Dry-Aged Steak: Why You Need to Try It
- by Omaha Steaks
- Last updated Jun 11, 2024
Dry-aged beef is a traditional butcher’s technique that’s difficult and slow, so almost no one does it. It’s uncommon to see dry-aged beef today, but as America’s Original Butcher, it’s an important part of what we do. Learn more about the dry-aging process and what makes dry-aged steak an amazing experience.
Why Dry-Aged Steaks?
Intense Flavor
Dry aging beef literally concentrates the flavor. In carefully controlled temperature and humidity conditions, the beef is allowed to change on its own. What happens is that moisture slowly evaporates from the outermost layers, and the tissues begin to naturally break down. The beef does actually get smaller, so all of the earthy, deep flavor of an aged steak is concentrated in every bite. It’s also a good part of why dry-aged beef is so expensive – not only does it lose weight in the process, but the butcher carefully carves away the outer layers, making every bite even more precious.
Extreme Tenderness
As steak ages, the connective tissue in the muscle breaks down and creates natural tenderness in the beef. A longer aging process = more tenderness. Many steaks available to you aren’t aged at all. Omaha Steaks and Omaha Steaks Private Reserve are aged at least 28 days… and our Dry-Aged beef program stretches that time to a full 60 days. We settled on 60 days because it’s the perfect balance of sublime tenderness and right flavor. Our Private Reserve dry-aged steaks are hand-selected for marvelous marbling, which melts into flavorful butter when the steak is cooked.
Served by Exclusive Steakhouses – And At Your House
Create a world-class steak experience at home. Our Dry-Aged Bone-in New York Strip and Dry-Aged Bone-in Ribeye are hand-selected for dry-aging and hand-carved into massive steakhouse cuts. Our Dry-Aged steaks are true works of butcher’s art with amazing flavor and superior tenderness, making them an amazing steak gift.
Now, that you know what distinguishes dry-aged beef, let’s discuss how we make that happen. With over 107 years of butcher experience, we have perfected the art of aging and cutting the perfect steak.
What is Dry Aging?
Aging techniques brings out the natural tenderness of beef by allowing its enzymes to slowly break down the connective tissue in the meat. Most beef sold in stores doesn’t get aged at all, or the market is guessing at its age. Omaha Steaks are aged at least 28 days in carefully controlled conditions sealed in airless packaging.
Our dry-aged steaks are aged in the open air, in a room that’s carefully controlled for temperature and humidity. Open-air dry aging allows the meat to breathe, so it’s acted upon by a variety of microbes… to the naked eye, its dark, rough, even ugly. As it ages, water evaporates from the beef and it loses mass and forms a crust on the exterior (and that delicious flavor at the center). After 60 days, it’s ready for our master butchers.
How We Carve Dry-Aged Steaks
Cutting dry-aged beef into steaks is where the craft happens. The outermost parts of the beef aren’t edible, and all the flavor and moisture has been concentrated in to the middle of the beef that’s never seen open air. The butcher carefully whittles down the big cut of beef until all you see is red meat and the perfect amount of exterior fat. Then it’s sliced into steaks and further trimmed for total perfection.
The steak you’ll eat is powerfully flavorful, incredibly tender, and deep red in color. It’s very rare to find steaks aged this long, and even more uncommon to be able to enjoy dry-aged steak at home, with a 100% Omaha Steaks satisfaction guarantee.
Try our 60-day dry-aged steaks today and taste the difference for yourself. You may never go back to ‘regular’ steak again.
For tips on cooking the perfect steak, check out our guide on how to cook steak and steak doneness guide.
