Brad Makes Dry-Aged Steak

Hey, guys, today on It's Alive,

we have a little two-parter for you.

We're gonna be doing some dry-aged meats,

some pork and some beef.

We're gonna head over to Prime Foods out in Long Island,

see it on a big scale.

Then we're gonna have the folks from Meat Hook come in

and show me how to do this at home.

So you could do it at home

and we can all dry-age meat together and have fun and learn.

[upbeat energetic music]

Alright, guys, so we're here at Prime Foods

and meeting up with John, he's gonna show us

around this fine establishment

and learn a little bit about the dry-age process,

you know, on a larger scale.

I mean, there's one ingredient, right,

I mean, essentially,

we're just dealing with beef. Yup, it's beef, yup.

I mean, other than what's in the air, you know,

we're not getting a microscope involved.

It's beef. Right.

Say, if myself, wanted to get a piece of meat

and try to dry-age it,

where would you recommend getting beef?

Right here.

[laughing]

So, I mean, you know.

I understand the question.

You don't wanna go to your general supermarket

and just get. No, you know,

the reality is you might have a heck of a hard time

just finding even the proper sub-primal beginning piece

to start the dry-aging process.

Right, so what've we got going on behind us,

what are these guys doing?

So literally you're looking at a wall of probably

over four or five hundred short loins.

We're in our selection cooler right now

so we're probably in about 36 to 38 degrees right now.

And what you're seeing here is a daily occurrence,

Sure, oh wow. So,

this is gonna be gone by the end of today

and tomorrow we'll be doing the same thing over

and over again.

Is this all gonna be dry-aged or is this?

No, actually very little of this--

Okay. Will--

Okay, okay cool. Get into

the dry-aging process.

It has to be right in every aspect

for it to make it to the dry-aging process.

Alright. So a lot of the pieces

that won't make it into the dry-aging process,

there's nothing wrong with them,

they're beautiful pieces-- Absolutely.

But, nothing goes in there unless it's right

to be dry-aged. Sure, sure.

I would love to see like, two pieces of meat

like, one that would qualify for the dry-aging process

and one that would, you know, wouldn't make

sense to dry-age. Absolutely,

we've gotta a couple pieces so--

Alright, let's take a walk. We might have

some like that.

[lounge music]

This is a perfect example of the spectrum

that I was talking about.

So these, both of these pieces are USDA Prime.

But within that spectrum, there could be a huge variation.

You see like the rosy color. Yep.

You see the well-distributed--

Marbling. Intra-muscular marbling

and the color you see a good covering all throughout,

it has the proper kind of fabrication.

You know, on this piece, again, although it's USDA Prime,

the marbling is not nearly as defined.

Sure.

Even when this carcass was split,

it wasn't split perfectly even

so if I were to lift this short loin,

it won't have the bone on the bottom

of it. That perfect flat stance.

Right.

Or the bone that protects it through the dry-aging process.

Gotcha.

So you always want bone in?

You always, yeah, we only dry-age bone in cuts.

Right. We'll never dry-age

boneless cuts. Now why is that?

Because the bone and the fat are what protect the meat.

Okay.

So if you were to start dry-aging boneless meat,

you're dry-aging all sides of it

and dehydrating a cut on all sides.

So eventually,

you're gonna have to trim that sub-primly cut steaks.

Much more lost cut trim.

But you're also gonna be trimming it to the eye

of the finished product, you don't wanna do that,

you don't wanna-- Gotcha, this whole

bone shield-- Right.

You can just cut it out.

You want a nicer fat marblization in dry-aging?

Absolutely. Okay,

so that'll benefit the dry-aging process?

It really does and it's like--

Flavor? At the end of the day,

you're not gonna go through all the trouble

and effort of dry-aging meat if it's not gonna be

a spectacular steak. Sure.

We're not targeting mediocre here.

All right great,

I feel like I have a good idea of what we're looking for.

My concern with these cuts that we were talking about

is will I be able to cut those at home

without like, doing that with a hacksaw sounds miserable,

and I don't have a band saw.

For the piece that you want to dry age yourself Chef--

Yeah. We give you a

rib piece that we've taken the chine bone off already.

Perfect. And so that

when the time comes and you wanna enjoy it, you could just

you could just use your knife You pick your rib

and cut in-between and...

I can handle that. And go to town.

He called me Chef huh, that's the first time ever.

