I had wanted to do this for a while and finally had the right fridge to do this. We posted about the start of this journey to make dry aged meat at home a month or so back. And here are the results!
This was the most ambitious culinary adventure we took thus far! It was either going to be a smashing success or epic fail and we’d be out about $220 bucks! Well, the day had come… 28 days later to see our results. I was nervous although confident since I was tracking temp and humidity the whole way through.
We removed the short loin from the fridge after 28 days and it looked and smelled great. For my first attempt it would have been easier to go boneless. But I figured go big or go home. We used my circulating saw with a stainless-steel butcher blade. It worked beautifully to cut the loin into T-Bones and Porterhouses.
It’s very important to remove the two ends, called that the pellicle. After this is done and we cut out our 6 huge steaks we trimmed them up. Our loin started at 22.5lbs and after losing water weight to the dry aging process and the trim we ended up with about 15lbs worth of steak. It consisted of 3 Porterhouses and 3 T-Bones.
One of the best parts about this was the amount of money you can save by doing this at home. It was significant. See table below. We saved ourselves over $300 and ate marvelously well!! We ended up eating dry aged porter house for about $14 per pound, very cool.
We could not just have an epic steak by itself. For an app we decided to make tuna and sashimi tartare with some fresh cucumbers from the garden and rice crackers. I premade marinade and pre-cut the sashimi. Once I cut the cucumbers it came together quick and was enjoyed by all.
With the steak we had some freshwater shrimp scampi cooked in the pizza oven. I pre marinated the shrimp in garlic olive oil, crushed chili and salt and pepper. Once placed in cast iron pan and placed in oven it cooked in about 10 minutes. Really important to leave shrimp in shell as it adds flavor and prevents shrimp from drying out.
We also roasted some potatoes and onions. I always precook/steam potatoes in microwave, then roast with some onions and garlic.
Hope you enjoy the visual adventure.
Cost Analysis
Starting Weight: 22.5 lb
Final Weight and Cost: 15 lb/$14 lb
Initial Cost: $220
My Cost: $9.78 lb
Butcher Cost: $34.99 lb
Retail Cost of 6 Steaks: $524.85
Money Saved: $304.85
Steakhouse’s Menu
Marinated Tuna Tartare 🍣- Wasabi – Crackers – Sliced Cucumber 🥒- Onion
(Soy – Sesame Oil – Miso – Mirin – Hot Sauce)
Potato 🥔 Hash
(Smashed Boiled Potatoes 🥔 – Onions 🧅 – Garlic 🧄- 🌿 Parsley)
Cast Iron – Pizza Oven
32oz 28 Dry Aged Porterhouse 🥩
Fresh Horse Radish Steak Sauce
(Horseradish-Worthier Sauce – Pepper- Hot Sauce – Tomato – Fish Sauce)
Cast Iron 🥘-Grill-Pizza Oven
Grilled Marinated Jumbo Scampi Shrimp 🍤
(Garlic – EVOO – Butter – Hot Pepper Flakes – Salt – Pepper)
Cast Iron – Pizza Oven
Seasonal Veggie/Farm Share – Olive Oil – Salt and Pepper)
Apple strudel in Pizza Oven 🍎🥧
