Sous Vide, who's doing it?

[ExtraSlow]

Cooking from frozen s a huge advantage to sooo veeedee. Glad you went for it and gold your dad is happy.

[ExtraSlow]

Rocking my $5.97 AA striploin steaks today in some Brazilian spices. These will need 2 hours to be tender before I sear on the propane grill.

[Pacman]

I keep ruining striploin doing sous vide.

I vacuum seal them with spice. Freeze them. Set up my Annova Nano to 129* for 1 hour 45 mins. Pull them out, pat them dry, put on some mayonnaise on each side. I've got a cast iron fry pan going on medium heat with some butter and put them on for 45 seconds a side to sear them.

The result is not great, I get a steak that is barely pink in the middle and barely looks "seared" on the outside. Steak has a rubbery texture to it and it's not aesthetically pleasing as it doesn't have a nice charred black look on the outside.

Any thoughts what I'm doing wrong?

[Buster]

How thick are the steaks? SV benefits more from thicker cuts of meat.

Also when you sear, turn that shit up as hot as it will go.

[killramos]

Your pan shouldn’t be medium high. It should be as hot as you can possibly get it.

Steaks right into pan with high smoke temp oil ( the mayo works too I guess but you need to reallly get the steaks in contact with the pan with mayo method)

Add butter to pan once steaks are in and baste. The butter with melt instantly.

That said. Getting the surface of a sous vide steak dry is really really really hard. You need that pan SCREAMING hot, to the point that most burners just won’t cut it for that internet char you are looking for.

Maybe consider a sear zall to finish them up a touch?

Personally. I have moved on from SV steaks to reverse sear on the grill / kamado with much better and consistent results.

[ExtraSlow]

That cast iron pan should be so hot that smoke erupts when the meat hits it. Insanely hot. Too hot is what you want.

[rage2]

I have a gas stove, throw the steak on the highest rack position with broil on high. Flames firing right on the surface of the steaks. Works so well.

[JfuckinC]

I do steaks 132* for two hours then either pan sear them on highest heat or bbq sear them also on the highest heat. Always turns out amazing.

I sous vide a 15lb prime rib for Christmas, didn’t do it long enough though fml so had to “sear” that fucker for a bit haha, still dang good.

[Buster]

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I have a gas stove, throw the steak on the highest rack position with broil on high. Flames firing right on the surface of the steaks. Works so well.

This method is the best but most people don't have access to a flame overhead broiler.

[GTR_Auto]

Here is my recipe:

season with salt / pepper / garlic powder
3 hours @ 125F
Pat dry
season with Montreal steak spice
Sear on BBQ (High) ~1min per side / ~30sec top and bottom

[ercchry]

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I keep ruining striploin doing sous vide.

I vacuum seal them with spice. Freeze them. Set up my Annova Nano to 129* for 1 hour 45 mins. Pull them out, pat them dry, put on some mayonnaise on each side. I've got a cast iron fry pan going on medium heat with some butter and put them on for 45 seconds a side to sear them.

The result is not great, I get a steak that is barely pink in the middle and barely looks "seared" on the outside. Steak has a rubbery texture to it and it's not aesthetically pleasing as it doesn't have a nice charred black look on the outside.

Any thoughts what I'm doing wrong?

As mentioned… more heat. Also wait for the butter to be brown (no more bubbling) it’s the milk solids that are doing the work here for your char. Dry meat as well like Killy said. Not only pat it dry with paper towel before the pan, but clean off all that spice with it too, give it a good rub. Plus burned spices are not great tasting. Get that shit off. It’s already done it’s job infusing the meat in the bath.

129F is a little high. 126F would be better. Also strip loin has a fair amount of connecting tissue. It can handle 3-5hrs in the bath easily.

For best internal colour, you really have to slice and let the meat oxidate after sous vide or it will be very pale pink and look more med-well than mid-rare

Edit: example of colour change… same steak freshly cut vs plated. Also for anyone wondering on the char here… cast iron with miso butter. The miso adds great colour

[Pacman]

Thanks for the replies. The last time I ran high heat on our gas stove (I think it's 20,000 BTU on the burner) and tried to sear the steak, I had all the fire alarms going off due to intense smoke and I got hairline cracks in the enamel on the cast iron pan. I now use a non-enameled pan but still not keen on potentially having the fire department show up.

I will try at a lower temp next time for the sous vide portion and will slowly start raising the temp on the stove. I'll also do a better job of drying off the meat. I think once we use up the striploin I'll start buying sirloin as they will be a bit thicker and perhaps give me a bit more of a buffer for searing them.

[killramos]

You definitely need to run your ventilation fan on max for proper searing.

At my old place it tripped the alarm every time. Is what it is.

[rage2]

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Thanks for the replies. The last time I ran high heat on our gas stove (I think it's 20,000 BTU on the burner) and tried to sear the steak, I had all the fire alarms going off due to intense smoke and I got hairline cracks in the enamel on the cast iron pan. I now use a non-enameled pan but still not keen on potentially having the fire department show up.

I will try at a lower temp next time for the sous vide portion and will slowly start raising the temp on the stove. I'll also do a better job of drying off the meat. I think once we use up the striploin I'll start buying sirloin as they will be a bit thicker and perhaps give me a bit more of a buffer for searing them.

Smoke is way worse on a pan haha. Nothing I do has worked to avoid smoke alarms which is why I switched to the oven. Less smoke and controlled way better so the fan sucks out most of it. I still have all the fans on in the house, and door open to help and it seems to work good enough not to trigger smoke alarms.

In the summers it’s on a quick 1 min sear per side on the bbq. Only use the oven in the winters.

[ExtraSlow]

Bbq outdoors is the solution. Smoke is a good sign.

[killramos]

Smoke is my favourite type of cooking

[jwslam]

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This method is the best but most people don't have access to a flame overhead broiler.

Do you even live in Aspen if you don't have one of these?

[The_Penguin]

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129F is a little high. 126F would be better. Also strip loin has a fair amount of connecting tissue. It can handle 3-5hrs in the bath easily.

This!
126 or 127 max. Also minimum 3 hours for a Striploin. I think you'll notice an improvement there.

[ExtraSlow]

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Do you even live in Aspen if you don't have one of these?

Is this the quiznos toaster thing?

[ercchry]

This is my alternative to outside searing when it’s cold