My Costco had the whole USDA prime, prime rib primal, (say that three times fast) for $9.99 a lb. That is my trigger point so I picked one up.
I know it will keep in the vacuum packaging in the fridge for several weeks without problem. The question I have is has anyone portioned one out, re-shrink wrapped them and stuck them back in the fridge for any length of time. I’m not sure I can resist cutting into it for long and we have people coming over on the 16th. If I could get by without freezing that would be my preference but I definitely don’t want a rancid furball on my hands.
The air could potentially contain harmful microbes. If you wanted to be really safe, you could vacuum pack it and blanche it in boiling water to kill anything. I’m not a food scientist or chef, and cannot guarantee that will make it just as good as the original cryovac (I’d guess not), but it’s something.
I’d think you could salt it now and it will preserve the meat. You’re not really aging the beef, but it should work, especially if the temp in your fridge is set fairly cool.
Ditto. I have also vacuum bagged portions and kept in my old fridges meat keeper section which keeps things right at freezing. I usually limit to about 10 days though. If you can keep in the original cryo, the wet age process that it will go through isn’t a bad thing. I have done this with tenderloins that I got on sale with great success going up to 3 weeks past the sell by date.