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Dry Steak Experience

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    Dry Steak Experience

    Have no idea what I did wrong. I Sous Vide some choice strip loins from Costco. This is my go to steak, always tender and juicy. They were in the bath for an hour and a half at 140. Big chill. Brought them up to temp in the bath just before meal time at 138 degrees for perhaps 20 minutes along with other steaks cooked to various temperatures. Then I a quick sear.

    Wall to wall pink, looked perfectly medium. But not a drop of juice anywhere. My plate was dry. Steak tasted well done.

    I don't think I had them on the sear long enough to do any damage. I didn't go directly from fridge to sear to re-therm them because I was serving a group. Also, I would have thought the beef wouldn't still be pink wall to wall if I had over seared it.

    Too long in the bath? Perhaps it was the beef?

    #2
    How long did you dry brine? Did you use enough salt? Was there anything else in the bag, like dried herbs, garlic?

    if all that is fine, then too long in the bath is next likely in my understanding.

    Comment


      #3
      Didn't have time for a dry brine. I salted the meat pretty heavy before throwing it in the bath. Nothing else in the bag.

      Comment


      • kmhfive
        kmhfive commented
        Editing a comment
        I’d bet that’s it, then. The salt didn’t have time to penetrate the meat and so drew liquid out while cooking instead of holding it in.

      • Potkettleblack
        Potkettleblack commented
        Editing a comment
        Sous vide is extractive, excess surface salt will speed the extraction. 140 will also contract the muscle fibers more and push out more moisture.

        How much purge was in the bag.

      #4
      That makes sense. Lesson learned. I froze two steaks from the same package. I'll cook them up and add salt at the end only to compare. I guess I have to eat steak again. The sacrifices I make for science!

      Comment


      • kmhfive
        kmhfive commented
        Editing a comment
        Thanks for taking one for the team!

      #5
      It is recommended not to add salt before SVing

      Comment


      • hoovarmin
        hoovarmin commented
        Editing a comment
        DW, I've heard that as well, but in my limited experience I have found that food tastes better in the SV when brined.

      #6
      1-1/2 hours in the bath is not likely to be the problem. 140F is. I'd have stuck at 132 tops, gone a bit longer, then rewarm below 132 and sear them. This is all just intuitive assessment on my part.

      Comment


      • Potkettleblack
        Potkettleblack commented
        Editing a comment
        Hugh has previously mentioned that his family doesn't like meat cooked short of medium well.

      • EdF
        EdF commented
        Editing a comment
        Oh, I mixed up medium rare and medium well. :-(

      #7
      No question - further experimentation with steak is required to resolve this!

      Comment


        #8
        EdF - That is it! It is time for me to try your longer cook. One will go in at 132. How long you reckon?

        Comment


        • EdF
          EdF commented
          Editing a comment
          I'd give it 3 or so hours.

        #9
        I think you had a double whammy with the combination of salting just before cooking, )and SVing is cooking), right away. Salt draws moisture out of the meat, and SVing does the same. Did you have a lot of purge?

        Comment


          #10
          Actually RonB I did have alot of purge so this is all making absolute sense. I'll do my experiment and get some pics.

          Comment


          • Potkettleblack
            Potkettleblack commented
            Editing a comment
            If you're going to salt just ahead of cooking, should be light salt and you should process the purge for a sauce.

          #11
          The results are in. This steak was just too darn juicy! If you remember from my post above, I added salt to the steak just before SV and it came out incredibly dry. I promised an experiment without salt at the front. I oiled and salted/peppered just prior to searing.

          Unbelievable difference. I took a frozen steak from the same batch and cooked it exactly the same way (including sear method) and got the juicy steak I was looking for. Honestly if I was served this steak at a high end steak restaurant, I would have left a good tip. This steak was frozen in a vacuum bag so I was curious to see how the frozen steak would be cooked in SV compared to my other fresh cooks. I'm going from memory but I honestly can't report any loss in quality cooking from frozen. That surprised me.

          I cooked a second steak in a traditional oven (it thawed over night in the fridge) and seared it in my new cast iron fry pan just to compare the two cooks.

          Here are the results:

          2 steaks from Costco. 3A in Canada which is one level below Prime (can't get Prime in Costco here for some reason). Both frozen.

          Steak #1 was cooked 1.5 hours in SV from frozen at 140 degrees. I went directly from the bath and seared the steak on my ceramic sear station from my old barbeque. It was juicy and had a beautiful unami flavor from the sear. Almost a charred flavor that I really enjoyed. I don't know off hand what I would do to improve the quality. I'm sure if I did a side by side with prime cooked fresh I could detect the improvement, but there was nothing missing from the experience for me if that makes sense. I was happy

          Steak #2 was cooked for maybe 45 minutes (didn't time it) in my kitchen oven which was set to 225 degrees. I had my thermometer in there to track the real temperature and it was showing about 211 degrees. I bumped up the oven to 235 (Convection Bake) and my therm ranged from 215 to 235. I pulled the steak when the internal temp was 143 (it got away on me a bit). I had my fry pan hitting around 540 degrees on the hot side and 440 degrees on the cold side. This is my first time using it and I was disappointed with my ability to control the temp of the pan. I put the steak in and added perhaps 1/4 cup of oil. Smoked up the house a bit but not a big deal. Took a long time to get near a brown looking sear. I ended up pulling the steak before I had as good a sear as I wanted. I'm dissapointed with my first sear experience. Just doesn't seem hot enough to me. You have to leave the meat in too long and it over cooks the center. Next time round I will pull the meat earlier and allow for a longer sear and assume the center will cook more.