[hand slaps] Whoo!

[laughing]

Well, we actually took the liberty Chef.

Yo, yeah, yeah.

Nice chef, this guy with the chef.

Can I have that?

Do your worst, we've got some labels here for you.

Woo. And this is gonna end up

in our dry-age room.

[Brad] Little labeler and everything.

And you can pick your own--

Okay. You can pick your own piece.

Have at it, and then we'll

find a nice-- Tampering is

punishable by death,

I like it. Absolutely.

We'll find a nice little nook for it in our dry-age room.

Well this one seems to have a pretty nice fat cap on it,

nice little marbleization.

Yeah?

Think we're gonna put your name on it, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's it. Brad's product

[Brad whistles] and this is gonna,

we're gonna find a nice little nook for it

in the dry-age room, you can pick that too and...

Well, perfect man.

And then we'll come back when it's ready.

Well, speaking of this dry-age room,

should we take a peak--

Yeah, let's go take a look. At that operation?

To the dry-age room.

[lounge music]

Moment of truth.

Are you ready for this?

I'm ready.

Alright, 'kay.

It's gonna punch me in the face isn't it?

No.

No. [laughs]

It should be like a, just fall into it.

Oh my god.

Ah, I thought it was like...

Whew.

[John] Come on in.

Come on in, you're letting the funk out.

[upbeat music]

Please, Chef, have a seat.

I feel like I'm in the mob! Brad--

Welcome to our round table.

Yeah, man.

[Brad] So what exactly is happening in here?

It's cold, I noticed there's no lights

other than, you know, for us.

Sure, there's a lot of things happening,

we're running simultaneous heat and cold

to try to balance the moisture and the temperature.

We have the high velocity fans which obviously you hear,

the black lights that we-- And you need that?

You need that--

You need every component of that.

Every component.

So we got air moving, we're trying

to pull moisture out of the beef?

Regardless of whether we're trying or not,

it's gonna happen.

Okay.

[John] And so, what we're really trying to do

is just safeguard what we feel are the best conditions

that are necessary to produce optimally dry-aged,

flavorful beef. Right.

You don't want bacteria,

you don't want any kind of pathogens,

anything like that going on meat.

We want our meat aging, not rotting.

Not rotting.

So it's not, sure it's breaking down in a sense.

Yep. But with what?

With enzymes and things-- Correct.

That are already in the beef?

You want the naturally occurring enzymes.

Not what's in the air. Right.

You don't want the process to happen from the outside in,

this isn't cheese. Okay.

You want the enzymatic degradation happening

in the connective tissue within the meat

working its way out.

Oh, gotcha.

So it is like, when you look behind us,

where you get that like bark or that crusty,

I hate to say the word but like scabby kinda set.

[Brad] So that's not adding the flavor, you're sealing

what's inside? Yes.

You want a firm crust,

you don't want any indications of rot,

no questions asked, you never ever want that

on dry-aged beef.

If you saw it on anything else,

would you eat it? Right.

You wouldn't.

If you saw it on chicken or pork or veal or lamb,

so why have it on your beef?

Our personal touches, like we did together,

really looking at each piece, making sure the quality

is what it needs to be...

And the rest of the process in here,

the beef knows what it needs to do.

Sure, sure. This has been happening

for thousands of years. Okay.

Before traditional refrigeration and...

Just like I do a lot of fermentation,

you know, that was the original

before there was refrigeration,

that's how they preserved. Absolutely.

And carried through for longer periods of time.

Right. So, I like

how you said that,

this is not a new thing. This is not new, no.

Yeah.

All right well, we have the facility obviously,

I reckon this might be a good place for me to place that

piece of meat I picked out. I imagine it would be.

Matter fact, we took the liberty,

Nick is gonna, Nick, you mind bringing that rib in?

Oh, Nicky! There you go.

With the meat.

Ah.

Perfect, thank you Nicky.

[John] All right. [Brad laughs]

[Nicky] You got a spot for that? Yep bud.

Front and center.

There you go.

So John, how long do you think...

Well, I guess I'm

the client here. Well...

No yes, absolutely. [laughs]

I like a real nice nutty flavor,

I don't mind it to be what some restaurants might consider

for the general population a bit aggressive.

Okay. I kinda like it.

If you're up for it, I'd say maybe we go

for 45, 60 days.

Yeah, yeah.

So we can check in with you.

Minimum 45.

