Steak cooking methods

[IslandTractor]

Interesting. Never heard of that cooking method, but can see how it would result in a jucy steak as the juices have no where to go. Have you ever done it? Any spices prior to the bag, like pepper, salt, garlic, etc? What temp for other doneness? Med, med-well?

Yes, I've done it with steak and fish. Works great though you do still need to put a sear on the protein just before serving. Very juicy.

Yes, you can add whatever spices and other seasonings you like to each individual bag. I just did salmon with a dollop of pesto sauce and butter, cooked for 35 minutes at 129F and the seared just the top with a butane cooking torch. Perfect. One nice thing is that you can use herbs or garlic that would simple burn on a grill or pan but are fine at lower temps.

For my preference, I find I like steak at 132 and fish at 129. There are a few YouTubes that show precisely the differences between steak done at 128,129,130,131 Etc. Medium as I recall is about 140 but the nice thing about sous vide is that you can set exactly what YOUR idea of medium is with very little trial and error.

Minimum cooking times need to be calculated based on the thickness of the protein. A 1" steak will take much less time than a 2" steak but you can actually leave both in the same water bath so long as the thicker one determines the minimum time. Timing is literally all physics and there are applications that allow you to set precise parameters and calculate minimum cooking time. As noted before, there isn't any real issue with cooking too long as meat just gets more tender (not great to cook fish extra though as it will eventually get too soft and mushy as collagen breaks down). I use an iPhone app called SousVideDash that allows me to choose what protein, thickness, starting temp (refrig or room temp), and water bath temp and it then tells me the exact minimum time to cook. There are also less precise charts. Key is to know the thickness as that determines cooking time. Also, only one steak per bag.

The pros use vacuum sealer bags but I find ziplock bags much easier. I just seal the bag after pushing out air and then clip the bag top to the side of the pot so the zip is out of the water while the steak/fish is fully immersed. Lots of YouTube videos on various Sous Vide tricks.

 

[mark02tj]

Sous Vide - I learn some of the weirdest stuff on this site!! :thumbsup: :laughing: :laughing:

I'm going to have to look this up some more. Sounds kind of interesting.

 

[IslandTractor]

Sous Vide - I learn some of the weirdest stuff on this site!! :thumbsup: :laughing: :laughing: I'm going to have to look this up some more. Sounds kind of interesting.

Try it, you'll like it. Some of the fanciest steak houses in the country use it almost exclusively. They can have several water baths running at different temperatures with perfectly cooked steaks they can leave for hours before pulling one or ten out of the bath and putting a high temp sear on them.

Great for entertaining at home as I can set up the steaks or fish hours before the guests arrive and don't need to worry about over cooking the meat. Five minutes before plating I just take them out of their little individual bags and throw the steaks onto either a very hot grill or griddle for a minute a side or occasionally use a butane torch to put a sear on. Duck soup easy and just fantastic steak.

My immersion heater is from Anova culinary and their website has lots of info.

 

[TomSeller]

. Five minutes before plating I just take them out of their little individual bags and throw the steaks onto either a very hot grill or griddle for a minute a side or occasionally use a butane torch to put a sear on.

Have you measured the griddle temp you sear at?

 

[IslandTractor]

Have you measured the griddle temp you sear at?

Only once. I used an outdoor propane camping griddle and had the temp up around 600F and rising when I put the steaks on. Used an IR thermometer. The hotter the better as the whole point is just to put a nice crunchy brown crust on as quickly as possible so you don't continue to cook the already perfect interior. Steak houses use a very powerful infrared broiler I believe but those cost $$$$$.

There is a device called the Searzall that attaches to a propane torch that apparently does a very nice job. I have a butane cooking torch (Iwatani) that works pretty well for a direct flame but I think the indirect Searzall is probably better (and four times the price).