Choosing the right meat
Choose an intramuscular marbled peace, for example, Ribeye, Entrecote, Roast beef or ideally Heifers meat. Everything between 2 and 8 Kilo is ideal, avoid aging single steaks. The meat should be marbled with a layer of fat, to prevent precious muscle meat loss. The meat should not be wet-aged, (wet aging in a vacuum bag) or stored in a cooling chamber for too long. Please consider that through dry-aging your meat can lose up to 10% on weight per aging week. Further weight loss occurs through skinning the dry crust.
Hygiene
Please always wash your hands before working with fresh meat. Cleanliness is essential to avoid possible contamination.
Preparation
Portion out the suitable amount of meat for the bag. Do not wash or dry the meat before putting it in the bag. Do not remove any meat juice; it is needed for the drying process. Too much tampering increases the risk of germs cultivating and contaminating the meat.
Fill the bag
To ensure a perfect sealing, avoid fluids around the welding area. Flip the fringe of the bag inside out, to avoid any contact with liquids while filling it. When done stuffing, flip the fringe back to the origin and press any excess air out of the bag.
Adjust the bag
Remove excess material down to 8 cm. (3 inches)
Vacuuming & Welding
Since the LAVA Dry-Aging-Bags do not have a structure, we help ourselves out with a gimmick: we have provided structured foil stripes which you place on the top of the fringe, so that the air can get
Important:
After vacuuming and welding, perform a second welding. Cut down the excessive stripe down to the welding suture. Then place the bag on the Welding ledge, not into the vacuuming area.
Start dry aging
Place the vacuumed meat in the fridges coldest area, preferably on a grill shelf. The temperature should be between +1 and max. +4°C. Best results are achieved around +3°C. Make sure to have enough space in your fridge to ensure good air circulation. Avoid the Dry-Aging-Bag is getting in touch with other products in your fridge, do not place anything on top of the Dry-Aging-Bag. We recommend a no-frost fridge to ensure best results. However, conventional refrigerators have delivered excellent results too.
The Dry-Aging process
In the first 3 to 5 days the membrane material in the LAVA A-Vac Dry-Aging-Bag starts to connect with the meat. To ensure the best result, you should avoid any movement of the bag. Depending on your liking, you can age the meat up to 28 days. A longer aging is not needed and only changes the taste marginal. We recommend a maturation period of around 25 days.
Trimming the meat
After the aging has reached the desired maturation, remove the meat out of the bag. The meat should be darker than before and have a hard crust. The scent should not be unpleasant. The crust can be removed before consumption and used for fonds.
To Success!