All right, we'll do 45 and then if you can't make it here,

we'll come in and we'll Facetime it in,

we'll show you-- I love that.

How your rib is doing and you can let us know

when you think it's ready.

[Brad] Oh I love that, thank you man.

[lounge music]

What's the day today, the 6th?

Yes. What is the day today?

It is the 6th? It's the 6th.

Nine, six,

2019. 11, six.

What? It's 11,

11, six.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

All right, so we're back in the test kitchen,

we're gonna get going with dry-aging some meat here.

Try like hell, brought in some pros from meat...

Brought in some... [giggles]

Brought in some pros from The Meat Hook over in Brooklyn,

one of my favorite butcher shops in the city.

Well, I needed someone to help me

'cause I don't know what I'm doing, do you know?

We'll make it up as we go along.

I mean, we went today.

Earlier we were over at Prime Foods

over in Long Island.

Yeah. With John,

you guys met John there.

[Both] We know John.

Yeah, John's a good dude.

So he sent us home with this nice piece of red meat.

Same as what you guys brought.

Yeah, we brought... But very different looking.

Yeah, we brought bone-in rib eye as well

but, very astute, they're very different.

This is, I would assume from John...

Yeah. Grain fed, grain finished.

For sure. This was born on a pasture,

grass fed its entire life, this is probably,

I would assume, somewhere between 12 and 18 months old,

this was about 30 months old.

Oh wow. Yeah.

[Brad] I mean, A, the fat content is way different.

Yeah, yep. I'm kinda stoked.

I can get into both.

I can see here if I flip it, it looks like this one

like, is already got a little age on it.

So we already, all of the meat that we get,

it has already hung for two weeks.

So this is 14 days of age.

Hung as a primal cut or?

Hung as a whole animal. Okay, cool.

Yeah, so killed at the slaughterhouse,

split down the middle, and then hung

because it's got to go through

the whole process rigor mortis.

[Brad] And you said two weeks?

Yeah, the rib sections we usually hold onto

for another two weeks so we'll hit that like,

prime 28, 30 day mark which is

what we really like. That's your sweet spot?

[lips smacking]

It's personal, right? Personal taste.

So this one we were at two weeks already,

so maybe we'll go 30 day?

With both of them.

With both of them. Cool.

So this one will hit that 30 sweet spot,

and then this one, it's got the two weeks on it,

that's gonna bring it to another, a little more nutty,

I'm very curious to see how the grass-fed beef is gonna age

compared to the other.

It's gonna be wildly different.

Let's talk how we're gonna pull this stunt off.

Okay.

I know I've seen your guys' video, loved it.

Aw, thanks. Yeah.

And how you did already what I'm brought you

on to help me do.

And that is create a dry-aging atmosphere,

is essentially what we're trying to do, right, at home!

Or in this case, in the One World Trade Center.

It's close to home. Yeah, you brought us on

to do it and we brought Chris Kronner on to do it with us,

so, thanks Chris.

Yeah, thanks Chris. Thanks Chris.

Love that guy.

Let's start off, we've got a mini fridge, okay.

Come on, over here and see.

Perfect!

Oh it's a mini-fridge!

The mini fridge section.

We've got just a standard mini fridge.

And look, it's got a little fan in there.

Okay?

Good looking fan.

Good looking fan, one of the best.

Yeah.

[laughing] Yeah, get that fan content. Shut up.

That's the stuff.

What are we even doing here?

You don't even need us!

[laughter] You've got the fan.

And then this is just a little fancy doo-dad

that, you know, you could do this probably without it,

but I have it, why not monitor it?

This is just going to tell us the humidity.

In this atmosphere,

what do we need to get a properly dry-aged beef atmosphere?

Only three things. Okay.

Air flow, you already got it.

That's the fan?

Yup. That's the fan.

We got humidity controls.

You want about 70 to 80 percent.

The third thing you need is temperature control,

which you have.

You want to keep it under 41 degrees.

All right, back over to the work station.

[laughter]

Phew, oh! Yeah!

And we're back. I'm gonna ask you guys.

You know, we were driving over to Prime Foods,

and I said I know a couple of people that have dabbled

with doing some, some dry-aged pork too.

Wa-boom!

Long story short,

you brought in a nice little piece of-- what is this?

[Both] A rib, a rib chop? Yeah!

Shorter end rib chop.

Actually, pretty much-- The classic pork chop.

