Got to say this was super interesting experiment Nate. I need you got to come over once again. I got a mad idea but need you to make it happen. It involves DANGER!
as I know Umai bags let oxygen and moisture pass through it. In the vacuum chamber, you create an anaerobic environment. With steak moisture and absence of oxygen, it's perfect for the developement of Clostridium botulinum. Well.. at 35F for 40 days, it's not that bad but it's not 0 risk at all. Don't try this at home guys.
Anaerobic is an understatement, in a vacuum chamber theres nothing else for botulinum to breathe, it's not the same as being vacuum packed and shouldn't allow anything to grow as long as the vacuum is maintained.
About grades, the whole cow is labeled “choice” or “prime”, not the individual cut. This leads to situations where you can have choice that looks like a prime and prime that looks like a choice, just because that specific muscle on that cow was especially good or bad.
As a butcher for many many years...this is a very factual statement! As a Certified Angus Beef dealer, this is even more true. The beef is graded, not the individual primals or sub primals... unfortunately. I personally regrade each cut...as an opinion, when I sell it. Have no issue telling someone this is more a choice grade than a prime. Even though I will make more just slapping the Prime label on it as allowed by law
The pump you had had an ultimate pressure of roughly 5 Pa. This is well enough to vaporize water, even at cold temps. Problem is, you kept your vacuum off most of the time. Water would be drawn from the meat and then condense and collect at the bottom of the chamber. You need to keep the vacuum running at all times. It doesn't help that you have poor conductance as well. I'm not sure that pump could handle running 24x7 for 4 weeks.
@@BelviGER your being fasitious Any standard 2 stroke oil vacuum pump bought from any hardware store 9 desighned for long running hours , so the majority of vacuum pumps cam be run constantly
Wenn man es richtig machen will dann mit einer Membranvakuumpumpe. Die Pumpe dauerhaft laufen lassen und eine Zukunft am besten Stickstoff eingestellt auf 6hPa. Unterhalb von 6hPa wird Wasser zu Eis, das wäre schlecht. Durch die dauerhafte Förderung wird Wasser entfernt und dich den Stickstoffdruck eine Eisbildung verhindert. Ich mache sowas beruflich. Allerdings hat man dann nach 2 Tagen Trockenfleisch
I like how you are now collaborating and having fun with other youtubers. TKOR gave you experience to be a host and now you created something greater. I'm happy to see that.
I agree. I like seeing Nate go off on his own to do his own thing with the style he developed at TKOR. It's like watching a whole new arc of a show you really like!
@@Thats-It I was mad about that for a while and I don't really watch TKOR anymore, but I'm really enjoying the opportunity to see that energy go off in these new directions with food and knives. I feel like we gained something new, rather than lost something. The old videos of Grant and Nate are still up, so now we get to have both.
The bit that was sitting in its own juices wasn't dry aged, it was wet aged (which is akin to leaving the meat in a vacuum sealed bag in the fridge, which Guga just did a video on a few weeks ago). Wet aging does indeed make the steak more tender, but doesn't come with the typical dry age taste. It would be interesting to see if it's possible to combine the two. Perhaps wet age first, and then dry age. But wet aging does have some health concerns that needs to be ironed out before it can be replicated safely. It will rot if left too long, even under vacuum
Maybe dry age and the reintroduce moisture in a vacuum over 2 weeks? the low temps and the vacuum should keep the meat from spoiling. actually seeing the other responses concerning the vacuum being pulled only for 4 min/h and then saturating with water again happend to not harm the wet age process, maybe even a small pump sitting at the bottom pumping meat juices over the cut to get it to be homogeneous?
Why not make a lazer piano and sear the steak with it? Collab of the week for sure. I would say the year but... Nobody watching TH-cam has the attention span to remember it for longer than a week. 2 days is asking a lot actually.
As a kid me and my sisters used to joke that Nate was the “Prince of Random” when he first started hosting videos. I guess this is the full circle of that joke. He really is the true King of Random now
this video is so guga-ish, he got the fancy meats, the salt pepper and garlic powder, the wireless thermometer, even the badass red hot charcoal into the grill montage with rock music lol
Guga's rock music on the montages are so cringey. It's literally like 50 year olds playing the most cringey, cliche fuckin riffs. Worse than nickelback's power chords. I'm serious guys, as a musician, a metal and rock drummer, the music guga uses is just awful. But I also am of the opinion that guga is an idiot and a pawn of the consume, sleep, repeat agenda.
works great. i love that it has stainless steal pot inside th-cam.com/users/postUgkxG-7WiT7ocumjytOpHDFt632PL0pxXRAg and not the one with coating. we used to have a coated pot before, and the coating slowly peels, and i am sure went into the food that we cooked. Absolutely love stainless steel, and will not use a coated product again.This pot has many settings and many buttons, and i need to sit down with a manual to figure out which setting to use. I used the basic functions, and even though i am not technologically skilled, i turned it on and assembled it without any help.Very satisfied with this product overall.
I would reccommend a weekly re-pressurise--drain--turn--revacuum cycle to make a more consistent dry age on the vacc'd steak now that you know the water doesn't leave and the meat had a moisture gradient when untouched
People should always use pink salt (sodium nitrite) to prevent botulism because it is produced by an anaerobic bacteria that could develop in this method.
this is officially the new king of random. you’ve gotten grants editing style almost spot on. record from the kitchen, coming up with the most random yet interesting ideas. i love it, keep it up nate!
I Respect your opinion but I Disagree. He is not the NEW king of random, he is the original Nate from the internet. To be specific, he is not trying to be the new king of random, he is being himself.
Guga did that one in wax (was it cheese wax?), and it worked fine without wasting the outside into pellicle so the drying doesn't seem to be that important, just aging without excess moisture or unwanted microbial action. Maybe you could just seal it up in a good clear bag and keep the outside sterile with a UV light (carefully of course, eyesight hazard there), or more exotically, put the sealed pack through a gamma sterilizer (if you have a USDA accredited irradiation facility around, the USDA site says the exist anyway) before refrigerating for 35-40 days.
Well, since we're on the subject of high-energy EM radiation, you could also try answering the age-old question: "Will synchrotron radiation tenderize/sear/cook a steak?". Maybe the folks at Berkeley could assist. To paraphrase an earlier comment, THAT would be the collab of the year.
