shane_bell•7d agoMost Upvoted

Overheard a guy at the counter say he ages his beef in a mini fridge from 1987

He swore the old compressor keeps a more stable temp than anything modern he's tried, and after tasting his dry-aged ribeye I'm seriously thinking of hunting down a beat up Frigidaire myself - has anyone else found that old appliances actually work better for aging?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin_kim7d ago

Bro, I keep telling myself my 2005 dorm fridge is gonna start a fire any day now but I swear that thing holds temp like a champ while my buddy's fancy new one cycles like crazy and dries everything out in a week. I learned the hard way though after I tried to do the same with a random garage fridge from the 90s and accidentally turned a whole prime rib into beef jerky because the seal was shot. Gotta check those rubber gaskets before you commit cause old compressors are great until they're not. Honestly half the fun is saying "yeah this ribeye was aged in a fridge older than my nephew" whenever someone compliments it.

brooke_jones7d ago

Oh man, I gotta push back on you here Gavin_kim. I think you're romanticizing old fridges a bit too much. I had a 2004 model that was supposedly "built to last" and it gave me the worst case of freezer burn on a whole pack of pork shoulders because the temp sensor finally gave out. That thing would swing from 38 to 45 degrees like it was playing hopscotch. Meanwhile my newer one stays dead solid at 34 for months straight and the humidity control actually works so my produce doesn't turn into sad rags in a week. Plus, I can't even get parts for a fridge from 2005 anymore unless I wanna spend triple on some sketchy eBay listing. I'd take a consistent modern unit over the gamble of "well it's been working fine for 15 years" any day.

abbyp617d ago

Ugh tell me about it, my old fridge did the same temp dance until I finally replaced it with a basic model that just works.