Blogtown, PDX

Friday, January 18, 2008

Food Experiments With Steak Gone Wrong

Posted by Marjorie Skinner on Fri, Jan 18 at 9:50 AM

My boyfriend, who as anyone who’s ever come over for dinner knows, is an outstanding chef, heard about this spooky method of preparing steak: Against all convention, you take a nice ribeye, and you leave it uncovered in the fridge, on a mesh tray, or something that will allow the air to flow all around it. Leave it like that for a few days (ours was there for four), and then cook it very rare. The crusty shell that forms around it while it’s sitting in the fridge supposedly locks in the flavors or some such thing. The difference is said to be substantial.

Well, we cooked it up last night, after being a little disappointed at how un-gross the meat actually looked. We were hoping for some mold or gunk, but it really just looked dry. Unfortunately, and possibly due to the wine we were swigging, the steak ended up way overcooked. It was fine, and we ate it, but we basically jacked up the experiment and now we still don’t know if it works. Has anyone tried this? Successfully? Is it really worth it?

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Comments

This is the Mark "how to cook everything" Bittman method of dry-aging. Marketplace's David Bianculli had on Bittman the other day, with the express purpose of debunking the method and, further, prove how gross and unsanitary it was. Maybe Bianculli drank less wine than you and your boyfriend, but he found the fridge-aged meat to be outstanding. Granted, I think he left his three days.

Posted by Nancy Rommelmann | January 18, 2008 1:39 PM

I leave mine on a sheet of saran wrap behind the toilet for a week, then put it on some hot pavement for an hour or so to warm up. Talk about crust!

Posted by Nerd Burger | January 18, 2008 2:06 PM

I thought the fridge was too moist an environment for aging? Speaking of steaks, does any market sell prime, dry-aged steaks in Portland?

Posted by jim | January 18, 2008 2:44 PM

Hey! Where did the Lille Boutique advertisement go?!

Posted by David Bragdon | January 18, 2008 4:42 PM

Food critic Jeffrey Steingarten once dry aged a whole side of beef in the bottom of his fridge. I believe he ran a fan inside the fridge for ventilation. He also improvised a pizza oven using a back yard barbecue, a huge quantity of charcoal, and gasoline.

Posted by Ed | January 18, 2008 4:56 PM

According to Bittman, the fridge is the perfect temp/humidity for dry-aging.

Posted by Nancy Rommelmann | January 18, 2008 6:59 PM

Uh, yeah, he's dry aging it, silly! Stick to fashion hon...don't go applying for the food editor position just yet.

Posted by Suds Sister | January 19, 2008 7:59 AM

Regarding #3, a fridge cannot be too moist of an environment as it is essentially a giant dehydrator.

Posted by Eric | January 20, 2008 1:44 PM

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