@@abydosianchulac2 Those are valid questions. The formation and persistence of free radicals under the effect of X-rays would be a concern, as well as potential secondary reactions that would lead to stable, toxic compounds. However, more traditional methods for cooking steaks, such as searing or grilling, are also prone to forming those reactive and potentially toxic species. I don't see anyone batting an eye when Guga finishes his sous-vide steaks using a flamethrower - though, to be fair, that only affects the surface of the steak while X-rays would penetrate throughout its whole volume. It should be noted that, by definition, free radicals are unstable and reactive species, so they would eventually decay by reacting with nearby molecules and recombining with other radicals. So the question becomes: "Would the X-ray beam produce an unsafe level of free radicals in the steak, and for how long?". How long does one have to rest their X-ray steak, anyways? Important questions for science.
I was under the impression that ‘concentrating’ the entire cut by effectively evaporating off a large amount of the pure water in the beef was a big part of the dry aging process. Then again the wet experiments guga did went pretty well, that pellicle is super wasteful
while in terms of cutting costs i do understand why the financial team at TKOR did what they did with firing their old star hosts, but it was still a pretty foolish idea. i know long before Grant passed away, he already had nothing to do with the content making process anymore, but i am still surprised how nate and callie didnt have creative freedom with making videos. a lot of where the channel started to decline is from how disconnected it seemed from its fans and just did whatever the marketing team Thought may get the most views.
At first, when I learned about you from Tkor if I’m being honest, I really wasn’t on board. After grants passing I missed the old more genuine side of the channel, it just became so corporate. But after seeing you make content on your own let’s me realize you have that passion that grant had, thanks Nate for all the work you’ve put in.
Don't do this. Get a new vacuum chamber, and drain it properly, hang the steak higher, and use a bigger piece of meat for a better chance of big steaks from the center.
So trying to help you understand the reason you think the bottom of the vacuum was the best. It was basically just wet aged steak. Many meat shops will buy and store steaks in their cryovaced bags as a form of wet ageing and that ends up creating basically the same thing you did with the bottom portion of that strip roast. Personally I will buy and wet age an entire roast like that I was taught working in meat shops.
You should probably re-do this experiment to reaccount for the water that was in the vaccuum. Maybe a different result if all the liquid evaporates first?
oxygen would likely cause the meat to go bad faster. but a nitrogen pressurized chamber might be cool. like a pressure pot equipped to hold nitrogen instead of oxygen. increased pressure without the reactivity of oxygen.
Interesting that you mentioned pineapple smell. Pineapple juice has enzymes that break down meat, that is why it is sometimes used for aging/marinading. May even be same stuff that is naturally in the meat, hence the smell. As for other video ideas, well, if jerky is all about just getting moisture out of the meat, then how about "making beef jerky with a 20 ton hydraulic press" ? I mean, who _doesn't_ like some over-pressurised meat planks! :D
I really enjoyed the video! You took the classic dry age video and added your own spin on it, your love of science and experiments will always bring me back
You might be able to control the humidity by changing the temperature in the fridge. Get the right humidity, maybe the dry aging will work better. Also, put a frame under the stake, but you probably already know that.
I think the problem you will always have in a setup like that is inconsistent moisture content. It may help to suspend the meat above the bottom of the container so it is not marinating in it's juices. Add either some sort of rotisserie setup or just flipping it daily would help too.
Follow it up with the bag inside the vacuum chamber. I bet it would hold moisture it does keep more consistently yet (assuming the bag releases enough air not to expand) allow moisture to escape and age further.
Depending on how the bag exactly works, more of the smell/taste will also be left in the steak. The smell is mostly from volatile substances, which have all been sucked out by the vacuum. Additionally, the question of pressure of the vacuum chamber is important too. Most likely his pressure wasn't low enough (due to the juice beeing left at the bottom), I'd have wished for a quick explanation of the pressures he had during the experiment.
Vacuum chamber marinated steak vs regular marinated. Give the regular 24hours in the fridge, do 8 hours of repeat vacuum cycles (1 per hour of restore pressure then pull vacuum again) on the other. On the vacuum cycle one, pull some cycled samples from the chamber to finish their 24 hours in the fridge and have some continue the last 16 hrs under vacuum in marinade. Edit: also pull and test some of the control and vacuum cycled steak at the 8 hour mark.
FYI: There was no need to drill a hole in the fridge and leave the vacuumpump connected. Once you pull the vacuum until the needle stops moving, close the valves, and turn off the pump, that Vevor(esque) pot and lid will hold a vacuum like no other (barring any defects in the valves or rubber). I had something that needed a vacuum for a week and after the initial pumping it held that vacuum for the entire week with the needle not moving even a fraction of a mm. (the vacuumpot itself is kinda like a mason jar - when you put the pot in the fridge while everything is at a room temperature and then gets cooled it'll (to an extent) pull its own vacuum. Especially if there's some paper tissue on the bottom for the moisture to leak into.
I think that "dry age smell & flavour" you noticed was the bacterial action on the beef. Good beef just needs to change texture, not taste imo, so the vacuum method was a success. 👏
tbh this better than the TKOR chanle i used to love TKOR now it has become a vlog chanle thanks for giveing us the joy of The King of random style vids keep going brotha
Hello, there are two type of vacuum pumps: 1.High vacuum 2. High flow For your experiment you need an automatization to eliminate the excess fluid on the bottom. I suggest a solenoid that decompress each day the chamber for 1 min and opens to drain right before the 4 min working tyme of the pump. Second methode would be to use high flow pump that will keep vacuum at lower value like 70Kpa but will sustain the negative pressure with a constant small air flow. This will accelerate your process as you will lose water trough evaporation and also cancel the fluid build up. Sorry for my English.
The bottom part that was sitting in the juices is probably closer to a wet aged product which is basically like dry aging except the water stays it's also the preferred method of aging for companys
Ultrasonic cleaner with vacuum bag sounds very very interesting. will look for that. Of course, Nate knows doneness ≠ color, but a temperature. Always cook to a temp! And, of course we all know that minimizing the gray band = cook as slow as possible. Whether that's Sous Vide, Reverse Sear at 250° ... etc, then, sear at very high temps...
3:30 The thing you're looking for in marbling is low grain size but high grain density. You want flecks of fat all over the place, not big veins of fat running through the meat.
