Post: #1

My birthday is this weekend so my room mate and myself are going to buy some three week old dry aged steaks.

I've cooked decent cuts of meat before with a cast iron skillet and my oven. Seeing as this is a special type of meat, I want to make sure I do it well.

Any tips or tricks on cooking this in an oven? I don't own a grill and sadly can't get one for a few more months.

Post: #2

My buddies dad used to work security at a meat factory and used to get some good stuff. I think we used to put them on the skillet about a minut on each side and then throw into the oven for a few min to finish it off on broil. A little olive oil and some sea salt and cracked pepper. Mmm

Post: #3

Can't you dry age or wet age a steak at home somehow?

Post: #4

Paging thedude

Post: #5

Yeah some people do it in cheesecloth others buy some specially made bag. If you do a google search people have all types of setups. I think they have whole forums dedicated to it as well.

http://www.drybagsteak.com/

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/03/the-f...-home.html

Post: #6

Don't worry about the grill, cast iron is my favorite way to go because you keep more juice in the steak and save what juice does come out for the veg or a nice sauce.

Let the steak come to room temp, leave it out 2-3 hours or more depending on the size so it cooke evenly. Heat the cast iron until oil is just starting to smoke to get a good sear/crust which will help keep the juice in. I use canola oil because of the higher smoke point and light flavor but others may disagree. I usually do a minute and a half or so each side.

After both sides are nice and crusty I transfer the steaks/pan into the oven. Once cooked to my liking I remove them and let them rest for at least 5 minutes and i use the pan I cooked the steaks in to sautee mushrooms and spinach, or make a sauce if its a fillet. For ease of prep you can also use another pan and just drain the juices out before putting the steaks into the oven.

I forgot to mention that i salt generously with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper right before putting them in the pan. There are other ideas on this but for a good steak I just want the beefy flavor to stand out. I hope this helps out. I used to work in a nice steakhouse and their trick was an extremely hot broiler as well as a demi glace sauce that they put on top of each steak before service.

A good side used "leftover" baked potatoes skinned and cut into 1/2'' 1/2 moons that they sauteed in bacon fat with parsley, onion, salt until golden. Goes great with a steak and your spinach/mushrooms.

What cut you getting? For ribeye I reccomend med-med rare otherwise I go rare.
Enjoy!

Post: #7

Dry aged beef can be tricky. I would first refer you to my old thread here.

The only thing that makes dry aged beef tricky is feeling it for doneness. Depending on the cut and the location of the cut, the meat can be more or less tender than what you might be used to, which is misleading in determining a perfect medium rare. For instance a steak cut from the loin end of a NY strip will be more tender, and a steak cut from the rib end will be less tender.

My suggestion for such a prized (and expensive) piece of meat is to use a digital thermometer. Toss the ego aside and get some help from technology.

If you pan roast a piece of meat like the method in my previous post, it will continue cooking once you pull it from the pan, by about 5 degrees or so. Perfect medium rare is about 129-130F, so pull the meat when the thermometer reaches 124-125. Let it rest for 5 minutes, and make sure to collect the juices that accumulate in the vessel that it's resting in. Slice the meat and pour those juices over the top. The last thing you ever want to do with dry aged beef is serve it with a sauce. I wouldn't even use that aged balsamic I recommend in my previous thread. Just season it with salt and pepper, and serve it with some nice farmer's market tomatoes with a few shavings of parm or crumbles of good blue cheese over the tomatoes (the cheese will pair with the funkiness of the steak beautifully). Alternatively, mushrooms pair very well with dry aged meat because of the earthiness, try to get wild mushrooms if you can and simply sautee them in butter with a sprig of thyme, otherwise stick to portobellos, maitakes, shiitakes, or crimini mushrooms.

Dry aged beef is a real treat, and most people haven't had the real deal. Try to find a 30-day aged cut sometime...it's got a level of funk and cheesiness that is addicting, and goes insanely well with wine, specifically Bordeaux and Barolo.