The Key Step For Grilling Dry Aged Beef

Grilling dry aged beef can be intimidating. The different appearance of the meat and the price of the aged beef cut add some pressure to the process. However, head cook and award-winning pitmaster Christie Vanover has a few tips to make grilling dry-aged beef much less stressful. Vanover is the pit master for Team Girls Can Grill, that won the Grand Champion title in Season 4 of Food Network's "BBQ Brawl."

According to Vanover, the most important step before grilling is letting the steaks rest for up to an hour. "I like to let all steaks rest at room temperature before grilling them because it helps them cook more evenly," she said. "This is especially important with dry-aged beef because it has less moisture. If you put a cold dry-aged steak on the grill, the exterior will sear more quickly, which can leave the interior underdone. Letting it rest at room temp for 30-60 minutes before grilling yields better results."

Dry-aged beef is a different type of steak that requires special measures. For example, in a dry-aged steak, the collagen and connective tissues in the meat naturally break down, creating a much more tender steak than its freshly cut counterpart. Such a tender steak does need a little extra care on the grill though, so don't skip the resting step.

Christie Vanover also has tips on seasoning your dry aged steak. "One of the reasons to dry age beef is to reduce moisture and intensify the flavor of the beef," the pitmaster pointed out. "Because of this natural intensity, you don't need to add as much seasoning to the steaks before they hit the grill." 

While grilling a nice dry aged cut for the first time can be a bit intimidating, it is well worth it. You can skip the tenderizing steps you need for cheap steaks, as well as the favorite seasoning salts, and still find yourself with a tender and flavorful steak. (Though a nice pat of homemade compound butter never hurt anything.)