I’ve doing some Dry-Aging and now that I’m planning to start making hard cheeses, a dedicated fridge would come handy. So what are the requirements for a fridge for dry-aging beef and maturing cheese?
In my dry-aging tests, I used a normal integrated fridge with an added fan to provide air circulation. I measured the temperature and humidity using an extra hygrometer I had lying from my cigar humidors. But the issues with the normal fridge were more related to the size and the guaranteeing of air circulation around the meat chunks.
As all of the stuffs I’m going to use the fridge for are going to be interesting stuff, that I want to keep an eye on. Opening to door and taking photos will undeniably affect the internal temperature. Hence a glass door would be beneficial to be able to watch whats going on inside.
Identified requirements for a fridge for dry-aging beef and maturing cheese
- Wire racks
- Integrated Fan
- Glass door
- Low energy consuption
- Low overall footprint
- Affordable
So with these specs, I started searching.
The glass door quickly proved to be the issue. Normal household fridges have shelves in the door, and I truly understand that; they’re handy. Then again the professional kitchen fridges or vitrine fridges that have glass doors are huge and usually quite expensive. However, I already found a benchmark: The Dry-Ager!
This stainless steel fridge meets all other requirements except the price. It has wire shelves, It has even dedicated trays for the rose salt bricks I bought earlier. I could even start fantasizing about buying whole ribs, and hang them, as shown in the pic.
However, the smaller dry ager will remain as the ultimate dream, costing nearly 2700 EUR, and the bigger nearly 4000 EUR.
Eventually, I found this Armenian (?!) brand Beko, that makes affordable fridges that have glass doors. So I found an Estonian webshop that sells these Armenian fridges and delivers them here to Finland. It fits all of the specs given, has an integrated fan and temperature dial of 2-10°C, allowing me to raise the temperature for cheese maturing as well.