Seasoned with kindred prime steak. Left in fridge for about four hours before the water bath. Sous vide for about 90 mins at 130.5°F. Let rest for about 10 mins while I brought pan to temp. Seared each side for about a minute each side with a little duck fat in the pan. Super satisfied.
by ekajh13
6 Comments
The spinalis on the one on the right is beautiful.
Edit: Kinder’s Prime steak seasoning
That looks great, nice job
Hell yeah! I scored some of these from my local Sam’s on Friday, also marked down. I think I’m going to have to show up early every morning looking for deals I think haha
Ok. So, I’ll get some heat for this. Sous Vide got me started down the path of the perfectly cooked steak. It’s taken years of trial and error, but sous vide steaks are never going to be better than 7/10. Now, if that’s the best you have gotten to, there is nothing wrong with that, but allow me to elaborate.
Let me start with what I would do with these steaks, and then let’s return to sous vide in general for meats.
First, in a perfect world, where I don’t mind getting started about 2 hours before dinner, I’d start by drying the steaks with a paper towel. Wrap each steak decently tight, and when it soaks through replace it. (in a more perfect world I will have done this the night before, and placed them on a wire rack in the fridge wrapped in that second paper towel.)
Ok so you have your steaks sitting in front of you, set your oven to 170-200 degrees. Use a bit of sea salt as a base seasoning. Let it sit while the oven heats and equalizes a bit (15-20 minutes should be fine). You’ll notice the salt seems to disappear as it pulls additional liquid out of the steak. leave it. If you have a wired baking sheet, use it. Otherwise, I’ve cooked directly on the racks and put a baking sheet on the tray below to grab any falling juices. *Note, a big benefit of this method is that you can cook as many steaks as will fit in your oven, just make sure the steaks are somewhat even in thickness, thinner steaks will cook faster.
Now, over the next 1.5 to 2 hours, you’ll notice the appearance of the steaks begin the change. First, it will become a bit glossy, and the color may even appear lighter, but then it will turn darker. As it darkens, you want to start checking the temp. (Additional note: I can poke the meat as it darkens, and when it starts offering a bit more resistance, I check the temp.) I pull out of the oven at 125 and lightly pat it dry.
You may be wondering about additional seasonings. Season during the sear; that way, the seasonings don’t burn. If you have a cast iron pan, toss it under the broiler for 5 minutes, then put it on the stove over high heat and drop your two steaks on. After about 90 seconds or so, flip it. On the flipped side, start seasoning. After 2 minutes, 2- 3 tbsp of butter and a few sprigs of rosemary are added to that pan, and then flip it over the butter again. Pull it off for 45-60 seconds, 1 last flip, 45-60 seconds and you are done, pull off quickly.
*Note: If you want to elevate the experience a bit, use 4-5 tbsp of butter in a separate pan, melt it down, add 4-5 heads of garlic that have been mashed/cut thin, brown it, and then cook some mushrooms with salt and pepper. When it’s time to butter the steaks, just toss that whole thing in. When you serve it, put the mushrooms on the steak.
I’ve catered dinners serving steaks this way, and generally get glowing reviews.
Now back to the sous vide. It is a great tool, and it has a place in cooking meats. What I have seen people do with roasts, tri-tips and other larger cuts is great. My main use cases for it when cooking meat is this, do I want to just come home and eat? Because letting something just cook all day and coming home to something nearly ready to eat is great. I also generally use my sousvide to reheat.
My steaks are good enough that I’ve almost ruined the steakhouse experiences for myself, my family, and my friends.
Next time add an hour and like five degrees, personally I think that helps with ribeyes.