Sous Vide
 

I’ve been bragging about the Prime Grade Strip Steaks I bought at Sam’s. Until recently I’ve been frying them on my griddle. I recently dugout my Sous Vide and tried that. WOW, once you figure out the temp and time you want, they are fantastic. Two minutes in cast iron to brown and you’re ready for a treat.

Have used commercial sous vide over 10 years. We pick up our quarter beef, season, and vacuum before freezing.

Our steak can be seared on our cast iron griddle, but a culinary torch adds a whole different crust, in 30 seconds and zero cleanup. I do sear on oval cast iron individual platter that sits on a wooden rack, similar to fajita pans. Or place cast iron in 400 degree oven place steak on pan, flip one minute then 2 minutes for great sear, remove to serve

Yep. Once you go sous vide for steaks, you never go back.

Boomer

I’ve been watching Guga at Sous Vide everything, on YouTube. He swears by the torch, haven’t tried that yet.

Hi end restaurants use a torch , especially for rare to ensure perfect crust without compromising the integrity of the steak. Commercial torch is worth the money, ours sits on the counter I use I frequently not just for beef

I set my sous vide for 130 degrees and leave the steak in the water for 1-2 hours. Then I preheat my RecTeq Bullseye smoker on its Riot mode, which brings it up to 700 degrees. It has a browning plate, and I dry the steak off, put a little butter and salt on it, and brown it about one minute per side on the browning plate. It comes out a perfect medium rare with a nice crust. I don't know how you could cook it any better.

You can go right from the freezer to the Sous Vide… no defrosting needed

I haven’t tried that but I’m sure you’re right.

Drying is important. I use Beef Tallow in my skillet, and put garlic butter on it when I let it rest for a couple minutes. I also realize that resting isn’t as important with this method of cooking.

I discovered sous vide about a year ago. I got a sous vide machine and a small vacuum sealer on Black Friday.

We absolutely love both! It’s perfect for reheating leftovers. My wife and I both love to cook, but since we’re the only ones eating, we don’t want to eat the same thing every night. Now we can try new recipes and save leftovers for a week or month.

We used to hate throwing out leftover Mac and cheese, chili, pulled pork, ribs, vegetables, etc. from football or birthday parties. My chili reheated in the sous vide is just as good as it was when it came out of the pot. No more microwave scorching or sauce pot reheated dried-out chili.

A vacuum sealer is perfect for us. We’ll now freeze even a few cups of leftover chili, Mac, lasagna, sausage, etc. and put them all in the sous vide. When guests arrive, we just slice open the hot bags and we have another smaller smorgasbord.

I’m going to copy Collie1218’s recipe and try the steak. I’ve heard lots of people rave about it and it seems pretty easy to make.

Enjoyed reading everyone's posts...can't wait for some invites for dinner! :-) I haven't tried the sous vide method yet, though I do own a vacuum sealer.

I bought the big 4 burner Blackstone griddle a few months ago and started doing what I think is referred to as "refrigerator dry aging" & then I "reverse sear" my steaks.

I take them out of the freezer and let them thaw, then pat them dry, & season with plenty of kosher or sea salt (all sides), and finally place them on a wire rack and put them in the refrigerator (uncovered) for 24-48 hours.

Afterwards I take them out of the fridge, let them warm up to room temperature, then place them on the same rack into the oven at 250 degrees for about 20-25 minutes (or until internal temp is 110 degrees--I like my steak on the rare side of "medium rare"). Then I add a light coat of mayonnaise or other high temp oil (avocado, etc) to all sides, and sear all sides on a blazing hot griddle for about 4-5 minutes max, flipping every 30 seconds or so. Makes a nice crust w/ very little grey banding, as good or better than any steak I've eaten at a restaurant.

The only ingredient I think I'm missing is "cowboy butter".

For sous vide lovers go onto YouTube there are hundreds of recipes, but if you are a beginner the link below will give you an insight what you can do with sous vide cooking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaMt...l=EverydayFood

Sous Vide sounds like a good way to cook, but why don't they change the name?

Where do you buy a good culinary torch? We got one on Amazon a year or so ago and couldn’t use it even once it was so weak. We’d much rather torch to sear our steaks than sear in a pan because of the smokey odor build up in the kitchen.

We got ours on Amazon. Works perfectly. Maybe try a different brand and read all its reviews on Amazon.

Torch searing
 

I have used a propane welding torch. Something like this...

Amazon.com

Keep the torch moving!!!

I now use a small weber grill(jumbo joe) with charcoal just for searing steaks. Charcoal is preferred searing at our house. There is not a better sear flavor than a hot charcoal fire with steaks about 2 inches above the coals IMHO.

The only way
 

This is the only way I cook steaks. We purchase amazing steaks from H&M farm in Webster, Sous Vide, and finish in cast iron. Always perfect.
We never order steak in a restaurant..ours are markedly better!!!



QUOTE=ohioshooter;2412415]I’ve been bragging about the Prime Grade Strip Steaks I bought at Sam’s. Until recently I’ve been frying them on my griddle. I recently dugout my Sous Vide and tried that. WOW, once you figure out the temp and time you want, they are fantastic. Two minutes in cast iron to brown and you’re ready for a treat.[/QUOTE]

How much additional time to thaw?

If you're going to use a welding torch which I have used on occasions, I suggest you use a sous vide welding torch diversify attachment. It will help from burn spot and will help prevent tainting your food with a fuel taste.

It’s not about thaw time, considering each protein is different thickness. Your determination is when the temperature is achieved, then as you know the protein can be left at the temp for hours until you are ready to remove.

I rarely cook from solid frozen, but remove a few hours ahead. If dropped in solid frozen, a home unit would probably take 1-2 hours to come to temp. I would also drop in frozen when you start the device, that way the water will slowly warm the frozen steak