Sous vide

[Menolly]

Is anyone using a sous vide circulator? I got an Anova for SD in the past year, and he's used it a few times. Most recently he did thick cut bacon with it. I am really looking forward to him doing a steak with it though, once I can properly enjoy it!

(finally had my dental issues addressed, and am in the adjustment period now)

[Avatar]

Nah, never tried it. Should be good as long as you get a good sear on afterwards, otherwise it can have a tendency to be a bit jelly-like in texture.

--A

[Menolly]

Yes, the reverse sear is the recommended finishing method for meats.

[peter]

It's a very 'professional' piece of kit (vacuum packing then low temperature cooking in a bath IIRC) and beyond the scope of most home cooking I'd guess. I've eaten many dishes in restaurants that must have been cooked this way - but I'm not sure steak is going to be one of them. The delicate balance of pink middle and seared umami crust would be hard to achieve it the body of the meat is pre-cooked in the water bath. I'd guess the searing process would then simply over cook the center of the meat resulting in that most dubious of culinary products - brown beef. No - to achieve perfect results with steak the meat must go raw (but room temperature) into a smoking hot thick based frying pan, be left unmoved ( the pan on the heat source and the meat in the pan) then after the thickness dependant cooking time, forked over to cook on the reverse side. The steak is cooked when the desired level of 'compliance' is felt, but as a guide, a 3cm thick fillet steak will take about 3 mins per side (bit less maybe). There is no need to oil the pan, but a bit of seasoning sprinkled on the cooking steal is fine. The steak can also be rubbed with garlic oil before addition to the pan if you like. Now this is how steak is cooked!

[Avatar]

Sounds pretty damn good to me.

I usually use butter though.

And I seem to have gone off garlic a bit...not sure why.

--A

[peter]

Garlic can be tricky - it has a tendency to burn and get really bitter ...... but in the main I damn love the stuff! I love to roast whole bulbs until they're really soft and spreadable, then serve them with melted camembert and crusty bread ...... Oh yes!

[Avatar]

Yeah, those roasted bulbs might be part of the reason...a few years ago we went though a stage where we ate spans of them, dipping that crusty bread into balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Also, the GF tends to have a heavy hand with things like garlic and chilli, and while we eat the same meal relatively rarely (her being vegan and all), when we have in the past sometimes the garlic levels have been a bit extreme for me.

--A

[Menolly]

No, no, no.

Peter, you need to read up on the reverse sear. Let me see if Kenji talks about it for sous vide steaks.

ayeup. Here you go.
Serious Eats Guide to Sous Vide Steak

If you have a food saver vacuum system, and the Anova circulator, it is simplicity itself. It can even be done with zipper freezer bags using the water immersion method to remove the air.

[Vader]

To be honest: I don't like sous vide. Currently it's a fad like molecular cooking has been the years before. Even with reverse sear I don't like the texture of the meat at all. I'm not a big fan of Kobe/Wagyu beef either, just because of the same reason. Tender is fine, but after all I want at least something to chew.

If you know what you're doing, you can fry a steak that is evenly cooked with no gray zones and a nice crust the traditional way.

I'd rather spend money on a good wrought-iron pan than on a stand-in -the-way sous vide set.