I bought a 1.3kg sirloin (top round) roast, sliced it into 8 steaks (~2.5–3cm thick), vacuum sealed and froze them. Today I cooked two from frozen at 54.5°C (130.1°F) for 2 hours using sous vide.
After cooking, I seared them quickly in avocado oil with garlic and dried rosemary. The texture and juiciness were a little dry / tough, the inside looked more medium than medium-rare.
Some extra details:
• Steaks went in straight from freezer
• Water started at 15°C, took ~30 min to reach target temp
• Didn’t chill after sous vide, went straight into the pan
• No sugar in the seasoning
• Timer started when water hit temp
How can I get a better medium-rare result next time?
Should I lower the temp a bit? Chill before searing? Adjust time?
by Mercilles
25 Comments
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That doesn’t look like the right cut for steaks
Where’s the fat gone?
> top round
found your problem
How quickly did you sear, and at what temp? 130 should not overcook the steaks, so if you mention that they were overcooked, you probably had them in the pan too long.
Top round may be the issue from the start. That cut has very little fat and tends to be tougher all around, so it’s better for longer cooks that help break down that muscle. Great for stews, not awesome for medium rare steaks.
Do you know why they call it round?
Because nobody would buy it if it was called cow ass.
Sorry but this is stew meat.
Round is gonna need more time than two hours. 130 is good but definitely ice bath before patting dry and searing
Did you dry the streaks before searing? Pat dry with a cloth and popping in the fridge for a bit both help with that.
Too lean for sous vide.
Ribeyes, bones, or portehouses, round is used for beef jerky hence your meh sous vide, also you could hit it with more heat for a better sear.
That’s jerky meat, not steak meat.
Top round isn’t for steaks. Try chuck roast or ribeye.
Try again with a rib eye.
Would help if you put a marinade or some aromatics in the package. Also top round and really any tougher cuts need more than 2 hours, especially from frozen. 4+ in this case would’ve produced better results.
Portioned out a whole beef tenderloin into steaks. I do 4 hours minimal, but it was way better at 4 1⁄2 to 5 hours. Top round craves longer than 2 hours. Also, did you know you have the “NSFW” tag? LOL I mean, I know you’re showing your meat, but yanno…;-)
People are saying you can’t sous vide Top Round.
You absolutely can. **In fact your should.**
One of the greatest things about Sous-Vide cooking is that you can cook lean, tough cuts for long period of time to break them down without overcooking them.
If you’d done 131F for 10 hours it would have been more tender. If you’d marinated it in Worcester, Lemon Juice, or some other tenderizing agent, it’d be even more tender. If you’d (gasp) blade-tenderized it also, it’d be even more tender. (It is perfectly safe to blade tenderize Sous-Vide meat. The long 130F cook ensures Food Safety just as well as if you’d cooked it Well Done)
The issue with long sous vide cooks is you can over-tenderize them, so it’s not recommended for already tender cuts. You can also dry them out, but this can be overcome by finishing with butter or a serving sauce.
Others have said similar, but those relatively short 1-4 cooks are for traditional steakhouse cuts. For a cheaper round or chuck roast type you need to be closer to 24 hours. I do chuck roast for 36 hours and it gets nice and tender.
I’ve never had much luck with sirloin in the sous vide. You could try getting thicker sirloins and doing a 24hr sous vide. It should soften the texture, but in my experience, it will still be dry compared to a most other cuts.
I’m in the camp that you can take non-steak cuts like this and make them into enjoyable steaks, but you need like 12 hours in the bath, I’ve gone as far as 36 hours. If you want a cheap cut to do this with, try it with chuck roast (more fat, I like the textures more too).
If I were gonna make a top round into a steak I might actually bacon wrap it or something, like a fancy filet. not sure how that would work with sous vede tho but I’m sure someone’s came up with a technique.
NY strip or ribeye next time
I mean, you made top round “steaks” and they came out exactly how one would expect such lean “steaks” to come out.
If you really wanna do top round, you gotta cook em *way* longer to get them more tender.
Crikey. Get better steaks. Or get it as a roasting joint then dry brine then sous vide.
top round is not a “steak”
should have left it whole, 56C for 8-12 hours
its a roast, you want steak? buy filet or ribeye
Ahh good to know thx