Pretty much of the same part as these two right here.

Right Same thing.

Just on a pig. Yup.

And we'll just, we'll pop that in there too.

Just a little experiment-- Yeah, why not?

I want to see how it goes, you know?

But would that go in the same amount of time as beef?

No.

No?

I mean you can... Oh no.

You can, but-- There are no rules, but no.

Yeah.

We differ on this.

Brent, go for it.

What do you think?

Different saturated fats between beef and pork.

This has a higher saturated fat content,

so the fat content of pork is meant to be dried,

but it's meant to be dry cured.

That's why pork works so well...

Like prosciutto or...

Exactly.

Different than beef,

you kind of really want to eat that as a steak,

and it gets better actually dry aged.

So you can do this with pork,

but you're probably only going to get a week,

maybe two out of it.

So other than it's just a cool experiment,

you don't think it's doing much for the pork?

I mean you went out of your way

to get this amazing fridge,

so you might as well.

Oh we're going to try, and we're going to eat it.

[laughter] No matter how it tastes.

I promise you that. [laughter]

What do you think?

I think we got one life to live,

and I want to live it to the fullest.

Awe, you guys are a cute couple.

I'll tell you what.

[laughter] Oh actually-- [laughter]

You don't mind if half of that life

is with an upset stomach.

[Laughter]

No!

I'll take it.

I think with this,

I would monitor what are your water loss size.

Where your water loss is at, and not the number of days.

So I would say let's weigh this.

We should probably weigh them all

just so we know, like, what we're doing.

Yeah I got my notebook, I got a pen, hello!

Here we go.

Wow, science!

Beef John, okay,

and Beef Hook.

Beef Hook, we gotta...

We should probably--

[Both] Trademark that!

Everybody stay away from that because it's ours now.

So Johnny boy, what's he clocking in at?

3132!

I like even numbers.

3132 grams.

Okay.

All right.

And this is Beef Hook.

This is beef hook.

Whoa!

Weighing in at 4 thousand, 900..

Oh no.

4022.

Let's take 4020.

Okay.

4020, 4020.

Easy number.

Little puerco

is 2211.

All right.

Back over to the box.

[suspenseful music]

[laughter]

Johnny boy.

Johnny boy!

[Brad] Johnny boy, go right in there.

Next.

[Brent] Beef Hook.

Beef Hook coming in strong.

Last but never least.

That's right.

[Brent] Little puerco.

Oh cute thing.

[Ben] Look at it.

Cute as a little button.

[Brad] All right, great.

It looks great.

We got a fan going.

I'll keep an eye on the humidity.

You said right around 70?

[Ben] Anywhere between 70 and 90.

70 and 90. I like higher.

So that way you get less water loss,

but you're still having that enzymatic breakdown.

Enzymatic breakdown.

Back to the board, boys.

Let's talk about that.

All we're doing with aging,

is trying to get rid of effects of rigor mortis.

Okay. So..

We have the protein molecules--

Rigor Mortis being... Yeah, like.

I know what it is. What happens--

In case someone doesn't. Yeah.

It's...

What's it look like?

It looks like that.

That's it. Accurate.

[laughter] We want to prevent that--

Yeah. From happening.

What you have when you go through rigor mortis

is actin and myosin:

which are the protein molecules

that help you kind of, like, firm your muscles up.

Those are kind of, like, stand strong.

Yeah, there we go.

[laughter]

That was good.

So is this something that would naturally happen?

It would naturally happen.

So let's say Charlie the cow

kicks over in the pasture?

Rigor mortis happens,

and then the enzymes,

which now are pretty much dormant,

they're going to go buck wild.

They just kind of attack all the proteins,

and they start breaking those down.

So they start making the meat more tender, more flavorful.

They start converting the sugars.

Mother nature is a hell of an artist here, right.

So I mean, this is already pre-programmed into the meat.

Yeah.

And we're just trying to capture that, right?

Exactly. Setting up

over time you know,

before the mushrooms come,

and the maggots out in the field with Charlie.

[laughs]

What am I getting at?

[laughter]

I was with it, man!

I was like: yeah, man.

[agreeing in unison]

We're there.

Now when should I start weighing these for loss?

Tomorrow, next day?

No! No, no, no.

Give it a week.

At least a week.

We forgetting anything?

Hugs?

Hugs!

[laughter]

We did forget the hugs.

