure this is genius
What I know is that I want to dry age that ribeye for at least 45 days
So unless there is a problem along the way.
I don't know why there would be any problems.
Next dry age beef episode should be testing session.
I really hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
If you did, give it a like, thumbs up, and share that over your social media.
It really matters to me.
#Spreaditlikebutter
A big massive thank you to all of your supporting my work here on youtube, facebook, twitter, instagram, or even on patreon.
You guys are just making this whole adventure possible.
So last people, click subscribe if you haven't already.
Because I make new videos every week and it is always, always about food somehow.
It's mostly about inspiration and about having fun really.
Big love. Bye bye. Salut.