Aging Beef... The Experiment

It has been 8 days since we began our beef aging adventure and while it was exciting at first, it quickly lost its luster when we would forget the beef until late at night as we were sluggishly heading to bed. Nonetheless, we are here, at day 8 and I am finally beginning to feel the excitement again.

Our beef aging experiment may or may not work. Our refrigerator may be too warm and may be fostering a whole colony of bad for us bacteria or it may be too cold rendering all of our hard work useless. The one thing it is is a learning experience and that is what we were after. The chance to try. So often people are quick to put an idea down, quick to say it won't work, some because they have tried it and failed, others because they cannot think outside the box and imagine a normal everyday person being able to achieve something whether it be aging beef in their home, creating an award winning cupcake recipe or running a marathon.

Dry aging beef is normally a 10 to 21 day process. I am unsure how far we will take this but I am crossing my fingers it will be delicious.

Day 4 of Beef Aging Process
You can see the meat is beginning to darken.

Day 8 of the Beef Aging Process

Cupcake Experiment #1 using JoyofBaking.com Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

We are in a very experimental mood lately! Yesterday, we began the great cupcake experiment in a quest for the perfectly moist and tasty cupcake because let's face it, people want the whole package, not just a pretty face (the frosting)!

First vanilla cupcake recipe up, JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcake. Here's where things become a bit dicey. I wanted to try 3 different add-ins with my cupcakes along with the original mix but we are on a major food overhaul (diets are for those who cannot stick to a plan for the long haul!) so I broke out the handy recipe ingredient converter and converted that baby down to 1/4 of its original size rendering me 3 cupcakes of each mix but such a small amount of mix is not so easy to... mix and while all of the ingredients were perfectly measured out (thank you new food scale!), the eggs may have gotten lost in there a bit. Who knew you could actually use "half" an egg! (Not just because the recipe converter said so..you can actually do it...I read up on eggs...a lot!)

So I measured, mixed, added and baked and voila! We have our first test cupcakes! Our add-ins were Sprite, Sour Cream and thick Greek Yogurt. Originally, I thought the Sour Cream and Yogurt would taste roughly the same but in the end, the sour cream didn't have that fresh baked taste although the moist-ness was about the same. The Sprite, Soner's idea, didn't turn out so hot...literally...the baking time should have been a bit longer for the Sprite cupcakes, however, since the cupcakes were all in the same pan, it was hard to adjust for that. I do not believe the Sprite cupcakes would have tasted better than the Greek Yogurt ones though. Overall, the Greek Yogurt cupcakes win out in the JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcakes (which is awesome as when we move to Turkey, they will not have Sour Cream and thick yogurt is what they do best!). Today I will try a different Vanilla Cupcake recipe, testing the Greek yogurt vs. original recipe then I will taste them against Cupcake Batch 1 (I saved two from each flavor although I have to act fast so they do not lose their moisture!) Bottom line, the original recipe tasted good but when you tasted it against the Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream cupcakes, they tasted dry.

In the end, I hope to nail down the best Vanilla Cupcake recipe for me then begin to tweak the recipe bit by bit for a difference you can taste.









JoyofBaking.com Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Zest of 1 large lemon (optional)

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.


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