As a preface, this was my first attempt at sous vide cooking. I purchased the #Inkbird 1000 W sous vide appliance on Amazon. It is a substantial unit, and both the appliance and the associated app worked flawlessly for my first cook. Being excited about a new toy I had to give it a trial run, and figured a couple of ribeyes would be a good way to go. Knowing there was a possibility that I would F’ things up I was torn between buying the $14.99 prime ribeyes or dealing with the everyday choice $9.00 a pound boneless ribeyes. I went with the more affordable option figuring its steak and I’ll eat it anyway.
I seasoned the steak as I normally would with a generous helping of SPG, and a hint of grated fresh garlic.
I then put the steaks in a suck bag(vacuum sealed). I got my stockpot filled with warm water and set the temperature on the Sous vide to 130°, as that is typically in the range where I liked my little less than medium rare steaks. I set the timer at an hour and ½ just to be sure because most tutorials said an hour would probably suffice. As mentioned earlier, the unit and the app performed flawlessly with temperature tests proving to be spot on. After completion of the cooking process I let the bag sit for a few minutes and prepared my cast iron skillet on the side burner of the grill. I added a couple tablespoons olive oil and a few shakes of rosemary and thyme. When the smoke started to roll, I added the steaks and gently pushed to make sure they were searing completely. About a minute on each side then I pulled them and put them on my carving board for a photo OP. I must say, to the eye they looked like money, though slightly overcooked for my liking. Upon the slicing into dinner I found the steaks to be tougher than I expected, even though they looked marvelous. As the title of this post says, you can put lipstick on a pig (cow) and it is still a cow. I guess in all my research I somehow expected sous vide to create a miracle. It is now obvious that the results will correlate directly with the quality of the meat.
I will not let this deter me, and am on the search for new things to try.
This was my personal experience, and your mileage may vary. I think my next adventure will be a small chuck, with French onion soup mix a recommended here. If I have the patience to wait for a two day, cook.
As always, I graciously accept recommendations/criticism.
Jo
hn
I seasoned the steak as I normally would with a generous helping of SPG, and a hint of grated fresh garlic.
I then put the steaks in a suck bag(vacuum sealed). I got my stockpot filled with warm water and set the temperature on the Sous vide to 130°, as that is typically in the range where I liked my little less than medium rare steaks. I set the timer at an hour and ½ just to be sure because most tutorials said an hour would probably suffice. As mentioned earlier, the unit and the app performed flawlessly with temperature tests proving to be spot on. After completion of the cooking process I let the bag sit for a few minutes and prepared my cast iron skillet on the side burner of the grill. I added a couple tablespoons olive oil and a few shakes of rosemary and thyme. When the smoke started to roll, I added the steaks and gently pushed to make sure they were searing completely. About a minute on each side then I pulled them and put them on my carving board for a photo OP. I must say, to the eye they looked like money, though slightly overcooked for my liking. Upon the slicing into dinner I found the steaks to be tougher than I expected, even though they looked marvelous. As the title of this post says, you can put lipstick on a pig (cow) and it is still a cow. I guess in all my research I somehow expected sous vide to create a miracle. It is now obvious that the results will correlate directly with the quality of the meat.
I will not let this deter me, and am on the search for new things to try.
This was my personal experience, and your mileage may vary. I think my next adventure will be a small chuck, with French onion soup mix a recommended here. If I have the patience to wait for a two day, cook.
As always, I graciously accept recommendations/criticism.
Jo
hn