          The flavor of steak #2 just wasn't the same as steak #1. There just wasn't enough sear. Oddly, I didn't like the texture of the steak #2 nearly as much as I liked the SV steak either.

          Here are some pics. Just a heads up, oven steak #2 finished early so he has been sitting on a plate for 45 minutes in the compare below.

          The first pic shows the sear from the bbq sear station on steak #1. Maybe a little burnt but I liked it. I prefer a charcoal afterburner sear but the gas sear station works ok.

          The second pic shows my first attempt at a sear on cast iron for steak #2. I was dissapointed. The flavor was different but not better. Maybe it is because I just didn't get enough sear. As I said, I will try this again from a lower temp and try to get a better sear.

          The third pic shows the oven/CI steak (#2) on top of the SV steak (#1). Look at how much more cooked the meat is on #2. #1 was wall to wall pink. AND I'm going right to the sear station without a big chill which would only improve it. I'm repeating myself but #2 was cooked to 143 degrees internal, while #1 was cooked to 140 in the bath. I believe the internal temp is never quite as high as the bath temp, so there may have been as much as a 5 degree difference in internal temp before searing.

          The third pic also shows the difference in texture.

          The forth pic shows steak #1 in the foreground after I cut it open. I know we aren't supposed to swear on here but damn it was good.

          So in summary, I cooked a frozen, non-prime steak SV and it is as good as anything I've had anywhere else. This just makes me giggle.

          Thanks for reading and take care.

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          Comment


          • kmhfive
            kmhfive commented
            Editing a comment
            Excellent! Thanks for posting the update. It’s wonderful to find a cooking method that brings out the best in a particular food. Have fun.

          • EdF
            EdF commented
            Editing a comment
            Thanks for the detailed "Captain's Log, Steak Date ..."! Glad you found your sweet spot there.

          #12
          Thanks guys. I do want to learn how to sear indoors with CI though. It will be winter soon here and when its -30, I'm going to be less motivated to go out and light the charcoals.

          I watched a few video's last night and see all these chef's putting this beautiful mahogany sear on with a fry pan. I'm doing something wrong.

          Based on my IR thermometer, the fry pan was over 450. Yet no crust was building. As you can see from the photo, I left the steak in the pan too long and lost the wall to wall pink.

          I assume I need to crank the heat up higher? How do you avoid too much smoke? I was using about 1/4 cup of oil. I saw one video where he just covered the steak with oil and put it in a dry fry pan?

          Any way, ideas appreciated.

          Comment


          • EdF
            EdF commented
            Editing a comment
            Hot-Hot-Hot is the deal. My wife does a pretty good job, and I'm betting the temp is over 550F. Smoke - a good vent to the outside helps a lot. Hot temp again, so you can move quick. High smoke point oil like grapeseed should help too. Also keep the oil amount low, just a thin coating or less, since the meat has fat that will render. Like a few tablespoons.

          • kmhfive
            kmhfive commented
            Editing a comment
            Dry the steak before the sear; otherwise you’ll just steam it.

          • RonB
            RonB commented
            Editing a comment
            kmhfive beat me to it. Make sure the steak is dry before searing. You are asking any pan a lot when it has to evaporate moisture and then sear.

          #13
          Hot-Hot-Hot is the deal. My wife does a pretty good job, and I'm betting the temp is over 550F. Smoke - a good vent to the outside helps a lot. Hot temp again, so you can move quick. High smoke point oil like grapeseed should help too. Also keep the oil amount low, just a thin coating or less, since the meat has fat that will render. Like a few tablespoons. Your CI is already seasoned, so sticking shouldn't be much of an issue. Make sure the steak is well-dried. Just miscellaneous thoughts!

          Comment


            #14
            Might try preheating your CI pan in a screaming hot oven for 30-60 minutes and then just rub a little oil on the meat. As for smoke, a commercial strength exhaust fan is very helpful. Enjoy!

            Comment


            • HorseDoctor
              HorseDoctor commented
              Editing a comment
              EdF you beat me again...

            • EdF
              EdF commented
              Editing a comment
              HorseDoctor Right place, right time, cheaper than a dime!

            #15
            Gentlemen - much appreciated. Now I have some experimenting to do. It is really unfortunate that I have to cook more steaks in the name of science.

            Comment


            • EdF
              EdF commented
              Editing a comment
              It's tough work, but somebody's got to do it!

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