Tried dry-aging a rib primal in my home fridge, got green mold by day 10

I got a small rib primal from my supplier a couple weeks back and thought I'd try dry-aging it myself. Set it up on a wire rack over a tray, fan on low, fridge at 34 degrees. Checked it every couple days, looked fine until day 10 when I saw this weird green fuzz in the fat cap cracks. Threw the whole thing out, lost about $60. My buddy who works at a butcher shop said my fridge humidity was probably too high (like 70% plus), and you need it closer to 80-85% with good airflow. I learned you really can't just wing it without a setup meant for aging. Anyone else try this at home and have it go south?

2 comments

2 Comments

hayden14426d ago

Your buddy's right about humidity being higher than you'd think, you really need a dedicated setup or those old fridge mods with a humidifier and sensor to keep it stable. That green mold is a bad sign, probably lost a lot more than just the meat if it got into your fridge's air.

bennett.mason26d ago

Green mold means you went straight to the bad kind. The humidity thing is tricky because most home fridges are designed to keep stuff dry, not wet. Your buddy's numbers sound right but getting there without a dedicated setup is a pain. It's like so many things people try to DIY. You see it with bread starters, fermenting hot sauce, even curing your own bacon. Everyone thinks they can just set it and forget it but every little variable matters. Humidity, temp, airflow, they all have to be dialed in together or you just end up with a science experiment gone wrong. Learned that one the hard way with a batch of sauerkraut that went fuzzy.