September 5, 2021
Every summer, my family gathers for a weekend at my dad’s house along the Gulf of Mexico for a small reunion. He lives right on a bay, and we always have fun swimming and enjoying our time together in the afternoons. There’s always football on TV, plenty (emphasis on PLENTY) of beer, and when dinner time rolls around, Dad always pulls out a grand tray loaded with beautiful sirloin and prime rib. The whole family are beef lovers, and everyone loves helping Dad dry rub and grill his prized possession: perfectly dry-aged steak.
About a year ago, he got a SteakAger, and he’s used it religiously every week since. The standalone dry-aging unit allows you to dry-age two subprimals at once, converting your average cut of beef into a masterpiece of grilling excellence. All it takes is a little patience (which, truthfully, he doesn’t have a lot of). The SteakAger is basically a ventilation and preservation device: it completely controls the humidity and temperature of the air surrounding your cuts of beef, creating a microclimate in which the process of dry-aging can occur for as long as you want. The recommended age time, based on the techniques recommended by European butchers throughout the ages, is 10 - 15 days. But, if he’s patient, and allows the aging process to continue for 28 days, he achieves a delicate, buttery result that can’t be replicated by any other process. By staggering age times, he makes sure there’s always a dry-aged steak ready at a moment's notice.
When he buys his cuts ahead of time, there’s always enough dry-aged steak for the whole family. Being able to share something so good with the whole family is something Dad is happy to be able to do - these steaks at a steakhouse would cost an arm and a leg, and we’d have to try and keep the volume to a minimum, which wouldn’t be nearly as fun.
A group of us trim the steaks and apply a rub of paprika, herbs and other spices, for about 5 mins until the steaks are properly prepared (according to his standard) and ready to grill. He’s protective over the grilling process, so we aren’t allowed to touch that, but after about a half hour we get to chow down on rich, flavorful and tender steaks with the family. And every summer, without fail, it’s the best dinner I have. Looking to buy a SteakAger, browse our products here.
To get in touch with the Danby SteakAger team, give us a call at 800-768-0617 or write to us via email by filling out the short form on our contact page.