Aging came in dry and wet forms. It mainly depended on the form of the coating material, which also determined the finished product's specific flavor.
Su Bai had discussed this with several chefs he knew, including the head chef at Ascott's Western restaurant and a few others he had met while dining out.
In the end, he chose a method that was suitable for beginners, difficult to mess up, and fairly interesting.
Hotpot red-oil dry aging.
Zhou Jialu was already waiting in the kitchen. The Wan sisters had also changed into aprons, looking eager to assist Su Bai.
When Su Bai took out the aging mixture from the cabinet, Zhou Jialu let out an "Eek," then asked curiously, "Isn't this hotpot base? You can use it to make Western food too...?"
"Aging is indeed a Western cooking technique, but the contents are actually very flexible. The flavor you want is entirely up to personal preference." As he spoke, Su Bai tore open the plastic bag containing the pale-red solid. "If you directly use hotpot base, the high salt content will turn the meat straight into cured meat... That wouldn't taste very good, and the texture would suffer too. More accurately, this is hotpot red oil—hotpot base without salt."
"Is that how it works..."
Next came the meat itself.
It was a whole M7-grade ribeye cap, air-dried a day in advance to remove some moisture. Beef tallow was oil, after all; if there was too much moisture on the meat's surface, it would be difficult for it to adhere.
The principle was actually the same as traditional butter aging, except butter aging required heating the butter until it was semi-melted before wrapping the meat in it, isolating it from the air, and then placing it into an aging cabinet for slow