When vacuum pumps are used in food processes they normally use food grade oil in the pumps. Back streaming of oil vapour is a thing and if you left the valve open to your pump when it was shut down, you risk oil running from your pump to the chamber.
Great experiment! I'm glad it all went well. I would have been a little concerned about clostridium botulinum growing in the vacuum, since it grows fine in an anaerobic environment. But maybe that's no different to the Umai-bags that are designed to let moisture out but also to keep air out as well. So, I'm not sure how they compare in that regard - just my initial thought.
Here's one for you. Another internet opinion, who'd have thunk! Use the umani bag in the vacuum chamber. Size cuts to lay flat, flip once. Can stack, but leave air gap and lift bottom one up and put absorbent pad. Perhaps something as well to keep the upper ones from dripping on the lower ones. I'd also try shorter times, as reducing the time would as well make it more appealing to use. I would think planning 5/10/15 days versus 35 would make a huge difference for those of us that would like to plan something special in a shorter time span.
I would like to see what would happen if you put the stake in the vacuum chamber for 20 days and then in the UMAi bags for 20 days. Maybe dump the liquid out of vacume chamber after 10 days. See if you can get the benefits of both methods.
After pulling the initial vacuum, most of the gases building inside should be water vapour. Thus be regulating the pressure inside the vessel, you can regulate the partial pressure of water vapor and can tune the drying process.
Boiling for a 10 minutes will kill Botulinum spores but the toxin they produce that actually kills you needs a lot longer and higher temperatures. He obviously has a medium rare steak so it hasn't reached anywhere close to boiling!
@@TheHuntermj actually reversed, spores require pressure canning heat levels, while the toxin can be neutralized with a little time at 185°F which is hotter than any good steak gets cooked to.
I just want to take some time to admire your dedication to science and these cool experiments. The amount of time and EFFORT you put into your work speaks for itself!!! I don't know much about knifes, meat, or welding, but the way you speak about these things in your videos it keeps me watching! Awesome videos Nate. Long time fan😊😊
For future reference on steak videos just use a sous vide bag especially since your whole channel is based on the scientific process. It's far more replicatable and basically eliminates any inconsistencies in the cooking process. Also if you do this experiment again I would cook the vacuum dry aged one in beef tallow in a sous vide bag so it could rehydrate a bit without losing the flavor or the tenderness.
Lighting will effect color of the steak. A bright white light can mute red color. Also the dry age steak will have a different color. Dry aging does three things. 1. Drying which will concentrate the beef, and making the meat denser. 2. Texture break down. Enzymes and bacteria will tenderize it. Making it break apart more. 3. Aromatics. The bacterial breakdown will cause an aroma bringing forth an umami flavor. Notes of mushrooms and aged cheese tends to be present.
Awesome experiment! I do think a bigger vaccum chamber where you could lay down the beef and elevate it from a flat surface would certainly help consistency. Id be super curious how this would go if cooked on a flat top or iron skillet since the meat would be able to soak in the butter and whatever oil (or ideally beef tallow) you might want to use with a bit of herb like rosemary and sime garlic, and then also get nice crispity crunchety sear. I imagine the dry ages would be significantly better than a control just because of the extra goodness you could soak up
You and Guga should have a 3-way with Plasmachannel vacuum dry aging your meat in a neon plasma. Since the fridge already has a hole in it, you could make it big enough for the vacuum chamber lid to be flush with the outside wall so you can behold the beauty of meat in plasma.
as a chemist who has somewhat experience with freeze-drying, I first thought that you will procude some rather tasty styrofoam. but you didn't freeze-dry but you dried it unfrozen. the only suggestion I have: your vacuum chamber is nice, put either calciumchloride (CaCl2, waterless) or phosphorpentoside (P4O10) at the bottom. it will soak up all the moisture without the need of a vacuum pump. but the meat might get too dry using these methods.
I think it tenderized in the vacuum because of the violent extraction of water under vacuum, similar to the ultrasonic cleaners cavitations. The water was yanked out vs the regular dry age which let it slowly drip dry
10:08 Nate, you're not supposed to sear while the Meater thermometer is in. The plastic bit at the end is not rated to handle searing temperatures, and searing can damage it. It's only for the part when you are waiting for the insides to come up to temp under indirect heat.
Maybe in the chamber, if you do such experiment again. Go in and flip the meat chunk end to end and dump any liquid once a week. That way you should get a more even drying throughout. Cooking them though, that's a process of direct and indirect heating. Spread the coals to one side of the grill. Cook directly over the coals for about two-three minutes per side then move to the side without the coals, thermometer up and close the lid of the grill. Shouldn't take more than twelve minutes total time once the lid is down. Temp to 155 and pull, cover the steaks may cruise a little higher and into the 160 range during the rest period.
as an idea id recommend putting a bag and raising it in the chamber before setting a vaccume. and it would then be able to dry more effeciently as there is no pressure holding back the osmosis.
Combine the bag & vacuum techniques, but lay the meat flat and only age it for 3-4 weeks (half as long). This may give you both the texture & flavor you want. It is possible that the low pressure retarded the function of the enzymes, preventing much of the dry-aged effect. Try & flat stack several layers of meat inside the vacuum chamber. Once a week unseal it & flip them over, removing any accumulated juice at the bottom of the soup pot. This would prob'ly prevent the gradient effect. I'm also curious how long you can preserve meat under vacuum. Perhaps try cutting the meat into thick strips, rubbing it with a strong spice mix & storing it for 6+ months to see if you can get dry-aged biltong or jerky...
Water is a great conductor so I imagine it helps spread heat through the meat easier than dried foods. A good way to think of it is wet food cooks dry food burns.
A large part of dry aging, is in fact the controlled humidity and air around the meat. The humidity and air allow for chemical and microbial processes to occur that change the texture and flavor of the meat. I bet that the "tenderness" in the vacuum aged meat came from the vacuum opening the space between meat fibers, effectively allowing the enzymes easier access to more of the meat fibers or a more uniform access then normal dry aging.
The lower part wet aged. To reproduce that on a easier level. All you need to do is vacuum the meat and leave if in the fridge, no special bags needed just vacuum bags so the moisture does not leave and let the fermentation do its thing(probably why it smelled fermented, because it did). good part: gets very soft, bad part: can smell a bit funky and taste like metal. So you need to play around with it for a bit.
