Picked up a fat 3” tomahawk from Sam’s Club on a discount. I bought it because I am going hunting on a buddies farm this weekend and picked it up to cook and share for lunch. (Disclaimer: I’ve never cooked a tomahawk or dry brined)
My question is with the best process. The steak says freeze or cook before Thursday.
So my plan was to dry brine this afternoon in the fridge for 24hrs then tomorrow afternoon I’ll lightly season with a brown sugar rub that I love, then vac seal and freeze.
The plan for cooking is to put it in the 137° bath around 6am-ish Saturday morning when we leave to hunt, then have it cook till around 11am-ish when we’ll probably come back. Then do my normal ribeye process of pat dry, cool in the fridge, then sear it hot as a mf.
Any changes or ideas? I’m worried about the length of the cook especially if hunting goes longer (6 hours max)
Ribeye is my sous vide go to (may be the only thing I’ve cooked in it honestly) so I understand it roughly but want this steak to knock everyone’s socks off.
by jacksoncranford
13 Comments
Following…I have a 2.5″ in my freezer
So i am new to sous, but in reality, this cut has no business in sous. Reverse sear. Like 250 until it reaches 130, and sear both sides and edges that you can. I’ll wait for the hate…
Mmmm…. Look at the size of the deckle on that one!!!
Thick fatty cuts benefit the absolute least from sous vide. Reverse sear it.
Make sure there’s no sharp edges on the bone. Have had them rip the bags before.
This is *technically* a cowboy steak, not a tomahawk. Just fyi.
Your standard method sounds perfect. It’s exactly how I would do it.
Smoke and reverse sear, enjoy.
Watch out for that bone poking a hole in the bag. Might want to double bag.
I’d just reverse sear it to be honest.
I understand that you want to come back from the hunt and not spend time with a lot of the cooking process. The only thing I’d change is maybe drop to 135 unless you have folks afraid of pink. It sounds like it’ll be fully rendered.
I do this also on any cut if I think we may have a wide range on our start time to eat. Then pat dry and sear.
Don’t worry about brining. Vac pac with areomatics and 1% salt to weight ratio. Sous vide at 120 give or take. Set a timer if you’re worried about the time but 6 hours is plenty. Do your pat dry and mf’n sear.
Guga will do 2 hours at 135 usually. When going longer I see he lowers the temp a bit.
I would do the following.
Day before. Rub down in Worcestershire sauce ( essentially salt) or a nice kosher salt. Then let it sit in the fridge overnight uncovered to brine a bit.
Set sous vide to 125 or in my case as this is all preference, 120. It will come up to medium rare after the sear, I like a really good sear hence why I sous vide slightly lower.
In the bag, add time, rosemary, and season the steak with garlic powder, pepper and you can even add more salt. It’s a big piece of meat, you can add way more salt than you think.
Sous vide for 2-4 hours. I’ve done steaks for 2, I’ve done one for 24 hours. All that changes is the texture. It can’t overcook but the texture of the meat will be worse if you go over 4 hours. Not steak like, becomes way too soft.
I’d sear or charcoal but if you can’t, hot cast iron pan or any pan will do. Get it nice and hot, once you sear one side, flip and add butter, and the herbs you had in the bag from the sous process, baste the melted butter over the steak in the pan and continue to flip until it’s seared to the point you like.
Rest for 15 min and serve.