Hey, get that hug in here.

Oh! Oh, yeah, there it is.

[laughs] Come on in here.

[sad music plays]

Thank you guys.

Thank you.

I'm going to try, and get you guys back in here.

So when we're done, we can do a little side by side

taste of our dry aged product.

We got to come back and eat the steak?

Yeah, you're gonna have to come back,

and eat the steak.

I know, I know.

It's terrible, right.

[sighs]

All right.

Yeah, bud. All right.

Someone's got to do it.

It's in the contract.

You guys sign something?

[laughs]

No.

Shut it down, shut down.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cut! Shut it down!

[laughs]

All right, we're secure.

It's a wrap.

Fine work today, everyone.

Except you, Kevin.

[dramatic music plays]

[lounge music]

[dramatic music plays]

Well Hunsey, we got evicted.

Well, good thing we're done on Thursday.

[Brad] Suckers.

All right, let's take a peek at the goods.

I just let the pork go.

We just let it go.

Oh yeah!

Wow!

Ooh, you smell that?

Well no, you can't.

But boy, I can.

[Brad] What I've been doing

as we've been battling with the humidity,

See we got this little, buh,

paper towel,

and look at this.

Check out this, I'm pretty slick.

I just put it right above,

right above the fan,

and it dries it out rather quickly.

I just add in moisture too.

Now look, we can watch the humidity go up.

Come here.

Look at that.

Freaking flying.

It's going down.

[laughs]

[sad trumpet blows]

You know it works.

[lounge music]

You guys came in, it was November 6th.

It was a Friday, I remember very clearly.

Very clearly.

What a great day.

I'll never forget, I wrote it down.

[laughter]

So I had this little humidity set-up.

A little reader.

Right now we're at 72 percent,

and you guys were saying ideally you want to be at 80s, 90s.

Yeah.

The temperature is a little high

because I opened the door a bunch of times.

Couldn't wait until Christmas morning.

I did not, no.

You got to open your presents early.

I always peek, and then tape them up a little.

[laughter]

Did it stay at 72?

It got down to the 60's, it got up to the 90's.

Whoa.

We had fluctuation.

You had a wild time.

[Ben] Oh those shrank.

[Brad] They shrank.

We pulled moisture, huh?

It looks amazing.

What I was doing,

I was taking a rolled up paper towel.

I got a little container of water back here.

I was just placing that above the fan.

Closing the door, and it was just pulling all the moisture.

Science.

Science!

And it was working,

but I had to do it every day

because this small unit,

the refrigerator was just pulling out moisture.

Let's bring it to the board.

Yeah, to the table, boys!

I can't wait to weigh these.

[ Brad] Oh, they're lighter.

[laughs]

I think we lost like seven percent in first seven days.

[Both] Oh, wow.

[gushing in unision]

That it.

Yup, yup, you got it.

Different angle.

Oh, yup.

Who knows math?

Not me.

Okay.

My iPhone is pretty good at it.

We'll start with you guys.

Great.

The Meat Hook one.

It's at 3740.

3740.

What was the O.G.?

4020.

That's not, what?!

So that's only about a 7 percent loss?

Oh, no, no, no.

4200.

Four thousand two hundred.

This was a mistake.

It had to have been.

I forgot to tell you guys in the note taking.

I think when we jumbled them down on Friday,

me being me,

I think I [beeps] that one up.

I actually think it might have been your fault.

I think you might have said it wrong.

Oh I remember now.

Definitely Ben's fault, definitely Ben's fault.

[Brent] Definitely. Yeah.

Thanks Ben!

It's fine, it's fine.

He said 4020, and I think he meant what you said: 4200.

Well this science experiment is off

to a great start already.

No, we gotta do it again!

[Brent] It's not like we filmed it.

No, it had to have been.

It had to have been 4020.

[Ben] Okay.

So we roll with that. 4200.

Yeah. All right.

So according to my math,

as someone with no experience in math,

that's an 11 percent loss.

Okay.

I don't think it's right.

Maybe even 4200 might not even be right.

It might be 40 thousand...

[laughs]

Next we'll do-- Johnny boy!

I can't believe how much this shrunk.

I know. It's insane.

It's unbelievable.

2513.

[Ben] That's 20 percent loss.

[Brad] 20 percent? Really?

I think the pork might have shrunk the least.

Oh!

I'm so excited!

I'm so excited about this.

