The Culinary Chamber, Part 2 - Meats and Cheeses

What to do with your aging machine.

Now that we have our aging machine from part 1, we can move one to creating culinary masterpieces. Meats and cheeses take time to age; patients is a virtue! But, the results are well worth the wait.

I wish I could take credit for some of the Italian cured meat recipes (Coppa below) and variety of cheeses I have worked on thus far, but I can't. I will share with you 2 great books that I have use for creating these items; both I would highly recommend. The first is Charcuterie. This book goes into great detail about a wide variety of Italian meats, sausages, smoked items, sauces, cures and many other delicious creations. NOTE: this book has no photography inside and only shows sketches on some of the pages.

The second book is Artisan Cheese Making At Home. In this book, you will find everything from short term cheddars (below) to brie and multi-year aged cheeses to the recipes you can use them in. I have become addicted to trying new cheeses, but cheese is a delicate item. In part 1, I mentioned propylene glycol was needed for cheeses. When you age cheese, the temperature and humidity need to be perfect. With the freezer and temperature controller, you can achieve your desired temperature. By adding the propylene glycol in the terrarium, you are able to keep the humidity at a preferred 70% without any hassle. The propylene glycol absorbs and releases moisture to keep a consistent 70% humidity.

How about dry-aged steaks?

Have you ever been to a really nice steakhouse where they offer "dry-aged steaks"? What is that? Dry aged steaks are actually old steaks, but in a good way. Fancy restaurants will dry-age steaks by leaving large loins of your favorite cuts of beef in the fridge for 30-45+ days. The meats will form a hard crust on the outside of the loin, preserving the meat inside. The meat will become tender and more flavorful. The loin will lose much of its moisture, making the beef flavor more intense and concentrated. This leaves you with a tender, intense steak that will make store bought steaks seem like hamburgers.

Directions: Set your temperature controller to 35 degrees. Make sure your freezer is clean; wipe it down wipes or a sanitizer. Take a large 15+ pound loin (BJ's, Costco or Restaurant Depot have these, or special order from your butcher) and hang it from your curtain rod using heavy butcher string or meat hooks. I went with bacon hangers to evenly distribute the weight. You don't need to put anything on the meat, but make sure your work area and hands are clean. I placed paper towel with tinfoil under it to collect any drippings.

After hanging the loin for 30-45 days( start with 30 for a less intense flavor), you have a unbelievable steak hiding inside the loin. Start by cutting steaks out of the loin, then trim off all the outer crust (grey color) on each steak. You can vacuum seal and freeze the steaks for up to 6-12 months.

Because so much meat is removed, the steaks become more expensive. About 1/3-1/2 of the loin is wasted in the process. Hence the extremely high prices of $50+ for these steaks at restaurants. Doing this at home will be closer to $18 a steak for the same quality as those high-end steakhouses.

I recommend grilling your steak with just salt and pepper. If you want a little extra flavor, finish with a drizzle of aged balsamic or red wine reduction. Cheers!