Howdy, think I have screwed the pooch on this deal, perhaps I am wrong, but doubt it. So at Christmas we love Prime Rib. Went to HEB got my standing rib roast (prime rib roast) and following an Alton Brown video wrapped in cheese cloth and aged in ice box for 21 days. Turned out great. Got on the Aging Kick of Beef (I am already aged) and went to Amazing Ribs to see what Meathead had to say. Well he recommended these new (new to me) UAMi bags for dry aging. So I go for it and order them. Buy a super thick, huge rib eye to age. Finally get the bag sealed and in the ice box, that was on Monday. For some reason got to checking on the net today only to find they say NEVER AGE A SINGLE STEAK! Supposed to buy cryovac packaged meat. Damn, there is no way that just the two of us could/would be able to consume the quantity of meat that you have to purchase that is cryovaced.

Any Ags every age a single steak from the butcher? Anyone using UAMi bags? Any advice? Have to be cryovaced to insure no contamination?

Feel free to pile on to my dumb stunt, guess I will do the steak tonight.

You'll have to trim it. I'm sure that's why it says don't dry age single steaks, but if your steak is 2-3 lbs then you should be fine, I imagine you'll cut off 1/8 to 1/4 of meat from all sides after its aged.

Thanks Only: I was only going for about 14-21 days, their pitch at the UAMi site is that singles get contaminated. OK I will give them that, but that means all the meat I have probably eaten in my life is/has been contaminated. That said is simply because we usually cook almost directly after purchase that we are not dead of botulism or whatever??

I have aged quite a bit of meat over the last few years. Here is my advice and process...

1. Buy prime meat for aging. I did 2prime ribs side by side one prime and 1 choice. The prime was WAY better.
2. Only buy whole roasts. You are correct that single steaks don't work as there is too much loss during the process.
3. Don't worry about having too much meat. Once a roast is aged you can cut it into steaks that freeze spectacularly well with a vacuum sealer. That way you can have several steaks from the original effort.
4. Use a fridge with lots of space and/or air movement. I have a red bull display fridge for mine that works great.
5. My preference is between 45 and 60 days. 60 was too much for my taste.
6. Cooking it as a roast is good but I prefer the steaks which are phenomenal with just salt.
7. You don't need the bags. All my aging has occured on a wire rack in the fridge with no problems at all.

Thanks CalAG: I do have a 3 lbs Tri Tip wrapped in cheese cloth aging now. I guess I just blew the $60 on the stinkin' UAMi's!

So I am planning on using these as well at some point. I follow Guga on YouTube who has 2 channels: Sous vide everything, and Guga Food. Great tips on there for sous vide, and he does a lot of experiments. He has used these and he does a whole roast or tenderloin, and then when he finishes, he cuts the roast into steaks. At that point you can vacuum seal and freeze so you have individual dry aged steaks on hand. Here is one of his videos on the process

I've used the bags on a whole roast then cut steaks and froze them. Turned out good.

Your biggest issue is simply going to be whether your steak is thick enough to have good steak once you trim the outside. If it started thin, then you are probably out of luck. If it started thicker, you've got a shot. Also, you could go ahead and stop dry aging it now to salvage what is left. Just cut off the dried part and if there is enough steak left to cook, you are good to go.

Separately, if you are worried about contamination, sous vide at 130 for 3-4 hours (or 135 for 2-3hrs) before you cook it. That will kill any contamination in there. If you don't have a sous vide device, you can still sous vide carefully on your stove with a burner set to warm and just check the temperature regularly. See site below for discussion of food safety and temperature.

https://amazingribs.com/technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/safe-serving-temperatures

Also, if money is not an issue, for the future you could dry age a whole steak roast in the Umai bags, trim it, cut it into individual steaks, and then freeze the individual steaks that you aren't going to eat right now. Or if you sous vide, you could go ahead and sous vide before you freeze as well.