You guys recommended 14 days,

but I was like forget it.

You know, these guys are coming in 32 days.

They don't know [beeps]

And, uh, let's just let it go.

It was kind of, like, doing happy things.

I feel like it was because the humidity

was significantly lower for a longer period of time,

and ours is higher,

like that's why it'll get sticky faster.

Have you ever seen the movie C.H.U.D.?

C.H.U.D. ?

Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers?

No.

Okay, when we age pork at 90 percent humidity,

that's what it looks like.

Yeah.

It looks like something that, like,

grew up in the new york sewer system.

Oh wow. Yeah.

And then came out, and terrorized the city.

Moldy?

Moldy and like...

Really sticky, and.. It's wet.

Yeah, it's bad.

It's bad [laughs].

That's why I was against it.

But when you cut into it,

I like that flavor.

It was primo.

Ope.

Well boys, I cracked the code.

You did, you did it.

I did it!

Lower humidity. Invoice is in the mail.

2211, to start.

1875.

That is 15 percent.

All right, boom.

Right there.

So we're 15 percent pork,

we're 20 percent on the Johnny boy--

Johnny! We were only 11 percent?

11 percent.

On the boys. Interesting.

This is...

That's a wild fluctuation.

Hunsey, you want to get a cool shot

for the sake of steaks?

Get out of my frame, Hunsey.

Can I get you in frame?

[laughter]

That's the stuff.

I've never trimmed one up.

I'd love to watch one of you guys

if you're comfortable doing one first.

Absolutely.

Start by taking the feather bones off

which we don't have any here.

[Brad] Okay. Easy peasy.

[Ben] Sean took care of you, we did not.

[Brad] It's fine, guys.

I'd have never known.

[Ben] I'm just sorry for the big day.

Can I tell my Christmas story?

[Brad] Yeah!

For Christmas,

this is what we sell the most of every year.

[Brad] Great story.

Brent, interrupt, and yeah that it's.

[Brad] Got to write that one down for the grand kids.

[Ben] Yeah, exactly.

[laughter]

But I was breaking one right here,

and we had another guy right here,

this guys James.

I was taking out those buttons and my knife slipped,

and went straight into my arm.

It was, like,

objectively hilarious because my arm

just sprayed blood all over James' face and hat.

It was amazing.

[whistles] Anyway, that's my story.

♪ Working in a butcher shop. ♪

[laughter]

I went to the hospital with all these wrapping around it.

They put a band-aid on it? [laughs]

Yeah, I had like four doctors around me,

and they they like take it off,

and I have just a small little scar,

and they're like Get the [beeps] out.

I'll tell you what though,

puncture wounds hurt like hell, right.

Yeah, it did not feel good.

My [beeps] arm was like-- I got stabbed once.

Yeah?

Not this kid. Let's not get into that.

[laughter]

[lounge music]

So what do you guys like to do with some of these trims?

We're going to reserve all of this,

and what we do is mix it with fresh ground beef,

and it is a perfect...

That's dry age burger rind.

That's flavor. Exactly.

[Brad] Wow.

Oh wow.

[Ben] Well, that's a pretty good way of showing exactly--

[Brad] What's going on. The difference, yeah.

[Brad] Wow.

The texture is so much firmer, huh?

Oh my god, yeah.

[Brad] And this is the raw un-aged version of that.

Comparison shot.

That looks awesome.

[Ben] Looks amazing.

[Brent] That's going to taste so good.

So we're just going to trim just enough.

Oh it smells so good.

[Ben] Can I smell it?

[Brad] Yeah, you get in there, bud.

[Ben] Just the tiniest-- Oh, man.

[Brad] Of the fat? Of the fat

on the outside.

[Brad] Okay, just get that fresh,

fresh pearly.

Exactly.

'Cause if you render this fat down...

Funcois? Exactly.

It's going to be super funky,

and we're going to get enough of that from the steak itself,

so we want to clean it up just a little bit.

Yeah, I love it.

Boom. Awesome, that looks so good.

All right, we got a steak.

I'll do one.

Whatever you want to do.

I'll cut this one. Okay.

Whoa. Oh, mama, huh?

[Ben] Whoa, that is really firm.

[whistles]

[Brad] Wow, that's even trimmed a little.

We should really do that.

Smells like dry aged beef.

Yeah?

Kind of looks like dry aged beef.

