Sous Vide Ribeye

Brent Dowell

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All that talk about sous vide got me hankering to use mine.

So, Sharon bought some big thick good looking ribeyes at costco and that's what we had.
First, I season them up with a little salt, pepper, and some montreal steak seasoning. I'm not canadian, but I like it. I make my own blend and use it on my steaks.
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Next up is to vacuum seal it up.
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I put it in around 3:00pm today at 130 degrees. I usually only do an hour or so, but I thought it would be fun to do it a little longer.
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Pulled it out around 6:30pm. Doesn't look real good in the bag, eh? Well, that's because it needs a quick sear.
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So, Time to put the cast iron to use. Heat it up good and hot. I didn't put it on full blast, but pretty hot. Measured over 750 degrees on my infrared thermometer. Put it in the pan for 1 minute per side.
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Sharon and I always split a steak, because, eh, Getting old. Don't need that much meat. But it was very, very tender. I might have to check what temp I really want my steak at. I think I could have stood for it to be a bit redder, but this was just fine.

Sauteed up some squash and cremini mushrooms in olive oil with some garlic and parmesan cheese. A fine meal to end the weekend with.
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Looks great (although I like mine a bit less pink, which is easy enough to do). :thumb:

My next purchase will be a cast iron cooking surface. Since I'll be using it outdoors 99% of the time (LOML doesn't like cooking smells in the house, particularly smoky skillets and such), I'll be heating in on my gas Weber outside. The internal temp of the grill gets to 650º - 700º. Would you recommend a skillet or a griddle?
 
I like a skillet. Sear one side, flip, and after a minute add herbs and butter and baste the meat with the pan sauce for an extra flavour boost.
 
For searing off a steak, I prefer a cast iron skillet. I don't have a sous vide setup but I reverse sear my steaks. After they've rested from the oven, I load a skillet with clarified butter and baste the top while the bottom is searing.

I like griddles too, though. I have two: one for use on the range top and one dedicated for grill duty.
 
I've used both for searing, but a griddle on the side burner of my gas grill has become my go to process.

I don't have a side burner, so it'll take me a bit longer to get the cast iron up to temp on the grill. The griddle seems like a good choice since they typically have a bit more cooking surface, but Brett makes a good argument for the skillet with his comment about butter. Decisions, decisions, lol.
 
I don't have a side burner, so it'll take me a bit longer to get the cast iron up to temp on the grill. The griddle seems like a good choice since they typically have a bit more cooking surface, but Brett makes a good argument for the skillet with his comment about butter. Decisions, decisions, lol.

Yep, Butter and/or Bacon are always good arguments for anything!!! :thumb:
 
Brett makes a good point about using clarified butter when searing. Clarified butter has a smoke point of 450° vs 350° for normal butter. When you use regular butter in a scalding hot skillet the resulting free radicals can give a scorched taste to the meat. I've started using ghee, which results from extending the clarified butter making process to the point where the milk solids in the bottom of the pan start to get toasted, adding a nuttier flavour to the oil. Ghee has a smoke point around 485°...even better for searing.
 
My wife typically wants her steak the consistency of a charcoal briquette. I tried doing a kc strip for her at 150 yesterday, brown through and through and she was quite happy with it, very juicy still. May try at 145 next time to slowly normalize her to what a good steak is. ;)
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My wife typically wants her steak the consistency of a charcoal briquette....

Let us know how this goes. Mine's the same way.:( Seems like a waste of good steak to cook it well done. There are some articles out there about how deceptive the meat color is at the various doneness levels. A little pink is OK...it's still cooked to a safe and much, much juicier and more flavorful level.
 
Let us know how this goes. Mine's the same way.:( Seems like a waste of good steak to cook it well done. There are some articles out there about how deceptive the meat color is at the various doneness levels. A little pink is OK...it's still cooked to a safe and much, much juicier and more flavorful level.
We chatted about it and she liked the fact it was juicy, but I think i can lower the temp a little more and get the done "effect". It's really just a perception thing with her. She doesn't like condiments, no ketchup, mustard, any kind of dressings (prefers dry salads, though vinagar and oil is ok, just nothing creamy). Really makes cooking for her a challenge. ;)

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I did a sous vide ribeye this evening, and it came out great. Nice and moist, and lots of flavor. And this was a steak that I put in the freezer (in a Ziplock bag) in February or March of this year. I'm sure a fresh steak would be even better. I like a bit of pink, but not a lot, and 137º for about 2 hours worked well. I think next time I might drop is a degree or two and go for closer to 4 hours.

This was also my first test run of the vacuum sealer. Thanks to Darren for the heads-up a couple of weeks ago about the refurbed sealers on Meh.com.

I also tried using my Harbor Freight propane weed burner (what we affectionately call "The God Stick" around here) to sear it afterward. That also worked pretty well, although I think it would have been easier had it not been dark outside. (Didn't think to take a flashlight out with me. Doh!) It could have used a bit more browning, especially the fat on the edge of the steak. I still need to acquire a cast iron skillet or griddle and give that a try.

Just for grins, I had LOML shoot a quick video of the searing. I failed to get a shot of the steak after I cut into it, but it had just the right amount of pink for my tastes.

https://youtu.be/MG3UlnDqkFI
 
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