Super Simple, Tried and Tested, <$80, Meat Dry Aging Fridge

I've always loved dry aged meat - that extra special funkiness and tenderness really does it for me. So I set off to see if I can do it at home. Ends up it can be done and its simpler, cheaper and easier than many experts will have you believe. Having experimented (successfully) for several years its time to share the funk :)

Dry aging really only requires two things:

• Temperature: Around 0C-4C (32F-39F) does the job. Lower than 0C (32F) and you're freezing the meat and stopping the aging process; higher than 4C (39F) and you begin risking it going bad
• Airflow: The air needs to be moving around to keep bad bacteria from growing

A lot of experts will talk about controlling humidity. Some recommend low, some high, some stable, some don't really know. In theory, higher relative humidity will keep the meat from losing too much weight due to moisture loss - but in practice it doesn't make a big difference.

There's also talk about having slabs of himalaian pink salt in the drying fridge. Most professional fridges seem to have them although there's seldom any explanation as to why. There's some talk of salt ions infusing into the meat but zero evidence that I could find.

In this instructable I'll describe the basic setup I used for 3 years (and countless aging sessions) and then the slightly more advanced setup I'm currently using.

PS: This is my first instructable - if anything isn't clear or can be improved, just shout!

Basic setup

1) A dedicated fridge ($50 for a used one): You need this to keep other food interfering with your aging. Any old mini-fridge will do. I got mine used for $40. Just give it a good clean with water and soap and let it dry before using it for aging

2) A couple of 12v 120mm PC fans (around $10) (example) and a 12v power supply for them (around $10) (example)

3) A thermometer (might as well get one with a humidity meter as well). Ideally one with the sensor on a wire so that you can monitor without opening the fridge door (around $10) (example)

4) Some kind of wire rack for placing the meat

Advanced setup

5) A temperature controlled plug device (around $30) (example)

6) A bowl of water

7) Insulating material (around $10) (example)

Any fridge will do the job as long as its dedicated to the aging project. I got a used mini fridge for $40 which has served me well for many years.

Make sure to clean it thoroughly with soap and water then rince and dry it.

Place the fridge wherever you want. If its outside make sure its in the shade to avoid too much sunlight fluctuating the temperature (and costing more $$$ in power).

Grab a couple of 12v PC fans, any will do really. Again used or cheap ones are absolutely fine.

Splice the positive wires together and the negative wires together. If the fans have a yellow (PPM) cable you can cut it off or ignore it, we won't need it.

Now get any 12v power supply. The amps/watts don't matter as we'll be drawing very little current with our fans.

Connect the positive wires from the fans to the positive of the power supply and the negative wires from the fans to the negative of the power supply.

Plug it into power and check that they work. Also note the direction of the airflow.

Now you need to attach or place these in the fridge. We want the fans to be circulating the air around the fridge but not blowing directly on the meat. I've placed one under the meat and one above. You can use double sided tape or zip ties for this.

You'll also need to help the wires out of the fridge and into the power outlet. You could just have the wires sticking out of the door of the fridge or, like I did, cut a bit off from the fridge door's rubber gasket (the soft bit around the inside of the fridge door) and tape the wires to keep them from moving.

Add the thermometer somewhere close to where the meat will sit and somewhere easy for you to look at every now and then.

The meat will need a nice place to rest for the next month or few. A wire rack of some kind is ideal as it lets air all around the meat.

Don't place the meat directly on a plate or similar as there will be too much area in contact with the plate and away from the airflow.

You can age any cut of beef as long as its large enough (because there's a lot of wastage in the drying process).

Ideally you'd go for a nice rack or t-bone, several ribs wide. Ask the butcher to leave all the fat on the meat as this will shield it during drying.

That's it, your dry ager is ready. Now you just need to monitor the process and wait.

The only reason for monitoring is to make sure the temperature stays within limits. If the outside temperature is relatively steady it could just mean checking the temperature every few days. If it needs adjusting, set the fridge to higher or lower chilling/temperature.

If outside temperature varies wildly between day and night you may need to adjust once in the morning and once after sunset.

How long you age your meat is entirely up to you. A couple of weeks will result in small changes in texture (i.e. softer), over a month will start adding a bit of dry aging's signature funkiness. There's no limit to how long you go but results do tend to diminish the longer you wait (i.e. a 6 month age will be almost identical to a 3 month but a 3 month is significantly different to a 1 month).

Once you've removed the meat there's one last bit of preparation: cutting it up. This is possibly the trickiest part - I'd strongly suggest you ask your friendly neighbourhood butchers to do it for you as it is a bit of a pain.

You'll need to do two types of cuts:

1) Cut the piece into nice 1inch-thick slices. Use a very sharp knife for the meat but you'll need a saw or similar for the bone

2) Trim away the hard outer shell. When meat ages, the outside becomes very hard and mostly inedible. So you'll want to trim it off

And finally... enjoy! Don't let me catch you cooking your beatifully aged stakes anything other than rare or medium rare, over a searing hot coal BBQ with plenty of salt and nothing else :) But that's just me...

There's a few optional upgrades we can do to make the process even easier:

1) We can keep the humidity high (for what its worth) with a simple bowl of water placed anywhere in the fridge, ideally in the fan airflow. You'll need to fill it up ever week or so. Pro tip: to avoid the surface of the water freezing (and hence stopping evaporation), add some salt

2) We can insulate the outside of the fridge with any kind of insulating material. I've used white foam slabs attached with double sided tape but there are many options out there. This will keep the temperature a bit steadier and reduce the power cost.

3) The most substantive upgrade is adding a temperature controlled plug to turn the fridge on and off automaticaly. These devices have a built in thermometer and a plug that turns on and off depending on the temperature. I set mine to 0C with a margin of error of 4C so it turns the fridge on when the temperature goes over 4C and off when it goes under 0C.