[whiffing]

It doesn't have like the earthy,

mushroomy-ness of dry age which is really nice.

It just smells more intensely like beef.

Intense beef. Yeah.

All right, nice.

Let's cut the pork.

I'm so excited you ignored us completely,

and just went with the 30 days on this.

[Brad giggles]

I'm so excited to try this.

[laughter]

[Ben] Guess what, the skin is really hard.

[Brad] Oh, leather now. Yeah.

[Brad] That's cool.

You can see the blade under the skin.

Yeah, real cool, Brad.

[Both Brent and Ben] It is cool.

[Brad] Yeah, thanks guys!

Look at that.

There's your baby boy.

[Brad] Wow. That looks great.

[Brent] It looks amazing.

[Ben] Huge visual difference.

[Brad] All right, get that one out of here.

Slap that raw in.

[Ben] All right. Boom!

[ Brad] Yeah, look at that.

Tightened it right up.

That looks like a joy to cook.

We'll put a little salt on these bad boys,

and we'll cook them up.

I think it works.

How do you guys like to cook?

I mean, I want to taste the meat.

I don't want to go covering this up with jazz.

No. Simple.

How do you feel about salt content?

Too much? Lots.

Lots, right? Yeah, lots.

Yeah, as much as it'll hold on its surface.

[laughs]

Pick your pan, boys.

I need a big boy because I got a big--

Yeah, you get the big, and you get the small one.

All right, all right, all right, all right.

[sizzling]

Oh yeah, that smells good.

[Brent] Zingo-bingo.

[Brad] I had this asthmatic, oh I'll wait for Hunsey.

This is a fun story.

I've been fighting.

I had this like asthmatic bronchitis like a week ago,

but they got me on this steroid, prednizone.

Man!

I'll tell you what, that stuff is like [beeps]

class 1 drug or some [beeps].

I'm bouncing off the walls.

Perk you up? [ laughs]

Yeah man, I feel, like, I'm like,

like I want to clean the house.

I want to freaking yell at people.

I feel like I'm on steroids,

like I hear people get like road rage.

I got like a little.

[guitar chord strums]

[Ben] You can see how much fat is rendering in that pan

just from starting on the fat side edge.

[Brad] All right, I'm going to sear.

[Ben] Get it going.

[Brad] Woo!

[Brent] Steak and eggs?

[Brad] Oh, yeah!

[Ben] That's funky.

[Brad] That's pretty good though.

[Ben] Yeah, that's good.

That's going to be good.

[Brent] Prednisone?

[laughter]

[Collectively] Woo!

[laughter]

Where's my money?

[laughter]

Let me do some pushups really quick.

I need these steaks.

Think I might put it in a blender with some [beeps] milk.

[laughter]

What happened in the last 30 seconds?

Anybody?

[lounge music]

[Brad] What do you guy call, what's this called?

[Ben] Rib cap.

[Brad] The rib cap, what's the other name for it?

It starts with an S or something.

No?

[Chris Morocco] Spinalis?

[Brent] Yes.

[Brad] Yes, something like that.

[Ben] Thank you!

Wow, from the back court.

Yeah he's good like that.

That too rare for you guys?

[Both] No.

[laughs]

I like the texture.

When it's rare, the dry age is easier to eat.

Yeah.

Like the fresh steak sometimes,

Andy get in there.

I think rare also shows the textural difference

between un-aged and aged. It's like tuna.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I love that. It's really good.

It is really good. It's very light.

It is.

Like very... Clean.

Yeah.

The funk is very subtle if...

It's not even funk, it's more just like...depth.

So this is Meat Hook.

This is a total of 45 day now dry aged.

A hundred percent grass fed.

Yeah. Kinder oak farm.

Woo!

Doing the good work.

[Brent] Oh yeah.

[Ben] Just heat it through.

[Brad] Just warmed it up a bit, huh?

So good.

I actually don't mind any of this rare.

If it was fresh, I wouldn't like it as much.

But dry aged, I kind of like it a little rare.

I think the tuna is a good comparison

because you get more minerality out of grass finished beef.

When it's dry aged--

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like the combination of those two things--

Do that.

I think eats like tuna.

Andy you should stick around for the pork too.

It's time.

I'm so excited for this.

[Brad] The texture looks great.

I mean, I keep comparing it to fish,

but it looks like swordfish.

I've never tasted pork that tastes like that.

It's so good.

And there's that sweetness to it.

