On March 18th I purchased an 17- pound chuck. Cryro packed. Well I aged it until yesterday.
When I made "chop steaks" tonight I saw a look in the meat I had not seen since I don't remember when. My wife's was med-well and the juices just flowed from hers. Mine was med-rare and it had a taste I had forgotten.
If it is within your budget, you have a way to grind it, and you can vacuum pack it after the grind... you owe it to yourself to age at least one piece of chuck for hamburger. This piece was aged 32-33 days wet style. A little long for ageing but just great. When I cut it for grinding the meat was deep purple in color. [^] BTW so I could get a good feel for the flavor I only pan fried this over a little salt.
Olds
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Do you cryropac it with any cure, spices or?
Bill
<i>There is room on earth for all God's creatures....on my plate next to the mashed potatoes.</i>
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Do you cryropac it with any cure, spices or?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
No I purchase it cryopac packaged. Then just turn it into plain Ole hamburger meat!
Olds
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Olds,
You really do need to smoke a few, about 1/2 pound size. It was one of the few times that you can pull a hamberger out of the fridge and have it still taste great.
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SmokeOn,
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mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie
If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Oldman</i>
<br />This piece was aged 32-33 days wet style. A little long for ageing but just great.
Olds
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What is the wet style of aging?
Duckman unless you can give a step by step I have never cared for smoked beef.... hot grilled over oak yes... I've tried it six way from sunday and no one here likes it.
Olds
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">What is the wet style of aging?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote"> When you go to your meat market most meat is cryopac. You purchase the whole item. Don't break the cryopac and place in a temp of 33-38 F degrees for 3 weeks. Then remove it from the cryopac and slice it into steaks or grind it up... I'm 10 days into a full sirlon. When I cut it into steaks I will post pictures and explain more.
Olds
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Oldman</i>
I'm 10 days into a full sirlon.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
[:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p]
Look forward to seeing and hearing the results on this one.
Jeff
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Some say BBQ is in your blood, if thats true my blood must be BBQ sauce.
Envy is a terrible thing...Thanks Olds for the sin.
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SmokeOn,
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mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie
If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...
Duckman,
If you got room in the refrig. and can maintain 33 - 37 F degrees you got to try this. You will never go back to pre-ground beef again. Just make sure you get a quality chuck and it was cryopac by the processor! My grind was a medium grind.
I had a "chop-steak" for dinner tonight. Said GRRRrrrrrrrrrr to the dogs...as in back off! MINE MINE MINE! [:D]
The true "Chop-Steak" will come from the lip I cut off of the sirlon when it is done ageing. [^][^][^] This I've done before. Another thing I do is a (sirlon) Chop-Steak hamburger cooked over direct oak~~! Now that is a burger! I will post pictures of those when the time comes. [:D] Until then sin on!
Olds
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">What is the wet style of aging?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
That's when you retire out here to the coast of British Columbia or the Pacific Northwest![:D]
Tom
Right on T2 fully agree with you there[:D][:D].The weather here has been nice and warm of late but as I sit here it looks like a rainstorm a brewing[;)].
BTW cant wait to see those pics Olds[:p][:p]
<b><font face="Comic Sans MS">KEEP ON SMOKIN</font id="Comic Sans MS"></b>
<b><font face="Comic Sans MS">Mike</font id="Comic Sans MS"></b>
Catch it,Kill it,Smoke it
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by tsquared</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">What is the wet style of aging?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
That's when you retire out here to the coast of British Columbia or the Pacific Northwest![:D]
Tom
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Very funny. I live in the Pacific Northwest but all the rain dumps before the storm gets here. It is raining right now though.
We get our share here on Vancouver Island too, although here on the southern tip we are in the rain shadow of the Olympic Peninsula. Cloudy but no rain today.
Tom
Its on its way north, just wait.
Oldman makes a very important point for all of us...
Buy your meat in cryo pac's! When you buy a roast or steak from your local grocery, they have already removed it from the suppliers cryo pac and cut it up. Then they put the cut peices onto a kotex, into a styro tray and wrap it in plastic. They do this everyday making your meat "fresh".
Fresh meat is NO WAY anywhere near as good as "AGED" meat! When you let meat age (wet or dry), two things happen; 1) it becomes much more tender, and 2) the flavor becomes concentrated.
Ever wonder why meat is sometimes tough? One reason is that during the cooking process, moisture inside the meat will boil and basically rubberize the fibers making them tough. Aging takes care of this problem by (wet) allowing the enzymes to break down tissues or (dry) by removing moisture.
The BEST way to age meat is pretty much what Oldman does... buy in Cryo pacs ONLY- let sit in a frige about 4 to 5 weeks IN the original Cryo Pac. I do this with jerky meat ("Beef flats"), but then I also allow the meat to dry-cure 2 or 3 days in a tupperware with holes punched in it... this step removes a lot of moisture.
To buy meat in cryo pacs, you will need to get friendly with the butcher or owner of the shop. You should also get a better price per pound since they put no more labor into the product than unloading it from the truck and handing it to you! (we get ours at .10 over cost, but we buy 6 or more "flats" at a crack (@ 11 lbs each).
The purple color is hard to capture on a camera... try it and gave up...
Best know not for soup, but rather smoked meats...
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">The purple color is hard to capture on a camera... try it and gave up... <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Really ummm when my next one is ready I will give a try.
Olds
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