Tried dry aging beef in my walk-in for 45 days and the smell about ran me out of the shop

Alice Hart · 2026-09-24T04:00:03.858745+00:00

I've been cutting meat for 22 years and always just stuck to the basics, but last spring I got it in my head to try dry aging a whole ribeye primal in the back of my walk-in. I rigged up a little fan and a tray of salt, figured I'd give it 45 days and see what the fuss was about. Around day 30 the smell hit me every time I opened that door, kind of a nutty, funky thing that made me second guess the whole deal. My part timer Jake kept asking if something died back there, and I almost tossed the whole thing at day 38. But I trimmed it up and cooked a steak for myself and the flavor was so deep and beefy I just stood there in the cutting room. I lost about 30 percent of the weight to trim, which at $11 a pound hurt a bit. Ended up selling the rest as a special to a couple regulars who still ask for it. Any of you run a dry age program and do you bother with a dedicated fridge or just wing it in the walk-in like I did?

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Tried dry aging beef in my walk-in for 45 days and the smell about ran me out of the shop | Butchers - Chatter Central