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Adventures in Steak


paulraphael

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Thank you for letting us know how it came out. It sounds wonderful!

edit: That stove looks like a lot of fun. How did you get on with it?

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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Oh, the stove. That's a whole other story. A longer learning curve than sous-vide, for sure. I used it for a week last summer and am still a beginner. The top of the thing is easy, but the oven takes hours to reach temperature, is uneven, and takes a lot of tricks to manage. I try not to think of the horrors being afflicted on the environment by the amount of wood you have to burn just to bake a pie.

Notes from the underbelly

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In the refrigerator I have a small, organic, rib eye wet aging...for lack of a better term.  There is no visible marbling on this steak.  I was thinking to cook low temperature sous vide, then sautee in butter.

 

Any other suggestions.

 

The sort of rib eye you describe is commonly sold in Australia. Most of our readily available steaks have little to no marbling. Lean, lean, lean. Nonetheless, I've had pleasing results cooking such steaks sous vide.

 

In your situation, saute in butter or cook sous vide. If you've gently cooked the steak in a water bath the last thing you want to do is allow the internal temperature to creep up beyond whatever your original target temperature was. And it's not like you want to drop a knob of butter into a screaming hot pan. Use neutral oil with a high smoke point--or no oil, if you've got a non-stick pan--when searing a steak cooked sous vide.

 

If you want the buttery thing, tho', you could always melt some butter (maybe a compound butter of some description) and brush small quantities of this on your sliced steak.

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The sort of rib eye you describe is commonly sold in Australia. Most of our readily available steaks have little to no marbling. Lean, lean, lean. Nonetheless, I've had pleasing results cooking such steaks sous vide.

It would be interesting to know the breed of cattle sold in Australia.

 

This sounds like piedmontese beef which produce an more, shorter muscle fibers with less connective tissue and intermuscular fat.  The claim is very low fat and tasty/tender beef.  

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As it happens, Chris, my rib eye is from Australia.  Australian steaks are the ones I most often buy.  The flavor of the meat is very good.  Unfortunately as often as not I overcook, and end up with shoe leather.  They are not forgiving.

 

The last steak I tried, a strip steak, I cooked sous vide, chilled in ice and refrigerated.  I finished briefly in a dry, hot pan.  The result was a very rare interior with a burnt, carbonized, unpleasant crust.  Not one of my best attempts.

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

The sort of rib eye you describe is commonly sold in Australia. Most of our readily available steaks have little to no marbling. Lean, lean, lean. Nonetheless, I've had pleasing results cooking such steaks sous vide.

 

In your situation, saute in butter or cook sous vide. If you've gently cooked the steak in a water bath the last thing you want to do is allow the internal temperature to creep up beyond whatever your original target temperature was. And it's not like you want to drop a knob of butter into a screaming hot pan. Use neutral oil with a high smoke point--or no oil, if you've got a non-stick pan--when searing a steak cooked sous vide.

 

If you want the buttery thing, tho', you could always melt some butter (maybe a compound butter of some description) and brush small quantities of this on your sliced steak.

 

I cooked the steak tonight.  Sous vide 57 deg C for two hours, ice bath for about the same time, then finished in a hot pan with butter.  Served with béarnaise sauce.

 

There was a pleasant crust, then about 1/16 of an inch of gray matter, and a pink interior.  The steak was flavorful and very tender -- important for those of us lacking teeth.  But it was dry.  No amount of butter nor béarnaise could fix that.

 

The last sous vide Australian steak I cooked had an unpleasantly burned exterior, with a bright pink (perfectly pasteurized but what I would call raw) center.  It was not particularly tender.

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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I cooked the steak tonight.  Sous vide 57 deg C for two hours, ice bath for about the same time, then finished in a hot pan with butter.  Served with béarnaise sauce.

 

There was a pleasant crust, then about 1/16 of an inch of gray matter, and a pink interior.  The steak was flavorful and very tender -- important for those of us lacking teeth.  But it was dry.  No amount of butter nor béarnaise could fix that.

 

The last sous vide Australian steak I cooked had an unpleasantly burned exterior, with a bright pink (perfectly pasteurized but what I would call raw) center.  It was not particularly tender.

A few questions first:

 

Ribeye?

Frozen, Refrigerated, or room temp?

If frozen, how? Flash freeze (from distributor), ice bath then freezer, or just tossed in freezer?

Thickness?

How much liquid in the bag?

 

I'm assuming you like a light pink center, yes?

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Rib eye...the rib eye described in post #27.

 

Refrigerated, never frozen, about one inch or a little less.  Rinsed and thoroughly patted dry before vacuum sealing.

 

No liquid or seasoning in the bag.

 

I was aiming for (and got) a light pink center.

 

 

Sadly the meat was dry as dust.  I have pretty much given up on sous vide preparation of tender beef.  Three day short ribs, great.  Twenty four hour chuck, even better.  Pork and chicken also work well for me sous vide.  But not steak.

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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This is a tough one for me, because I don't like meat cooked much past medium rare. 

