Chateaubriand using Sous Vide

[JB3]

I am going to try a chateaubriand in the sous vide tomorrow. I expect to do 2 2.5 lbs cuts each roughly 2.5-3" thick; I'm not buying the meat until later today so I don't know exact thickness just yet. I'll do the normal routine of dry brining for a few hours but I'm conflicted in two areas. I expect I'll setup the Joule at 130 for 2-2.5 hours for cook time. In the bag I'll likely throw some thyme and rosemary with each loin.

The first is searing. Specifically should I pre-sear before the sous vice. With pre-searing, the assumption I'll post sear for less time. Or do I post sear only. The risk with the post sear only is overcooking from a medium rare target in the sear. The downside of course with the pre sear and shorter post sear is that I might not get a good enough crust with a short post sear; I'm thinking less than 60 seconds for a short sear.

The second area I'm conflicted is on the big chill. I've used this technique for ribeyes and it was a crowd favorite. I see no reason not to do the big chill here and reheat on indirect at 225 F followed by a sear at warp temp. Again the pre/post sear question looms. I suppose I could start my post sear at 115 F and do a longer sear and maintain the 125-130 target.

Any group thoughts here?

[kmhfive]

Cooking SV gets the meat done. I'd chill first, but start the Sear once the meat is back to 105-110. There will be carryover and you don't need to cook the meat more, just heat to serving temperature. Give yourself plenty of time for a good quality sear AFTER the SV.

Are you you doing a sauce to go with the meat?

[Potkettleblack]

So, "The Big Chill" (Cantwell, putting a name on something that's existed since the advent of refridgeration... #CmonMan) is really just shocking cold then fridging to fridge temps. There's not really need to do this unless you're looking to add some of that smoke-grill flavor to the steak. A simple ten minute shock will reduce the surface temperature enough to allow you to sear ultra hot and minimize gray band. By ice water shocking, you are reducing the surface temp. Remove from bag, dry well, and sear directly.

Save your thyme and your rosemary. Unless you are using the purge from the bag, you're barely flavoring the surface, if at all, because you're not cooking hot enough to actually cook either herb for flavor extraction, and sous vide is an extractive cooking method, so all the rules of marinades still exist, only faster and sometimes backwards, as stuff comes out during SV, not in.

I don't pre-sear. If you're concerned about overcooking the interior, pre-searing then researing will lead to more overcook of the interior. Don't do that.

The only reason I would "Big Chill" this is if I had a length of time between the sous vide and service or if I wanted to add a smoke flavor to the steak.

At 130, you have some margin for error on 135 internal with the Cantwell Sous + Reverse Sear method. Hell, at 130, you have some margin on the sear. But shock anyway. Grey band sucks.

[JB3]

No idea about a sauce; I'm open to ideas.

This is helpful. I'm going to SV early in the day tomorrow, ice bath to get chill it, refrigerate for a few hours and then warm to 110ish with a warp temp sear at the end.

Given the comment I'd save the herbs, what if I hear butter and add the herbs to allow the flavors to release and then add the butter herb mixture to the SV bag?

Alternatively, I could do an herb rub or keep it simple with salt and pepper. Another favorite option is to use penzey's Chicago seasoning.

[Potkettleblack]

Sous Vide with nothing in the bag. Just the meat. Maybe salted.

Process the juice released from the meat as described in the sticky post in the Sous vide section of the pit. Add herbs, butter, wine or stock to that, like a normal pan sauce.

[JB3]

Surprisingly enough their was very little purge from the SV stage. Definitely not enough to make a sauce. I am going to make a basic beef broth with red wine reduction.

[Potkettleblack]

Not that surprising. Short cook.