Am I the only one who thought dry aging bags were a gimmick until a $12 test strip proved me wrong | Butchers - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Am I the only one who thought dry aging bags were a gimmick until a $12 test strip proved me wrong
I always figured those vacuum dry aging bags were just a way to charge home cooks more money, so I stuck to my fridge setup with a fan and a wire rack for the last 4 years. A rep at the meat show in Kansas City handed me a cheap moisture test strip, and after 21 days on a ribeye the bagged one read the same humidity as my open-air setup, just without the gray crust I usually trim off. Anyone else running dry age bags for longer than 30 days, and do you still bother with a dedicated aging fridge or just use the back shelf?
That whole thing reminds me of how I felt about sous vide machines years ago, figured it was just hype until I tried a cheap one and realized the $40 version did the same job as the $200 one. Half the stuff we call a gimmick is really just a tool that got marked up by people who knew we wouldnt question it. The test strip thing makes sense though, because moisture is moisture no matter what fancy bag its sitting in. I still use my back shelf setup for anything past 30 days just because I dont have room for a whole extra fridge, and honestly the results have been fine.