A tale of 2 rib racks...

First, I've posted many of the pictures I'm about to post on other threads. So if that kind of thing aggravates you, this is your warning. Looking back at it now, it's also long, so if you have a short attention span, this one isn't for you.

I bought a prime ribeye rack from alexanders right around thanksgiving when they were on sale with the intention of dry aging it until Christmas. It was a beautiful cut of meat, bone on. One thing led to another, and I didn't get it in out the package and aging until the 2nd of December.




Fast forward 2 weeks. Walmart has their choice ribeye racks on sale for the holidays. I inspected them and found a nice one to cook up on Tuesday of last week.



I pulled it out, dry brined it for a few hours on the countertop. I then rubbed it down with rosemary, sage, and salt and pepper. Into the smoker it went for 4 hours. Only the first 30 minutes of which were with smoke. I smoked it at 200-210 until it reached an internal temp of 118.



I placed it in a 550 degree oven for about 15 minutes to get a good sear on it. Final temp after resting and searing, 122 degrees.



Very juicy, good temp gradient throughout with very little Grey meat (picture does show more than was visible by eye). All in all, I was VERY pleased with the final product, as was the family.

Back to the dry aged rack. I've eaten a few dry aged steaks before at different restaurants in and around Baton Rouge. Many of them at places folks rave about. In all honesty, I've never been able to tell the difference in a good dry aged piece of meat, and a good fresh piece of meat. I just don't see where there is a notciable difference in flavor of the meat or fat. Quite possibly, my taste buds are shot. Who knows. Anyway, I figured this could be much different. The meat inside of a prime rib must stand alone mostly, and would hopefully bring out the flavor of the dry aging process.

Back to day 21. This is what it looked like coming out of the fridge.



Pretty much like what I've seen others look like. I didn't leave the bone on, so I had a bit more waste than I would have liked.



It isn't as bad as that picture makes it look, though. Contrary to earlier reports, the rib cap was still intact, and the eye was as well. It was mostly fat and the very edges of the meat that were gone. I dry brined it, and placed it in the fridge wrapped in plastic for 48 hours. I pulled it out, cut a small steak off the end for breakfast, and seasoned the rest of it up using the same recipe from a few days earlier.



Into a 200 degree smoker it went with the first 30 minutes being smoke again.

I put a small amount of salt and pepper on the steak and threw it on a hot fire just to get a crust to eat for breakfast. Meh. And that's an understatement. Don't get me wrong, it was tender, flavorful, and somewhat juicy. But it was no better than any other good quality steak would be from a flavor of tenderness standpoint. The only discernible difference was the meat on the rib cap was....different.....it was almost like you could feel every grain of the meat individually. To say it was dry aged....it was dry aged. Possibly too much, but I've seen folks go for much longer than I did. It was a very different consistency. But, it still tasted ok, so no complaints.

Now, looking back at the smoker, and my meat thermometer, it was obvious something was going on. The dry aged ribeye rack was cooking at a speed much faster than the fresh rack did. That seemed to make sense considering it was "dryer", and likely wouldn't be cooling as much due to evaporation. No big deal, I shut it down to like 190 degrees and cooked there. 4 hours later, it was ready to come off. Internal was 119 degrees. It went into a 550 degree oven for only about 7 minutes this time, since the outside was dryer to begin with, and much crust had already formed. Final temp upon cutting was 125 internal. 3 degrees warmer than roast earlier in the week.

Here's where it got weird. Despite cooking at the same temperature, and actually even much lower, and seared for less time, the dry aged rack had a much more pronounced bullseye effect going on. Like a ton more.





Flavor, again, no different really from the fresh rack I did earlier in the week. And to be honest, the fresh rack had a stronger beef flavor, and a better consistency. I guess to sum up, it sooooo was not worth the hassle to dry age that rack. The waste, the trouble...just not worth it. I'd be curious to know if anyone else has done a whole dry aged rack before and what their experience was.

TL;DR...I did a fresh rack and a dry aged rack. Dry aged rack wasn't worth it and didn't cook as well.