seasoning sous vide

[Anonymous Modernist 5626]

so,

i just made my first sous vide steak. I vacuum sealed it plain and cooked it for about 1hr 15 at 57C. afterwards I seasoned a bit with salt and pepper then seared with a blowtorch. I thought it came out very well, but I'm not sure if I went about the seasoning the best way I could have.

Do you guys have any advice on the best way to season a steak you will be cooking sous vide? Do you season before the low temp bath or after?

[Anonymous Modernist 310]

Cooking Issues got a great article about that:

http://www.cookingissues.com/2011/10/12/to-salt-or-not-to-salt-%E2%80%93that%E2%80%99s-the-searing-question/

[Anonymous Modernist 6607]

i cook dozens of steaks sous vide daily on our lunch and evening menus. Process as follows

1. prepare what we call our 'pot of joy'. flavoured clarified butter with garlic, thmye and rosemary

2. prepare a small tray with rapeseed oil ( nutty flavour), sprinkled with smoked Maldon Sea Salt (Essex, Uk) and Umami powder

3. place pan on heat to get real hot

4. remove cooked steak from bag, pat dry, to prevent steam, roll in flavoured OIL and straight into pan. Allow to sear for 30 secs, turn over and add couple of spoonfuls of butter. Baste for 30 seconds to obtain lovely Maillard reaction and cover in flavour, remove and serve!

[Scott Heimendinger]

I like to use good soy sauce, and occasionally liquid smoke, to season my steaks for sous vide cooking. I find that, when the bag is sealed, the soy sauce is forced into even contact all around the meat. It has the added benefit of "dying" the exterior of the steak a darker color, so it's not quite so gray when I remove it from the bag.

However, you've got lots of options for sealing seasnoning in with your steak. The other night I cooked a skirt steak with lime juice, lime zest, salt, pepper, andliquid smoke to 52C. After a quick sear with the blowtorch, it made fantastic carne asada. Steak with salt and pepper (pre-sealing) is also wonderful on its own.

For poultry, I've really enjoyed sealing the meat with a little duck fat (or olive oil), maple syrup, whole peppercorn, rosemary, corriander, and juniper berries. I find that poultry skin doesn't sear as well with the blowtorch, so I tend to give it a quick shallow-fry.

In general, I find that seasoning with at least salt before cooking yields the best results for my personal taste.

[Anonymous Modernist 6826]

I always opt to season prior to service. Salting (and most other premade seasonings which have high sodium levels) ahead of time has the nasty tendency to draw moisture out of your meat. From a personal perspective, it might be worth dry equilibrium brining your steak (1% of the total meat's weight) and leave it for about 7+ hours. I have not tried this yet, but it seems like a good way of seasoning a piece of steak without diluting its flavour, while increasing its moisture retention.