Overview

  • Body count
    • 6 Costco ribeye sides
    • 2 Costco briskets
    • 1 bone in Costco side
  • Tech
    • Umai bags: https://umaidry.com/
    • vacuum sealer or a tub for immersion packing

Procedure

  • grab a Costco prime ribeye slab
  • clean the outside of the Costco bag to avoid contamination
  • open the Costco bag and deposit the contents (including the juice) into your Umai bag
  • evacuate the bag using the water immersion approach or a vacuum sealer
  • stick the cloth wick in the neck of the bag, but make sure that the bag is tightly sealed at the neck. The only stress I have had involved me using a single ziptie and hence the bag taking on more air (less skin contact). The bag does not have to be taut, but you will be second guessing your aging a lot less if you just make sure the neck is well sealed. (while wicked)
  • put the meat on a wire rack in a functional fridge for upwards of 40 days and relish the benefits
  • use a nice high end filleting knife for bark removal, which will enable you to minimize meat loss
  • the bark can either be ground up and included in other processed meat products or rendered to make some grade A tallow.

There really is nothing more to it; Umai bags do make the whole process pretty idiot proof. I am an idiot, and I can attest to this with upwards of 10 yields now, with zero failures. The standing wisdom on the internet is that if the meat smells good, you are golden. Clearly keep an eye out for aberrations and exercise caution.

Notes

  • I have only attempted one bone in ribeye aging session, and that produced the only dodgy outcome. The bag as purchased from Costco was devoid of meat juice. Since I don’t know a good substitute, I proceeded with vacuum sealing in the Umai bag. The bag appeared to seal well, and the contact between bag and meat looked pretty good. The slab was bwell ventilated, with the skin side down resting on a grill. At 44 days I processed the steak. It had aged rib side up, and the other side felt decided moist. Bone out has never had a texture like this. I can’t say it smelt diabolical, but it did smell pungent and there were subtropical cellar notes. I would not feel comfortable feeding this to anyone but myself. My personal takeaway was to make sure future bone in aging attempts have juice as packaged, and to age this bone side down. I will also make sure the bark is developing as expected, and there is not moisture retention.

  • The brisket works very well indeed, and given the price per pound it is an awesome first project.