Repeat the test in the Fridge, vacuum but with flipping the meat every few days, and use a vacuum pump that can pull a vacuum and keep it going. As I'm sure you know, in order for all the vapor molecules to be sucked out, they basically have to bounce around randomly, until they can make their way down the vacuum tube to the pump. I think only pulling a vacuum, then running it small amounts didn't do it any justice. Plus, get it so all the moisture boils out.
Fun fact: "Frost Burn" is actually just natural Freeze Drying. What happens is if you don't seal something in a vacuum, the ice will sublimate out of the meat into any open space and then recondense on the surface of the meat, effectively drying it out the exact same way a freeze dryer would (except the vacuum pump would evacuate the water instead of it recondensing on the meat) You did basically the same thing in this video. Just higher Temps and less vacuum
I am no food expert, but in my HVAC career I have a good understanding of a vacuum and what that does to moisture, particularly water. If you pull a full vacuum, 30" Hg, water will boil at around -60, if the whole goal is to get water out? then just pull a vacuum for 4 hours at room temp, and cook it
Prime vs Choice does not take into a lot of factors, like finishing feed and raised conditions. Prime also expects to ensure the yield per animal is lower (which is averaged out and is easier for large processors to achieve). In general Prime grading will cost a farmer more. So great western probably sees no deal benefit to shooting for a higher certification as they are not competing side-by-side in a store.
Lot of moisture so you will need to change vacuum pump oil Often, especially when it becomes cloudy. Also you Need to use digital micron gauge to properly pull to 500 micron. If your oil becomes cloudy change oil, triple evacuation procedure (break vacuum with nitrogen if your having trouble going down to 500 micron) and leave pump on.
Essentially it is, "can I dry age a steak in a freeze dryer with the shelf temperature set to refrigeration temps rather than -30 to -40 degrees" (F or C... -40 is the same for both scales). I used to do a LOT of freeze drying (lyophilization) of pharmaceuticals.
To dry something in a vacuum chamber inside a fridge the first thing is to tweak the thermostat or use a freezer instead, the thing you want to dry won't drip if it's frozen, any humidity that evaporates will be sucked by the pump that must be working all the time. Of course that isn't compatible with aging a steak but you can try to dry a damp book without getting the pages stuck together. Use a zero value book just in case, I never did it myself, I've heard of that process probably back in the 90s
Somewhere is Texas you can hear Hank Hill yelling "Charcoal!?!? Baaaaaaaa". You need some good ole reliable, clean burning propane and propane accessories.
Got to say this was super interesting experiment Nate.
I need you got to come over once again. I got a mad idea but need you to make it happen. It involves DANGER!
I can't wait!
Me neither. Another thing: what if you dry age steak in the lowest freezedry setting?
If you want to reverse-sear with a laser: hit up @styropyro He might have the necessary hardware :D
We already saw what happened to Angel, can we afford to lose Nate too?
I will now wait and see what will happen
as I know Umai bags let oxygen and moisture pass through it. In the vacuum chamber, you create an anaerobic environment. With steak moisture and absence of oxygen, it's perfect for the developement of Clostridium botulinum. Well.. at 35F for 40 days, it's not that bad but it's not 0 risk at all. Don't try this at home guys.
As if
@@DingaLinguhave fun with botulism
Anaerobic is an understatement, in a vacuum chamber theres nothing else for botulinum to breathe, it's not the same as being vacuum packed and shouldn't allow anything to grow as long as the vacuum is maintained.
But botulic toxin dispear when you Cook the food
@@thybaltcarratala2433nope, the toxin stays
About grades, the whole cow is labeled “choice” or “prime”, not the individual cut. This leads to situations where you can have choice that looks like a prime and prime that looks like a choice, just because that specific muscle on that cow was especially good or bad.
As a professional beef eater I will corroborate this comment.
@@rustbucket9318 yes
Good info. I always just use my eye not the grade. Now I know y.
As a butcher for many many years...this is a very factual statement! As a Certified Angus Beef dealer, this is even more true. The beef is graded, not the individual primals or sub primals... unfortunately. I personally regrade each cut...as an opinion, when I sell it. Have no issue telling someone this is more a choice grade than a prime. Even though I will make more just slapping the Prime label on it as allowed by law
I often end up with lower cost cuts of meat such as chuck that beat the pants off of all the ribeyes next to it just from paying attention
The pump you had had an ultimate pressure of roughly 5 Pa. This is well enough to vaporize water, even at cold temps. Problem is, you kept your vacuum off most of the time. Water would be drawn from the meat and then condense and collect at the bottom of the chamber. You need to keep the vacuum running at all times. It doesn't help that you have poor conductance as well. I'm not sure that pump could handle running 24x7 for 4 weeks.
Vacuum pumps are designed to run for very long hre
@bennyvontrap5843 thank God there is zero variations and all vacuum pumps are exactly the same and made for 24/7 operation
@@BelviGER your being fasitious
Any standard 2 stroke oil vacuum pump bought from any hardware store 9 desighned for long running hours , so the majority of vacuum pumps cam be run constantly
Wenn man es richtig machen will dann mit einer Membranvakuumpumpe. Die Pumpe dauerhaft laufen lassen und eine Zukunft am besten Stickstoff eingestellt auf 6hPa. Unterhalb von 6hPa wird Wasser zu Eis, das wäre schlecht. Durch die dauerhafte Förderung wird Wasser entfernt und dich den Stickstoffdruck eine Eisbildung verhindert.
Ich mache sowas beruflich.
Allerdings hat man dann nach 2 Tagen Trockenfleisch
@@dominik1985So 12 - 24 hours should really be enough
I like how you are now collaborating and having fun with other youtubers. TKOR gave you experience to be a host and now you created something greater. I'm happy to see that.
Grant would have never let him go
I agree. I like seeing Nate go off on his own to do his own thing with the style he developed at TKOR. It's like watching a whole new arc of a show you really like!
@@Thats-It I was mad about that for a while and I don't really watch TKOR anymore, but I'm really enjoying the opportunity to see that energy go off in these new directions with food and knives. I feel like we gained something new, rather than lost something. The old videos of Grant and Nate are still up, so now we get to have both.
Boil a soup in a vacuum chamber and taste it 😁
@HaloAceGamerTV he did a video about it. Look that up. It explains everything much better than any of us could just describing the video to you.
