How to Quick “Dry Age” Steak with Koji
I love dry aged steak. It’s buttery, tender, nutty, and bursting with umami. However, buying a dry aged steak at the butcher shop can be expensive and making it at home would require investment in special equipment and large quantities of meat. No thank you (at least for now, living in a 500 sq ft apartment). Then, I was introduced to Koji.
Koji is cooked rice and/or soy beans that have been inoculated with a fermentation culture. It is used to make soy sauce, miso, mirin and sake. Koji digests starches and proteins and breaks them down into sugars and amino acids - very similar to the process that occurs while dry aging. Koji also imparts the sweet, salty and savory flavors associated with “umami.” I had read about this process online, and figured I had to give it a try. Come along and watch this unfold…
Ingredients:
1/4 cup Dry Koji - blended into a powder
2 LBS Boneless Short Rib
2 LBS Iberico Pork Chop
Prepping the Meat
I started by blending the dried koji into a powder in the blender. This will allow for even and complete coverage over the protein. Set on a cooling rack lined baking sheet, I coated every face of the meat with the koji and placed into the fridge.
Here is how the protein changed from day to day…
Day 6: Time to Cook
I could have gone longer, but I was hungry! I retrieved the steaks from the fridge and rinsed off the excess Koji with cold water. The koji is high in sugar and would have burned in the hot cast iron. I then patted them dry and season with kosher salt.
I seared the steak on a cast iron, and topped with some really good butter.
The Verdict:
The koji dried out and intensified the flavor of both the short rib and pork chop. It also helped to caramelize and create a fantastic crust. I tasted the difference the most in the pockets of fat in the meat. It really amped up the flavor, the sweetness and umami. I would absolutely try this trick again, possibly with a thick cut ribeye which would have more marbled fat to taste the savoriness throughout. Follow along for more cooking experiments!