 

I'm with a couple others here who believe lean sous vide is a tricky task. That task is made a lot harder when you get to and above medium. Depending on how long you had the steak in the pan with butter, I can see why it dried out.

 

I started sous vide because I wanted great steaks. I still get them, but honestly I like it better for what it can do with eggs, poultry, vegetables, and custards more. 

 

For what it's worth, my steaks always come out best when I use the deep-frying method of finishing. I suspect it's because the steak spends the least amount of time subjected to high heat.

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Here's a pic of the SV bags warming up on the 1940s Queen-Atlantic:

 

attachicon.gifRaphaelson-1.jpg

 

If I do this again with aged chuck, I'll try trimming the cook time to 36 or even 24 hours, to see if they can be a bit juicier without sacrificing too much tenderness.

 

I want to run away with that stove and make babies with it.    Do you have any more photos.   What island were you on.. That is awesome of Delapetria did that for you.   I have not been over there in some time, I normally stick to Paisanos but, liked what I bought there a year back or so.   I will have to give them another shot.

 

I bought these two ribeyes last night.. they were close to 2 lbs each, maybe more.  Probably a little more.  

 

14730214182_4d09e5aca6_c.jpg

 

Cooked it, full blast on the green egg after a heavy salting.  

 

14544043907_01d87afb7c_c.jpg

Edited by basquecook (log)
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This all looks great, Paul.  Thanks for sharing it.

 

I wonder if one thing might have helped:  Would it be possible to take the 4 week aged chuckeye roast, open it up to remove all the tough connective tissue and big pockets of fat, reassemble and bond with Activa, then portion and cook as you have done?  I suppose that would remove the possibility of the four hour "danger zone" cooking?

--

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Yesterday rib eye was on sale.  I bought three boneless rib eye steaks that were about two inches thick.  I cooked one by the Fat Guy/Ducasse method:

 

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/119838-the-best-way-to-cook-a-thick-steak/page-1

 

 

With the help of a pair of zombies and Dansko sandals from the footware thread I was able to stand at the stove and cook the steak for about an hour.  What may have started out as footware has turned into a fetish as I now have three pair of Dansko, they are so comfortable.

 

Admittedly I may have been carried away in the cooking as there was little or no pink.  However the meat was so unctuous there was no contest with the pink sous vide Australian rib eye that was completely dry.

 

Served with sautéed mushrooms and béarnaise.  Two more rib eyes to go.

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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This all looks great, Paul.  Thanks for sharing it.

 

I wonder if one thing might have helped:  Would it be possible to take the 4 week aged chuckeye roast, open it up to remove all the tough connective tissue and big pockets of fat, reassemble and bond with Activa, then portion and cook as you have done?  I suppose that would remove the possibility of the four hour "danger zone" cooking?

Yeah, and I'd also check the time/temp curves to see how long the center would take to get up to a safe zone at the cooking temperature. Some people have had issues with spoilage bacteria when the rise time is too long, if they've done stuff to compromise the sterility of the center. Interesting idea, though. It might just require slicing the meat a bit thinner.

Edited by paulraphael (log)

Notes from the underbelly

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Sous vide grass fed flank steak: 131 degrees F for 24 hours then a quick sear. Perfect medium-rare and very tender. I had previously cooked that kind of flank steak at 125 for a couple of hours for a more rare meat but it was quite chewy.

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Tonight was the second of my three wet aged (that may be a euphemism for something close to rotting) ribeyes, cooked by the Fat Guy/Ducasse method.  The degree of doneness was just right, which I attribute as much to good fortune as  to culinary skill, since the cook (me) was more than a few sheets to the wind.

 

Still, I am not complaining.

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Rib Eye.

marinated in a jalapeño/lime/olive oil/lime juice mix. about an hour.

sealed in bag.

1.jpg

Sous Vide 2 hrs at 131F.

2.jpg

quick sear on cast iron (blazing hot as I could get it) with a splash of olive oil. perhaps 40 secs a side tops.

3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg

served with chimmichurri and some sous vide rainbow carrots.

7.jpg

to me, perfect.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

New type of Angus brand steak?

 

Shoprite, the only store that I can easily get to, does not have a great meat department.  And don't even think about the fish or seafood.  However I noticed that they now carry a new type of vacuum packed Angus steak.  This steak is marked "choice" and is much better marbled than any other meat in the store.  They claim it is aged.  It is also about twice as much per pound as regular Angus, which means it is way more expensive than ordinary steak.  But I must say the marbling looked far more appetizing than anything else at the meat counter.

 

Being the inquisitive sort I had to try it.  I bought a rib steak.  The steak was large enough to serve me for about four meals.  For the first experiment I cut off the deckle and cooked it up as Anna taught me:  hot pan, cook till crust forms then turn.  The crust was lovely.  But what lurked beneath minded me more of galvanism and Mary Shelley.

 

Tonight I prepared the eye.  I gave it extra time on both sides and the edges.  The crust, if anything, was even more lovely, but what I would probably have sent back in a restaurant as raw.  Maybe my expectations just need calibrating?

 

Has anyone else tried this new sort of Angus?

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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