The bit that was sitting in its own juices wasn't dry aged, it was wet aged (which is akin to leaving the meat in a vacuum sealed bag in the fridge, which Guga just did a video on a few weeks ago). Wet aging does indeed make the steak more tender, but doesn't come with the typical dry age taste.
It would be interesting to see if it's possible to combine the two. Perhaps wet age first, and then dry age. But wet aging does have some health concerns that needs to be ironed out before it can be replicated safely. It will rot if left too long, even under vacuum
Maybe dry age and the reintroduce moisture in a vacuum over 2 weeks? the low temps and the vacuum should keep the meat from spoiling. actually seeing the other responses concerning the vacuum being pulled only for 4 min/h and then saturating with water again happend to not harm the wet age process, maybe even a small pump sitting at the bottom pumping meat juices over the cut to get it to be homogeneous?
Sear the steak in a 1 million volt arc!
HELLO
Why not make a lazer piano and sear the steak with it? Collab of the week for sure. I would say the year but... Nobody watching TH-cam has the attention span to remember it for longer than a week. 2 days is asking a lot actually.
@@MadBeaver. Why not go full balls to the wall? Pipe Organ that fires mortar shells.
cook a steak with a piano somehow
piano man spotting
As a kid me and my sisters used to joke that Nate was the “Prince of Random” when he first started hosting videos. I guess this is the full circle of that joke. He really is the true King of Random now
this video is so guga-ish, he got the fancy meats, the salt pepper and garlic powder, the wireless thermometer, even the badass red hot charcoal into the grill montage with rock music lol
And meat dealer emilio
He turned them with a fork?
Smell some more collab tho
i wasn't convinced the BBQ was up to temp and the first turn seemed to show issues with the sear
Guga's rock music on the montages are so cringey. It's literally like 50 year olds playing the most cringey, cliche fuckin riffs. Worse than nickelback's power chords.
I'm serious guys, as a musician, a metal and rock drummer, the music guga uses is just awful. But I also am of the opinion that guga is an idiot and a pawn of the consume, sleep, repeat agenda.
works great. i love that it has stainless steal pot inside th-cam.com/users/postUgkxG-7WiT7ocumjytOpHDFt632PL0pxXRAg and not the one with coating. we used to have a coated pot before, and the coating slowly peels, and i am sure went into the food that we cooked. Absolutely love stainless steel, and will not use a coated product again.This pot has many settings and many buttons, and i need to sit down with a manual to figure out which setting to use. I used the basic functions, and even though i am not technologically skilled, i turned it on and assembled it without any help.Very satisfied with this product overall.
I would reccommend a weekly re-pressurise--drain--turn--revacuum cycle to make a more consistent dry age on the vacc'd steak now that you know the water doesn't leave and the meat had a moisture gradient when untouched
People should always use pink salt (sodium nitrite) to prevent botulism because it is produced by an anaerobic bacteria that could develop in this method.
Bullshit. Salt is salt, doofus. It doesn't matter what made it. You're into holistic medicine, aren't you?
Pink salt does not mean sodium nitrite but you are right, when you are not professional use nitrite salt
You should make more videos with guga you guys work amazing together!
We plan to! What would you like to see us try?
@@NFTI Make a knife out of steak!
@@NFTI maybe a cheap vs expensive dry rub/marinade
@@NFTI do another 1000$ Wagyu vid, so he can tell ppl how tender the meat is, while others don't have sht to eat 😍
@@NFTI thermite steaks?
this is officially the new king of random. you’ve gotten grants editing style almost spot on. record from the kitchen, coming up with the most random yet interesting ideas. i love it, keep it up nate!
what? this is literally nothing like the way Grant did it.
I Respect your opinion but I Disagree. He is not the NEW king of random, he is the original Nate from the internet. To be specific, he is not trying to be the new king of random, he is being himself.
no, i disagree, no one will take the title the king of random, thats kinda disrespectful if u think abt it.
Guga did that one in wax (was it cheese wax?), and it worked fine without wasting the outside into pellicle so the drying doesn't seem to be that important, just aging without excess moisture or unwanted microbial action. Maybe you could just seal it up in a good clear bag and keep the outside sterile with a UV light (carefully of course, eyesight hazard there), or more exotically, put the sealed pack through a gamma sterilizer (if you have a USDA accredited irradiation facility around, the USDA site says the exist anyway) before refrigerating for 35-40 days.
Well, since we're on the subject of high-energy EM radiation, you could also try answering the age-old question: "Will synchrotron radiation tenderize/sear/cook a steak?". Maybe the folks at Berkeley could assist. To paraphrase an earlier comment, THAT would be the collab of the year.
@@benedictul The follow up question would be "Is it hazardous to eat," or "Who among our taste testers had a death wish?"
@@abydosianchulac2 Those are valid questions. The formation and persistence of free radicals under the effect of X-rays would be a concern, as well as potential secondary reactions that would lead to stable, toxic compounds. However, more traditional methods for cooking steaks, such as searing or grilling, are also prone to forming those reactive and potentially toxic species. I don't see anyone batting an eye when Guga finishes his sous-vide steaks using a flamethrower - though, to be fair, that only affects the surface of the steak while X-rays would penetrate throughout its whole volume. It should be noted that, by definition, free radicals are unstable and reactive species, so they would eventually decay by reacting with nearby molecules and recombining with other radicals. So the question becomes: "Would the X-ray beam produce an unsafe level of free radicals in the steak, and for how long?". How long does one have to rest their X-ray steak, anyways? Important questions for science.
@@benedictul “species” lol
I was under the impression that ‘concentrating’ the entire cut by effectively evaporating off a large amount of the pure water in the beef was a big part of the dry aging process. Then again the wet experiments guga did went pretty well, that pellicle is super wasteful
I love how Nate's channel has more of TKOR energy Grant started than Grant's original channel has now.
RIP Grant, Keep up the good work Nate❤❤❤
I can't help but laugh how hard Nate's channel absolutely spanks TKOR. I shouldn't enjoy that so much, but here we are.
while in terms of cutting costs i do understand why the financial team at TKOR did what they did with firing their old star hosts, but it was still a pretty foolish idea. i know long before Grant passed away, he already had nothing to do with the content making process anymore, but i am still surprised how nate and callie didnt have creative freedom with making videos. a lot of where the channel started to decline is from how disconnected it seemed from its fans and just did whatever the marketing team Thought may get the most views.
idk how TKOR evolved… I unsubed a while ago… It was not fun anymore.
