Hey folks, my latest experiment is to compare the sous vide & sear approach with 2-zone reverse sear. Starting material is a pair of Crowd Cow strip steaks, 100% grass fed sourced from Australia, 8oz/227g each. Dry brined overnight, then a dusting of ground black pepper and granulated garlic. I cut each in half and put one half from each steak into each of the two procedures, to mitigate the possibility that one of the steaks was just inherently better than the other. One of them (on the right in the first pic below) was noticeably thicker than the other.
Flight plan is to get them to the high 120sF/mid-50sC via the two different techniques, then sear to hit mid-130sF/high 50sC.
Wired up the 2-zone pieces, got it steady and let 'er rip while the SV was going.
It took only a little over 30 minutes for the 2-zone pieces to get near target, and about an hour for the SV pieces. Here are all four ready for the sear step. I'd put toothpicks in the 2-zone pieces in case I needed a definite ID, but there's no trouble telling them apart owing to the GrillGrate marks.
Searing those suckers (Just Keep Flipping):
Aaaaand scene:
My lovely bride strongly preferred the SVQ piece. Mine were very close, but I also came down on the SVQ too. Although the 2-zone piece had more complex flavor owing to it being on the grill the whole time, it's unavoidable that any thinner bits in the cut will get overcooked relative to the bulk of the piece. In contrast, the SV produces identical temps everywhere, never in excess of the set point. So the overall bite on the SVQ piece was just more pleasing. Mind you, neither of us would look askance at the 2-zone if it had been placed before us with no comparison game afoot, it was outstanding. The SVQ was just better. This time, at least.
Flight plan is to get them to the high 120sF/mid-50sC via the two different techniques, then sear to hit mid-130sF/high 50sC.
Wired up the 2-zone pieces, got it steady and let 'er rip while the SV was going.
It took only a little over 30 minutes for the 2-zone pieces to get near target, and about an hour for the SV pieces. Here are all four ready for the sear step. I'd put toothpicks in the 2-zone pieces in case I needed a definite ID, but there's no trouble telling them apart owing to the GrillGrate marks.
Searing those suckers (Just Keep Flipping):
Aaaaand scene:
My lovely bride strongly preferred the SVQ piece. Mine were very close, but I also came down on the SVQ too. Although the 2-zone piece had more complex flavor owing to it being on the grill the whole time, it's unavoidable that any thinner bits in the cut will get overcooked relative to the bulk of the piece. In contrast, the SV produces identical temps everywhere, never in excess of the set point. So the overall bite on the SVQ piece was just more pleasing. Mind you, neither of us would look askance at the 2-zone if it had been placed before us with no comparison game afoot, it was outstanding. The SVQ was just better. This time, at least.
I will probably do this again with a different cut of steak, since this is just one datapoint. But it certainly didn't make me reconsider the SV+sear as our standard procedure...
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