I occasionally wet-age a steak. I enjoy the process and the result. Dry aging at home is a difficult task requiring a large cut of meat. But wet aging is easy to do with a single steak. When I buy a pack of two steaks, I typically eat one and put up the other for a few weeks.
All I do to age the steak is seal it in a vacuum bag and put it into the meat drawer of my refrigerator. I sealed the steak on December 30 for a total aging of about five weeks. When I opened it, the distinctive smell of aged meat came forward. It is a strong but not rotten meaty odor. The taste goes in the same direction---strong but not esoteric.
Here is the steak in the cast iron pan. I decided to prepare it as steak au poivre. In doing so, I placed a bet that the aging taste would come through over the cream sauce and pepper.
Here is the final result. The aged taste did come out but it wasn’t strong when compared to the pepper. I have cooked dry-aged steaks as-is and the taste is pleasantly distinct. Either way, a very enjoyable meal.
Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course)
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