Yah I was just thinking: this is yet ANOTHER video that’s more TKOR than what TKOR uploads.
@@jena_thornwyrd Yah, TKOR basically became experiments a child could do. “What happens if we pour Elmer’s glue on Fruit-Loops.“
I remmeber their old videos. I attepted to copy Grant's microwave transformer welder when I was in 11th grade. First time I almost killed myself.
At first, when I learned about you from Tkor if I’m being honest, I really wasn’t on board. After grants passing I missed the old more genuine side of the channel, it just became so corporate. But after seeing you make content on your own let’s me realize you have that passion that grant had, thanks Nate for all the work you’ve put in.
If you want to see a time lapse of the steak in the vacuum chamber, check out the story on my Instagram, nate_from_the_internet now!
wet brine should absorb when you release the vacuum right?
My dude, include a link to the video you did with Guga in the description! th-cam.com/video/_S_0Cq7Y_LQ/w-d-xo.html
Cross Promotion!
ham is also dry aged try making ham
I like this Idea and water is a good thermal conductor.😀
Don't do this. Get a new vacuum chamber, and drain it properly, hang the steak higher, and use a bigger piece of meat for a better chance of big steaks from the center.
So trying to help you understand the reason you think the bottom of the vacuum was the best. It was basically just wet aged steak. Many meat shops will buy and store steaks in their cryovaced bags as a form of wet ageing and that ends up creating basically the same thing you did with the bottom portion of that strip roast. Personally I will buy and wet age an entire roast like that I was taught working in meat shops.
You should probably re-do this experiment to reaccount for the water that was in the vaccuum. Maybe a different result if all the liquid evaporates first?
If did this, once a week pull the excess moisture from the bottom and rotate the steak.
maybe line the vacuum chamber with some porous sandstone.
It’d be interesting to see the effect of excess oxygen on dry aging by dry aging in a hyperbaric chamber.
I think the oxygen will make it go bad fast, but doing it in a pressure chamber might be interesting.
oxygen would likely cause the meat to go bad faster. but a nitrogen pressurized chamber might be cool. like a pressure pot equipped to hold nitrogen instead of oxygen. increased pressure without the reactivity of oxygen.
I got super hungry watching this. I need to get some dry age bags now!
The hard part is waiting 35 days.
🤤
I didn't even know you had your own personal TH-cam channel, but I'm so glad I found it
Interesting that you mentioned pineapple smell. Pineapple juice has enzymes that break down meat, that is why it is sometimes used for aging/marinading. May even be same stuff that is naturally in the meat, hence the smell.
As for other video ideas, well, if jerky is all about just getting moisture out of the meat, then how about "making beef jerky with a 20 ton hydraulic press" ? I mean, who _doesn't_ like some over-pressurised meat planks! :D
Man I'm so glad Nate's ideas and efforts are doing great in his own channel. It's great to come back and see his subs and views all up
I really enjoyed the video! You took the classic dry age video and added your own spin on it, your love of science and experiments will always bring me back
You might be able to control the humidity by changing the temperature in the fridge. Get the right humidity, maybe the dry aging will work better. Also, put a frame under the stake, but you probably already know that.
I think the problem you will always have in a setup like that is inconsistent moisture content. It may help to suspend the meat above the bottom of the container so it is not marinating in it's juices. Add either some sort of rotisserie setup or just flipping it daily would help too.
Follow it up with the bag inside the vacuum chamber. I bet it would hold moisture it does keep more consistently yet (assuming the bag releases enough air not to expand) allow moisture to escape and age further.
Depending on how the bag exactly works, more of the smell/taste will also be left in the steak.
The smell is mostly from volatile substances, which have all been sucked out by the vacuum.
Additionally, the question of pressure of the vacuum chamber is important too. Most likely his pressure wasn't low enough (due to the juice beeing left at the bottom), I'd have wished for a quick explanation of the pressures he had during the experiment.
Vacuum chamber marinated steak vs regular marinated. Give the regular 24hours in the fridge, do 8 hours of repeat vacuum cycles (1 per hour of restore pressure then pull vacuum again) on the other. On the vacuum cycle one, pull some cycled samples from the chamber to finish their 24 hours in the fridge and have some continue the last 16 hrs under vacuum in marinade.
Edit: also pull and test some of the control and vacuum cycled steak at the 8 hour mark.
This was really interesting. I really enjoy when we can test science to see immediate benefits! It is fun!
FYI: There was no need to drill a hole in the fridge and leave the vacuumpump connected. Once you pull the vacuum until the needle stops moving, close the valves, and turn off the pump, that Vevor(esque) pot and lid will hold a vacuum like no other (barring any defects in the valves or rubber). I had something that needed a vacuum for a week and after the initial pumping it held that vacuum for the entire week with the needle not moving even a fraction of a mm.
(the vacuumpot itself is kinda like a mason jar - when you put the pot in the fridge while everything is at a room temperature and then gets cooled it'll (to an extent) pull its own vacuum. Especially if there's some paper tissue on the bottom for the moisture to leak into.
So glad to see your channel is thriving Nate!
I think that "dry age smell & flavour" you noticed was the bacterial action on the beef. Good beef just needs to change texture, not taste imo, so the vacuum method was a success. 👏
This is an awesome video. Nate, I feared for your health every bit
tbh this better than the TKOR chanle i used to love TKOR now it has become a vlog chanle thanks for giveing us the joy of The King of random style vids
keep going brotha
Thank you for keeping the spirit of TKOR alive.
Hello, there are two type of vacuum pumps:
1.High vacuum
2. High flow
For your experiment you need an automatization to eliminate the excess fluid on the bottom. I suggest a solenoid that decompress each day the chamber for 1 min and opens to drain right before the 4 min working tyme of the pump.
Second methode would be to use high flow pump that will keep vacuum at lower value like 70Kpa but will sustain the negative pressure with a constant small air flow. This will accelerate your process as you will lose water trough evaporation and also cancel the fluid build up. Sorry for my English.
