a dry aged steak. not really a fan.
 

my wife and i shared a small steak the other day. we eat one maybe every three months. family style. maybe an 8oz steak.

we were at our hipster butcher about to buy a ribeye. then the guys show us some aged strip steaks. wife wanted to try it. it was dark mahogany, smelled a bit funky. it was also very dense. the butcher said to take it a minute longer than i usually do because it was so dense.

poking it while cooking with finger was odd. my med-rare finger calibration was off! i managed an overdone med-rare. not quite Med..but almost. it was a bummer.

but to the flavor. i agree there was some nuttiness. also that same funk. not unlike a cheese. way less fatty. most of it was trimmed off by the butcher. i suspect the fat holds extra funk?

i guess i either took it too far towards med. or my steak palette is more regular. less high brow. it was good tho..not great (for me)

anyone prefer to cook a dry aged steak over the plain-jane ubiquitous fresher red steak?

Maybe not great technique in aging.
It does produce a different (stronger to some) tasting product.
Aging will remove water from the surface and the dried crusty bits are cut off. Drying out the product as a whole is not what it intended.
Enzymes assist in breaking down and tenderizing the meat over time. Refrigerated properly with very low airflow keeps it from spoiling from bacterial growth.
Done right it yields a superior product more expensive because of time and energy and loss of weight to trimming and some moisture.

Edit.
I do like dry aged done correctly and will usually cook to medium to be safe. I don’t often buy them due to cost.

Our daughter has done this with venison steaks and they are very tender and taste great. Not sure I would do it on a strip or fillet though.

its just different to me not necessarily better or worth the cost

I am quite low brow these days though, I actually prefer leaner petite sirloin or even flank often over Ribeye, Fillet, Porterhouse etc.

Our favorite of the house is flat iron steaks. Tender, beefy flavor and inexpensive.

Dry aging is basically a controlled decomposition of the meat. The decomposition breaks down the tissue, making it more tender and tasty if done correctly. It also reduces the moisture content of the meat which concentrates the flavor. Good or bad. That's why usually only prime (or sometimes choice) cuts are aged.
If not done correctly or if cheap meat is aged, it can turn into rotten-tasting jerky.

Were these steaks aged before they were cut into steaks or after?
A good butcher will age a large chunk of high quality beef and then make the cuts after aging to remove the crust.
If he cut the steaks and THEN aged them I would be more than a little concerned.

I prefer wet aged steak.

Always thought with aged beef you were supposed start with a large chunk and cut all the funk off. That's what makes it more expensive.

Aged prime strip is a leaner, denser cut that ribeye, you might have just been noticing that. i prefer strips, but you have to go in recognizing that they are dense, lean, and almost grainy meat, with very little marbling (but a few annoying tendons hidden inside). What you do get is a big slab of meat on your fork with solid crimson red muscle throughout, and lots of beef flavor. A bad strip is a terrible thing, because there's not enough fat to render down to help it.

Dad does prime rib like this, astoundingly good

I enjoy good aged meat..... at the restaurant...

I've never had much luck at home with it, but at a good reputable steakhouse, it's a winner everytime..

yea..this i think. i think i messed it up somehow.

We don't age ours that long (3 days or so) but then sous vide it for hours at low temp and finish on the grill. Mmmmmmm.

I've only had dry aged at a steakhouse that dry ages its own steaks--they were very good.

Ahhh, so this is where all those steaks that you find at the very end of the meat counter in the grocery store that are labeled "REDUCED FOR QUICK SALE, ALL SALES ARE FINAL" wind up? I didn't figure they would just throw that stuff away. :p

I don't think those were aged properly.
Sounds like they were past their sell date and have just been sitting in the counter

I have had aged steaks and a whole prime rib. They never smelled or looked bad

they didnt smell bad. funky. not bad.

Dry aged beef is kept at just above freezing with low humidity for up to 4 weeks.
The steaks you are talking about was lucky to be kept at 45 degrees for a week, and are a "gamble". :D

To each their own but I cannot get past "aged meat". blecch. But then I don't eat beef very often

I would order one in a fine restaurant, but I don't typically buy them for cooking at home.

For sure, part of the reason you didn't like it was because it was cooked too far. Another reason might be that a strip simply isn't as tender and tasty as something like a ribeye. Then, it was a fairly small steak, so probably a little on the thin side. This was probably not a good candidate for dry aging.