evan_green52•1mo agoProlific Poster

My first batch of dry-aged beef went bad after 21 days and I figured out why

I tried dry-aging a ribeye primal in my home fridge back in June using just cheesecloth and a tray, but after three weeks it had this funky ammonia smell instead of that nutty beef scent. Turns out I wasn't getting enough airflow around the meat because I had it shoved in the back corner next to the crisper drawer. Has anyone else messed up a dry-age attempt and had to toss the whole thing?

4 comments

4 Comments

victor_robinson1mo ago

Clostridium botulinum actually thrives in low oxygen, so your cheesecloth method was a botulism risk not just a stink situation.

tessa_murray1mo ago

Are you sure, @victor_robinson? Seems a little overblown to me.

cole_baker1mo ago

Used to be one of those guys who thought cheesecloth was fine for keeping things clean enough... never really connected the dots on the oxygen side of it. Read this thread and did some digging on botulism conditions and yeah, it's pretty scary how easy it is to mess up. Seems like the kind of mistake you only make once if you're lucky. Definitely changing how I handle any long term storage from now on.

dakotab931mo agoMost Upvoted

They're not wrong though. Botulism spores are all over the place in soil and on vegetables, so if you mess with anaerobic conditions you're playing with fire. I've seen guys lose their home-canned goods because they didn't follow pressure canning times exactly, and that's a serious hospital visit waiting to happen. Cheesecloth might block big stuff but it does nothing for the oxygen levels. Better to just use proper canning methods or refrigeration if you're trying to keep things sealed up long-term. The risk isn't worth figuring out the hard way.