A little sweetness. Noticed that immediately.

It almost has, in the best way, like a wild gaminess.

Yeah, yeah.

I feel like that's a good way to describe it,

and the texture is just...

The texture is phenomenal. The texture is incredible.

It's also interesting that, like,

I feel like with dry aged beef,

every one is like:

Blue cheese, mushroom. Yeah, no.

You don't get any of that with this.

I'm getting like acorn, grassy.

It's delicious.

That's very good.

Let's not say it too loud...

All right, I was wrong.

So that other people come over,

[whispers] but it's very good.

Well, I really didn't see

the pork chop being the dark horse in this race.

[Brad] Yeah!

You know, that's what I love about it.

It was a good experiment, you know?

A little wild card is sometimes a little happy accident.

Yeah. Totally.

[lounge music]

FaceTime.

Johnny!

Hello!

Oh, I'm sorry.

Hey, John, I'll call you back in one minute.

I did audio only by accident.

[John On The Phone] Okay.

Okay, sorry.

Okay, how?

I don't know how to do this.

Oh, video.

All right, there he is.

Today I cut up,

and cooked the meat that we dry aged here.

Came out pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie.

I wanted to check in with the,

with the nice slab of meat that we left with you

in your optimum conditions.

How's that going?

It's looking pretty nice.

[Brad] Yeah? [laughs]

It's pretty nice.

You want to take a walk and...

[Brad] Yeah, let's take a walk man.

All right.

There he is!

Wow!

Reserved [laughs], look at that.

Amazing.

Yeah, oh wow.

That looks great.

Mine got so much darker.

Probably because it was dryer, right,

and a smaller atmosphere.

Yeah if it... that's pretty customary.

If a piece is,

If it's too dry--

[Brad] It's just gonna...

Right.

[Brad] That makes sense.

But again, like we said,

there's no right or wrong.

[Brad] Preference.

There's only trial and error.

[Brad] Right, it's learning.

And as long as you enjoyed the steak, and the flavor.

[Brad] Oh God, it was amazing.

Well hey. What.

Thanks brother, and have a good holiday, man.

You too, all the best.

All right, I'll let you know when the video comes out.

[John] Okay.

Looking forward to it.

Later, bro!

[John] Bye.

[line beeps]

Oh end, and accept.

Hello?

[Automated Voice] Due to a suspicious activity

related to your Social Security number,

we have been forced to suspend your Social Security number.

Oh no!

[lounge music]

If there's one thing I learned

from this dry aging experiment with you guys,

and with John from Prime Foods,

is that there is no point in doing this with just--

Don't just go to some B.S. supermarket and get--

[Brad] You have one ingredient, you know,

which is the meat that you're using

to the best means of your abilities,

get the best that you can.

Couldn't agree more.

Couldn't agree more, yeah.

You're absolutely right.

You spent thirty days, like,

putting a paper towel in there,

making sure the moisture is right.

It becomes all babying.

[Both] Yeah.

[Brad] Make a rag if you want.

Get into it.

Find out how you can battle humidity problems,

and share them with me in the comments.

Just get out there, experiment,

learn, make friends, dry age things.

If you make mistakes, do it again.

It's what life's all about.

Gentlemen, thank you.

It was awesome.

Thanks man. Thank you.

This is great.

[Ben] Let's eat the rest of this pork.

[Brad] Yeah, all right.

[Automated Voice] In case we do not hear from you,

your social will be blocked permanently.

To connect with the officer now press--

What do we think?

Hunsey, scam or no scam?

We're gonna go scam.

I'm pretty sure that's not how Uncle Sam calls you, is it?

[Automated Voice] Regarding your social sec--

[beeps] you.

[Brad] Can you see her?

That's who called me?

Lady Liberty, that was her.

So I don't have a Social Security anymore, huh.

I mean we've tried it.

[Brad] We've pushed the envelope. I'm sure, yeah.

We've over passed 1000 days.

Have you eaten a thousand year old?

A thousand day? A thousand day.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And do you get those big...

It was, it was...

I don't know why I'm saying goodbye.

You're going to be hearing a lot of out me.

All right, good.

Within the 45-90 days.

Nick, Brad's calling again.

Please, I can't do it again.

Let the phone ring. Yeah, can you FaceTime?

[laughter] It's like three times a week

this guy is trying to FaceTime this piece of meat.

[laughs]

[lounge music]