How to age steak at home

When it comes to steak, there’s simply no comparison between the full, deep flavour of an aged steak and the one you pick up at the supermarket or butcher and cook straight away. It’s why specialist steakhouses put a lot of effort into precisely ageing their steaks, often on public display, and part of the reason why they charge so much more for aged steak.

Restaurants mark up the price of a steak partly because of the time involved and the controlled environment needed for ageing, but in reality, ageing your steak at home is easy to do. You just need a little patience.

Why age steak at home?

The ageing process allows the natural enzymes within the beef cut to do their thing and break down proteins as part of the decomposition process. Doing it in a controlled environment ensures that the meat is not contaminated and that it is safe to eat, but the benefits include a richer and more rounded flavour. The meat becomes more tender and the loss of moisture means less cooking time is needed.

What steak cuts can I age at home?

You can age pretty much any piece of steak at home, but large muscle or sub-primal cuts like strip loin, ribeye, or sirloin work best. In fact, you can age any meat at home, even poultry like chicken or duck, but game meat works especially well, though more time may be required to break down the leaner wild meat. It is possible to age individual steaks at home, but the loss of moisture will mean they’ll reduce in size by as much as 50%. It is better to age large on-the-bone pieces, before they are cut into individual steaks.

How to dry age steak at home

A steak can be aged in your refrigerator at home. Your fridge is already a precisely controlled environment and most modern refrigerators have an air fan that keeps the air moving around the food stored within.

To age a steak simply place it on a wire rack and place the rack on top of a baking tray and place it in your fridge, away from any other foodstuffs that might contaminate it with strong aromas or flavours. Search for the air fan in your refrigerator, usually on the top shelf and place the steak near it if you can. You can buy a special air fan for your fridge if you plan on doing this regularly. You can then leave the steak there to age for anything from a few days to a few weeks or even months. The general consensus is that your steak will need at least two weeks to break down, change colour and take on the familiar flavour profile of aged beef. It’s a good idea to take a photo of your steak on day one, so you can monitor the change of colour over time, to give you an indication of progress. Add salt to both sides of the steak before you place it in the refrigerator, as this will speed up the process by hastening the loss of moisture. It also enhances the flavour of the finished result.

How to wet age steak at home

While dry ageing is the more traditional method, wet ageing has become more popular in recent years. Wet ageing requires the meat to be sealed in a vacuum bag like a sous vide bag or a meat ageing bag and allowed to rest for a period of time. It is called wet ageing because it keeps in all the moisture and doesn’t allow the meat to dry out. For this reason, the process takes longer, but the benefit is that it retains more flavour and gives the beef a more ‘gamey’ taste.

Wet ageing works better for lean cuts that don’t have a protective layer of fat, so it is particularly good for fillet steaks or game like venison and wild boar. Before sealing your beef in the bag, allow it to rest in the fridge on a wire rack with a baking tray underneath for 24 hours. This will drain some of the blood from the steak.

How to cook aged steak

_{Photo: Madie Hamilton on Unsplash}

Cooking aged steak is the same as non-aged steak, but it will take less time. The sear is all important, so once your steak is seasoned and rested to room temperature, cooking the steak in a pan, at high heat will give you that Maillard reaction you’re looking for. The steak can then be finished in the oven for the perfect consistency.

Reverse searing means cooking the steak in the oven first to your desired rareness and then placing the steak directly on the heat or flame to finish the process with searing.

Want to learn how to cook steak from the experts? Have a look at how these Michelin star chefs cook steak for the perfect results.

How to season aged steak

Any seasoning you like can be added to the steak before the ageing process. You can add a spice rub before you dry age, or throw some aromatics into the bag when wet ageing. However, the point of ageing your steak is that it enhances the meat’s natural flavour, and salt should be enough to enhance those deep beef flavours.

Watch the Fine Dining Lovers Flavour Hacking episode on how to cook beef for more ideas and inspiration.