That talk with an old school butcher at 6am made me second guess my whole dry aging setup

He told me he just wraps his primals in cheesecloth and hangs them in a walk-in cooler with no fancy humidity controls and it hit me different because he's been doing it for 40 years with no issues, has anyone else found that simpler methods work just as good?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowan_thomas841mo ago

You're missing the point though. That old guy has been doing this for 40 years in a commercial environment where he's turning over product constantly. Your average home guy with a mini fridge holding two steaks for 45 days doesn't have that luxury. He can take risks with mold and bacteria because he's selling that meat in a week, not a month. The fancy humidity setups exist because us hobbyists need to stretch that window way longer without ruining a $200 primal.

jamie9401mo ago

Thing is, that old butcher isn't winging it, he just knows his specific cooler and how to manage it after decades of trial and error. Most of us don't have that built-in intuition, so the humidity controls are basically a safety net for our lack of experience.

kelly6381mo ago

Funny timing because I was just reading an article from an old timer in Texas Monthly about how he's been dry aging beef in a simple fridge with just airflow and no gadgets. Made me wonder if we overcomplicate things with all these fancy setups. Your mileage may vary but it seems like temperature control and some air movement might be the only real keys. Cleanliness matters too, but that old butcher probably knows exactly how to avoid mold issues that us hobbyists freak out about. I've definitely seen people get better results after scaling back their humidity obsessed setups.