Great video I just kind of want to see you try it again with a better vacuum or a way to get rid of the extra liquid inside
The bottom part that was sitting in the juices is probably closer to a wet aged product which is basically like dry aging except the water stays it's also the preferred method of aging for companys
Would've been nice to see how much moisture was lost in each of the dry aging methods via pre-dry age weight vs after dry aging.
Ultrasonic cleaner with vacuum bag sounds very very interesting. will look for that.
Of course, Nate knows doneness ≠ color, but a temperature. Always cook to a temp!
And, of course we all know that minimizing the gray band = cook as slow as possible.
Whether that's Sous Vide, Reverse Sear at 250° ... etc, then, sear at very high temps...
3:30 The thing you're looking for in marbling is low grain size but high grain density. You want flecks of fat all over the place, not big veins of fat running through the meat.
Thank you for answering a question I've had for years!
When vacuum pumps are used in food processes they normally use food grade oil in the pumps. Back streaming of oil vapour is a thing and if you left the valve open to your pump when it was shut down, you risk oil running from your pump to the chamber.
Guga is crying internally after seeing those Well Done steaks
Omg I just rediscovered you, and I remember where your from. Glad you have quality interesting content
2:45 "circulation" - in a vacum? :D
Great experiment! I'm glad it all went well. I would have been a little concerned about clostridium botulinum growing in the vacuum, since it grows fine in an anaerobic environment. But maybe that's no different to the Umai-bags that are designed to let moisture out but also to keep air out as well. So, I'm not sure how they compare in that regard - just my initial thought.
Luckily he cooked it medium well 😅😅😅
I'm wondering if the combination of the Umi bags and the vacuum chamber would do anything.
That is a good idea!
No Umi bags work great. He just wrong.
What Guga did to his former partner Ninja is unforgivable. You never stab your friend in the back like that. SHame!
?
It’s always so weird to watch these videos and think about how this video has been in the making for the past few weeks.
While you partied, he vacuumed his meat.
@@why6212 real
Here's one for you. Another internet opinion, who'd have thunk!
Use the umani bag in the vacuum chamber. Size cuts to lay flat, flip once. Can stack, but leave air gap and lift bottom one up and put absorbent pad. Perhaps something as well to keep the upper ones from dripping on the lower ones. I'd also try shorter times, as reducing the time would as well make it more appealing to use. I would think planning 5/10/15 days versus 35 would make a huge difference for those of us that would like to plan something special in a shorter time span.
Guga's next video: "I dry aged steaks in the vacuum of space"
"houston... we have a steak."
Solarflare seared Steak supreme
Cool experiment... tip for vacuum chamber videos: always record the repressurization , haha.
I would like to see what would happen if you put the stake in the vacuum chamber for 20 days and then in the UMAi bags for 20 days. Maybe dump the liquid out of vacume chamber after 10 days. See if you can get the benefits of both methods.
Or just put the bag in the chamber, if vacuum is good.. double vacuum must be better :)
After pulling the initial vacuum, most of the gases building inside should be water vapour. Thus be regulating the pressure inside the vessel, you can regulate the partial pressure of water vapor and can tune the drying process.
I hope Nate is okay, as botulinum can thrive in a vacuum environment
True, but it cannot thrive in a refrigerator or a saline environment, and the toxins produced are destroyed by cooking. I bet he'll be fine.
Yeah that's one of the reasons he cooked it lmao
@@JO-ih7uc if only cooking killed botulism toxin.
Boiling for a 10 minutes will kill Botulinum spores but the toxin they produce that actually kills you needs a lot longer and higher temperatures. He obviously has a medium rare steak so it hasn't reached anywhere close to boiling!
@@TheHuntermj actually reversed, spores require pressure canning heat levels, while the toxin can be neutralized with a little time at 185°F which is hotter than any good steak gets cooked to.
I just want to take some time to admire your dedication to science and these cool experiments. The amount of time and EFFORT you put into your work speaks for itself!!! I don't know much about knifes, meat, or welding, but the way you speak about these things in your videos it keeps me watching! Awesome videos Nate. Long time fan😊😊
For future reference on steak videos just use a sous vide bag especially since your whole channel is based on the scientific process. It's far more replicatable and basically eliminates any inconsistencies in the cooking process.
Also if you do this experiment again I would cook the vacuum dry aged one in beef tallow in a sous vide bag so it could rehydrate a bit without losing the flavor or the tenderness.
So proud of this guy for doing his own channel
Should see if you can keep sliced apples and avocados from discoloring, and last longer, by keeping them in your refrigerated vacuum cham.
Lighting will effect color of the steak. A bright white light can mute red color. Also the dry age steak will have a different color.
Dry aging does three things.
1. Drying which will concentrate the beef, and making the meat denser.
2. Texture break down. Enzymes and bacteria will tenderize it. Making it break apart more.
3. Aromatics. The bacterial breakdown will cause an aroma bringing forth an umami flavor. Notes of mushrooms and aged cheese tends to be present.
i love when something shows up on my timeline and the next thing i know i'm nerding out on vacuum aging meat
Awesome experiment! I do think a bigger vaccum chamber where you could lay down the beef and elevate it from a flat surface would certainly help consistency. Id be super curious how this would go if cooked on a flat top or iron skillet since the meat would be able to soak in the butter and whatever oil (or ideally beef tallow) you might want to use with a bit of herb like rosemary and sime garlic, and then also get nice crispity crunchety sear. I imagine the dry ages would be significantly better than a control just because of the extra goodness you could soak up
You and Guga should have a 3-way with Plasmachannel vacuum dry aging your meat in a neon plasma. Since the fridge already has a hole in it, you could make it big enough for the vacuum chamber lid to be flush with the outside wall so you can behold the beauty of meat in plasma.
as a chemist who has somewhat experience with freeze-drying, I first thought that you will procude some rather tasty styrofoam. but you didn't freeze-dry but you dried it unfrozen.
the only suggestion I have: your vacuum chamber is nice, put either calciumchloride (CaCl2, waterless) or phosphorpentoside (P4O10) at the bottom. it will soak up all the moisture without the need of a vacuum pump. but the meat might get too dry using these methods.
