The perfect Sous Vide Steak

I have NOT done this, but my brother in law does this each time we visit and I've watched.

Season and vac pack the steaks, take them to what he says is 110 IT, then sear them.  The way he sears them is to get a charcoal chimney full of lump and have it BLAZING hot with a grate over the top of it.  He can only do one steak at a time, but it doesn't take long.  When he serves them, they are around med rare.  Best steak I've eaten at someone's home.  Almost as good as a big expensive steakhouse...

I can't cook one at home the way he does it... 

I picked up an Anova over Thanksgiving and the first thing I did was a 2" New York Strip. I sous vide it at 129 for 2 hours and reversed seared it on a cast iron skillet because it was pouring rain here. It turned out perfect, unlike any steak I had ever had and I love me some smoked steak but this was very different.

The house filled up with smoke so I will reverse sear it outside next time. Chicken breast turn out amazingly tender too, I really like Sous Vide to add yet another way of making dinner.

dirtsailor2003 said:

 
How about this to throw a wrench in the works. If one can maintain temps of water on a stove top, is a sous vide deivce really needed? You wouldn't have the circulation I guess. But with a large enough pot of water you can get a pretty even temp through out.

Click to expand...

Well, I poach sausages in 172° water using my Auber controller hooked to a heating element with my 4-gallon brew pot and that maintains really well.  If circulation is required, I don't see why a small pump wouldn't work.

Not as sexy as the sous vide units, but they weren't around when people started doing this anyway...

DS,

I've had an Anova SV circulator for nearly 3 years, and when I do steaks (which is often) I usually set the temp for 110°-115° as we like ours medium rare. The time is variable depending upon the thickness of the piece. When done, the meat, straight from the bag, will be a bit damp and I always pat it very dry before searing. Searing any damp meat adds an element of steaming and will not produce as good a sear as when done dry. 

Also, I often add S&P, crushed garlic, fresh thyme, and a couple dashes each of soy sauce and Worcestershire to the bag when cooking steaks. Obviously, that will result in an even damper finished piece when finished. The strained remnants in the bag, plus a little ruby port, makes a very nice jus.

For the sear, it's a maximum of 45 seconds per side a very hot flame with a 180° turn midway for marks.

I built a temperature controller for my crock pot which I use mostly for making yogurt (110 degrees). Since I have a Foodsaver vacuum sealer, I also have used it for various sous vide recipes, including steak. I first read a whole lot of stuff at various sites, and then actually did it a few times. My advice: cook it to exactly the final temperature you want. Why? Because if you do the reverse sear correctly, you will only be searing on each side for about sixty seconds. This isn't enough time to affect the inner temperature. Also, unlike normal cooking, there is absolutely zero "carryover cooking" when you do sous vide. This is because of the way sous vide cooks which forces both the inside and outside of the meat to end up at exactly the same temperature.

For a thin steak, you might want to undercook it, as some have already mentioned, but if you have a really nice, thick steak (which is what sous vide is really meant for), the outside sear using a super-hot cast iron skillet just isn't going to change the inner temperature by more than a degree or two.

BTW, if you get into sous vide, I strongly suggest that you use it to make chicken breasts. You can cook the chicken to only 140 to 145 degrees, much lower than the 160 to 165 that is normally suggested for both food safety and pleasant taste. Because it takes 20-30 minutes to kill all pathogens at these lower temperatures, such temps are not recommended for normal cooking. However, since sous vide cooks for so long, the chicken is perfectly safe and, because of the much lower temperatures, it turns out amazingly juicy, with a texture you have never-before experienced. Great stuff.

P.S. If you want to create your own really cheap sous vide machine, and have a simple crockpot (i.e., no digital stuff, with nothing more than a hi/low/off swtich), then you can purchase your own external temperature controller. I've posted this before, but here it is again: