Starrfall on 28/1/2010 at 16:01
Man when we have a GOOD fridge I'm going to dry age like crazy, but right now ours is unreliable as far as constant temps and humidity go.
heywood on 28/1/2010 at 17:48
I use an older fridge in the garage to keep the meat away from any odors in the kitchen fridge, but I've heard that covering it in a cheesecloth helps with that too and might mitigate humidity & temperature changes somewhat.
One of these days, I'm going to try drying aging for longer. A week in the butcher shop + a week at home is only half of the recommended time. I just don't usually think to prep so far in advance.
Rug Burn Junky on 28/1/2010 at 17:55
Quote Posted by heywood
RBJ - How long did you dry age for at home? I've gotten in the habit of dry aging for a week at home when I make a standing rib roast and it is an improvement, but I haven't tried longer.
I think I made it just shy of three weeks - everything I'd read put that as the outer limit for doing it yourself at home. After two weeks I got really antsy because the outside looked like it was going bad (as I knew it should, but that didn't make me feel any better). It didn't have the "mold" growth since I had it wrapped in a fresh towel every day, but obviously the outside looked a little dark.
It was definitely an improvement in the flavor (I was silly to pick the tenderloin, since, duh, it's not benefiting as much from the tenderizing), but not nearly enough to make it worth my doing again (slicing off the outside of each steak was a bit of a bitch, and fairly sloppy, I lost way too much in weight because it was such a small piece). Maybe when I have a professional grade walk in fridge some day I'll do a full rack of porterhouse hanging from a meat hook.
It was more for the learning experience - I was in a real meat phase - that's around when I also cured my own bacon for the first time, which I've done many times since.
Harvester on 28/1/2010 at 23:25
I've had a damn good tasting tenderloin steak tonight, it was fairly red on the inside and tasted excellent without any sauce but even better with a little ehm, herb butter or whatever it's called in English. Though I'm sure a steak connoisseur like RBJ would find it (below?) average, I mean how good can a $30 steak be? :p But I've never had a better steak than this, and I can't afford to eat at $200 steak restaurants anyway. Anyway $30 sounds pretty cheap for a quality tenderloin steak (275 grams), so some people might scoff at it, but still, everyone I take to this restaurant is really impressed and says they've rarely had better tasting meat than this.
't Was a fun night, I ate a lot and had good company.
I can't cook for shit myself, I mean what I make tastes fine to me and the people I serve it to, but it's the simplest stuff really, with sauces from jars or packets and pre mixed 'chicken spices', 'minced meat spices' etc. The best dish I've made myself is a rice vermicelli dish with ham and marinated stir fried pork and lots of vegetables, but even that is straight from the recipe that's on the packet (for Dutch people, it's the Mihoen Speciaal Mix from Conimex, try it, it's pretty good and not a lot of work).
heywood on 29/1/2010 at 02:21
Quote Posted by Rug Burn Junky
It was definitely an improvement in the flavor (I was silly to pick the tenderloin, since, duh, it's not benefiting as much from the tenderizing), but not nearly enough to make it worth my doing again (slicing off the outside of each steak was a bit of a bitch, and fairly sloppy, I lost way too much in weight because it was such a small piece). Maybe when I have a professional grade walk in fridge some day I'll do a full rack of porterhouse hanging from a meat hook.
Thanks.
A whole rib roast hasn't been too much trouble to trim, but I can see I might not want to do that with individual steaks.
Rug Burn Junky on 29/1/2010 at 02:51
Well, I aged it as one big tenderloin, and just had to trim the edges of each steak after I chopped them - it's just that my knife work left a little to be desired and with less than 6 inches in diameter to work with to begin with, I lost a half inch all the way around.
Stitch on 29/1/2010 at 04:36
What we really need is to get back to the omelet talk, as every time I attempt one it winds up looking like PeeperStorm's description.
Scots Taffer on 29/1/2010 at 04:48
christ, even how you spell it looks bad
PigLick on 29/1/2010 at 05:04
as my omelettes are legendary round these parts, I'll help you out Stitch. This may not be 'proper' way to cook one, but it works for me.
Dont mix the egg mixture too much, it should still be a bit chunky, we are not cooking scrambled eggs!
Add a bit of water, not milk to the egg mix, also season well.
If you are going for a big puffy frittata style of omelette, you will need to finish it under a grill or in oven, but I like my omelettes thin and a bit runny in the middle. To do this, put butter in a hot pan until bubbling or frothing, add egg mixture and coat the entire pan with it, then as it cooks, break some holes in the egg with a spatula and very gently mix it around a bit to ensure even cooking. Then add your filling, I find cheese, spring onions and some kind of cured pork product(bacon, proscuito, pancetta) go well, cook for a little bit longer.
Ok the tricky part is getting it out, some people will just flip the omelette over in half, but that is the shit non-fancy way of doing it. The fancy way is to tilt the pan on an angle, then with spatula gently lift one edge of the omelette, and quickly(but gently) roll over the omelette kind of like you would roll a crepe. If you do it right you should end up with a really boss looking omelette that will have girls coming back for more!
I like omelettes.
Scots Taffer on 29/1/2010 at 05:10
I'm not a huge omelette fan, but I find Pig's method works well (especially the full pan coating of eggs and poking holes through to get that thin runny constituency). I'm not so sure about calling the fold over method shit and non-fancy... it's how I've had most omelettes given to me by the French and they fucking invented the thing. Cheese and onions inside are soooooo fucking good. Subtle cheeses are best, I find, and I also like peas.
