Gallery: How to Dry Age Beef

Tender Funk

Dry-aged beef in a cast iron skillet. Damn, that looks good. This is the only method I know of that'll get you that steakhouse-quality charring without the benefit of a grill or an 1,800°F broiler.

Step 1: Ready to Trim

A 60-day aged prime rib, ready to be trimmed into individual steaks. I aged this one myself in a mini fridge at my office using this method.

Step 2: Peel the Fat

Start by peeling off the outer fat cap. Since it was already removed once during butchering, this should be a pretty simple process.

Step 3: Start Trimming

Trim the outer fat layers. The goal is to remove as little meat from underneath as possibly, so work in thin slivers, getting deeper and deeper as you go, stopping as soon as the meat and fat look fresh. If the meat is a little slippery, use a clean kitchen towel to get a better grip.

Step 4: Almost There!

Keep trimming the outer surfaces until only clean white fat and red meat show. Follow up by trimming the dried-out layer on the cut surfaces. You may need to fiddle around a bit to get the meat off the bones in that area, depending on how it was butchered.

Step 5: Ready to Roast!

Trimmed and ready to cook as a roast. (Need tips on that? Read all about Perfect Prime Rib here!). For our purposes, we're going to need to cut it into steaks...

Step 6: Steak!

To cut it into steaks, just carefully slice through the meat following the space between the bones. The only difficult portion will be around the chine bone, which you'll need to trim around before cutting off and discarding. You'll end up with thick steaks, each ready to serve about two people.

Yum.

You will not find a beefier, juicier, more tender steak in even the finest steakhouse. For an even more decadent experience, toss a pitcher full of the pan drippings on the side for dipping or pouring.