"Moral of story: Gotta go fast!" *yeets the steak*
I think it tenderized in the vacuum because of the violent extraction of water under vacuum, similar to the ultrasonic cleaners cavitations. The water was yanked out vs the regular dry age which let it slowly drip dry
WOW, Nate amazing dude! 😮
10:08 Nate, you're not supposed to sear while the Meater thermometer is in. The plastic bit at the end is not rated to handle searing temperatures, and searing can damage it. It's only for the part when you are waiting for the insides to come up to temp under indirect heat.
i am interested in kiln drying firewood by vacuum vs heat on a large scale as a 40' shipping container. from 25-30 percent to 5-10 percent ranges.
Nate I'm glad you are still making videos.
The estate agent quickly marked out his territory on the dance floor.
Maybe in the chamber, if you do such experiment again. Go in and flip the meat chunk end to end and dump any liquid once a week. That way you should get a more even drying throughout.
Cooking them though, that's a process of direct and indirect heating. Spread the coals to one side of the grill. Cook directly over the coals for about two-three minutes per side then move to the side without the coals, thermometer up and close the lid of the grill. Shouldn't take more than twelve minutes total time once the lid is down. Temp to 155 and pull, cover the steaks may cruise a little higher and into the 160 range during the rest period.
as an idea id recommend putting a bag and raising it in the chamber before setting a vaccume.
and it would then be able to dry more effeciently as there is no pressure holding back the osmosis.
Definitely seems like a lower budget 2018-19 tkor vid, great work. This is the two if content i subbed to tkor for back however long ago
Combine the bag & vacuum techniques, but lay the meat flat and only age it for 3-4 weeks (half as long). This may give you both the texture & flavor you want.
It is possible that the low pressure retarded the function of the enzymes, preventing much of the dry-aged effect.
Try & flat stack several layers of meat inside the vacuum chamber. Once a week unseal it & flip them over, removing any accumulated juice at the bottom of the soup pot. This would prob'ly prevent the gradient effect.
I'm also curious how long you can preserve meat under vacuum. Perhaps try cutting the meat into thick strips, rubbing it with a strong spice mix & storing it for 6+ months to see if you can get dry-aged biltong or jerky...
Water is a great conductor so I imagine it helps spread heat through the meat easier than dried foods.
A good way to think of it is wet food cooks dry food burns.
A large part of dry aging, is in fact the controlled humidity and air around the meat. The humidity and air allow for chemical and microbial processes to occur that change the texture and flavor of the meat. I bet that the "tenderness" in the vacuum aged meat came from the vacuum opening the space between meat fibers, effectively allowing the enzymes easier access to more of the meat fibers or a more uniform access then normal dry aging.
So cool to see different youtubers collaborating! Nice experiment!
The lower part wet aged.
To reproduce that on a easier level.
All you need to do is vacuum the meat and leave if in the fridge, no special bags needed just vacuum bags so the moisture does not leave
and let the fermentation do its thing(probably why it smelled fermented, because it did).
good part: gets very soft, bad part: can smell a bit funky and taste like metal.
So you need to play around with it for a bit.
I’m so glad your channel is popping off after your last gig. Amazing content as always!
vacuum does a splendid job at tenderizing and marinading chicken. do 3-4 pulls for best results. (using the mild vacuum of a fridge compressor)
Repeat the test in the Fridge, vacuum but with flipping the meat every few days, and use a vacuum pump that can pull a vacuum and keep it going.
As I'm sure you know, in order for all the vapor molecules to be sucked out, they basically have to bounce around randomly, until they can make their way down the vacuum tube to the pump.
I think only pulling a vacuum, then running it small amounts didn't do it any justice. Plus, get it so all the moisture boils out.
Really great collab between some of my favorite tubers! 👌
It was funny to see you say "I'm going to keep it real simple, with a fair amount of salt...". MiniGuga!
Just a tip from what I have found for seasoning, is to also put some lemon juice on with the salt and pepper. Idk it give it move flavour
"I drilled a hole into the side of my fridge..."
Me: "Oh my God, please no."
Fun fact: "Frost Burn" is actually just natural Freeze Drying. What happens is if you don't seal something in a vacuum, the ice will sublimate out of the meat into any open space and then recondense on the surface of the meat, effectively drying it out the exact same way a freeze dryer would (except the vacuum pump would evacuate the water instead of it recondensing on the meat)
You did basically the same thing in this video. Just higher Temps and less vacuum
I am no food expert, but in my HVAC career I have a good understanding of a vacuum and what that does to moisture, particularly water. If you pull a full vacuum, 30" Hg, water will boil at around -60, if the whole goal is to get water out? then just pull a vacuum for 4 hours at room temp, and cook it
Prime vs Choice does not take into a lot of factors, like finishing feed and raised conditions. Prime also expects to ensure the yield per animal is lower (which is averaged out and is easier for large processors to achieve). In general Prime grading will cost a farmer more. So great western probably sees no deal benefit to shooting for a higher certification as they are not competing side-by-side in a store.
Nate I am so happy for you, your channel is doing amazing!
Smart plug is a great move. I totally changed our composites workflow with a $5 part.
Thank you for keeping the original King of Random vibe alive! You're the man!
Lot of moisture so you will need to change vacuum pump oil Often, especially when it becomes cloudy. Also you Need to use digital micron gauge to properly pull to 500 micron. If your oil becomes cloudy change oil, triple evacuation procedure (break vacuum with nitrogen if your having trouble going down to 500 micron) and leave pump on.
Can I just say? I am glad you have have branched out from TKOR, may it's it's founder RIP but you are carrying the spirit of it's origins. keep it up
Essentially it is, "can I dry age a steak in a freeze dryer with the shelf temperature set to refrigeration temps rather than -30 to -40 degrees" (F or C... -40 is the same for both scales). I used to do a LOT of freeze drying (lyophilization) of pharmaceuticals.
To dry something in a vacuum chamber inside a fridge the first thing is to tweak the thermostat or use a freezer instead, the thing you want to dry won't drip if it's frozen, any humidity that evaporates will be sucked by the pump that must be working all the time.
Of course that isn't compatible with aging a steak but you can try to dry a damp book without getting the pages stuck together. Use a zero value book just in case, I never did it myself, I've heard of that process probably back in the 90s
Thanks for doing this. I have been thinking about this since you started making experiments with vacuum on TKOR.
Somewhere is Texas you can hear Hank Hill yelling "Charcoal!?!? Baaaaaaaa". You need some good ole reliable, clean burning propane and propane accessories.