I cooked bone in ribeye last night. First time using a sous vide machine! I read an epic five-year-old post here about cooking them at 137° for 2 hours and tried it. Followed by an ice bath, then quick sear in a hot cast iron pan.
It wasn’t juicy or buttery like I’d hoped. Also not very warm as I left my steak in the ice bath while I cooked my son’s. He liked it. I was underwhelmed.
The steaks I bought were cheap (I’m super tight on money) but I’d hoped the SV would improve them.
What do you think I can do better next time?
Post I referenced here:
by Pearlixsa
23 Comments
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That’s because 137 is overcooked. Try at a lower temp next time.
The 137 gang is a cult and they’re completely wrong. Especially on cheaper steaks
I can’t see much from the first picture, but in my own opinion, in order to get what you were looking for, I would have went a bit heavier on the seasoning in the sous vide bag and in the cast iron skillet, I would sear, then baste it in butter once to get the slightly brown butter onto it. That would bring the buttery taste and fill out the flavor more. Also what seasonings did you use?
Sous vide steaks are usually kind of *meh*. SV shines with pork and chicken.
Steak is better with reverse sear, either on the stove or on the grill.
Agree with the other commenter that 137 is overcooked but I also agree that lower doesn’t render the fat enough. This just means ribeye is not a great cut for sous vide. I have better luck doing reverse sear in the oven since the higher temp renders the fat better. I usually sous vide NY strips, picanha or chuck. My favorite thing to sous vide tho is pork. I do a lot of loin, pork chops, tenderloin and ribs
These ribeyes are a little lean for 137
also, it seems to be way under seasoned to me…. When I’m done with pepper/garlic/salt you can barely see the meat…
How long did you sear?
The inside meat texture looks like some steaks that I have prepared that had been frozen. Older steaks get that appearance also. It’s also a very lean ribeye.
I run my sous vide at 129 if I want a red medium rare.
Bump to 132 if I want it closer to medium.
Cold ice bath for 60 seconds, remove, cut open and pat em as dry as you can.
Strip or ribeye this has worked wonders for me.
I recently did a should roast at 131 for 24 hours, and it was great. One of the advantages of SV is that you can take cheaper cuts and make them good.
You’re gonna get a lot of hot opinions anytime you bring up 137. I’ll tell you we were very skeptical, and have not even considered going back. 129 is “true med/rare” but the trade off of 8 degrees more cooking vs rendering the fat (particularly in a ribeye) is just a no brainer trade off in my mind. I see other good advice being given about ensuring proper season being given. I’m sorry these were a letdown, we do it a bunch and have some ho-hum steaks sometimes, it’s always a bummer. I’m sure someone will disagree with me, I don’t understand the ice bath. I rest on the counter for a bit and sear with plenty of butter. Anything 2-4 hours in the sous vide is ‘about the same’ to us. Good luck going forward!
Sous vide to 135 for two hours, cast iron sizzling hot (no oil yet), add avocado oil on the cast iron (avocado oil is good for hot cooking), 90 seconds sear on each side at high temp. Baste with butter and garlic at the end of the cook as you check temp. Thank me later.
Sous vide won’t magically make cheap meat better.
For Rib Eye, I cook at 128 to get a medium rare. If you’re doing an ice bath, keep it short. Make sure it is well seasoned before putting it in the bag, I couldn’t see any seasoning in your pic.
Get a ripping hot cast iron, make sure your meat is patted dry with a paper towel – as dry as you can get it – and sear.
That doesn’t look like 137 to me, and your sear seems really good too (hardly any gray band!) so I doubt that’s the problem. Is it possible your sous vide is mis-calibrated and it cooked at a higher temperature? I agree with others that it could use more seasoning, and I think it’s always worth dry brining first if you aren’t marinating.
Looks like your cow used to work out on a stair master.
I, like many 137 advocates, only suggest doing it for a very well marbled steak. That looks extremely dry, luckily because it was lean. I also think that freezing ahead of time ends up releasing a lot more moisture, but others will fight me on that.
Kenji is a great resource of first resort when learning sous vide. I’d use him as a guide before a Reddit comment, honestly, then adjust to my taste accordingly.
https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-steak
Sous vide advantages are really more apparent at longer cook times. I would cook more at the 4 hour mark for tenderness, particularly with leaner cuts of meat. I did a 1kg angus tri tip side at 24 hours once and it basically was at melt in your mouth (some might not like it, gets pretty close to pastrami texture at that point, though my friends all loved it). I don’t advocate that for single personal cuts of steaks, but it’s great if you wanna start experimenting on large cuts of meat.
Bruh, take it to 115, out of the bag, dry, sear.
OR
take it to 125, out of the bag, dry, cool, sear.
I feel like everyone is giving advice on techniques but not stating the obvious. You can’t turn a cheap steak into a good steak with sous vide. If you start out with a bad steak, it’s still going to be a bad steak in the end. That’s not to say that you can’t find an inexpensive steak that is still good. I’m just saying if you start with something not so good, sous vide is probably not going to improve it.
115 then shallow fry in beef Tallow…. Resting with compound butter
https://preview.redd.it/qwpwokwunb3g1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe7cc913165d4a0be7310dc377144d2248346f0c
Steak looks lean, freezer burned, and/or overcooked.
Too hot imo. Also imo ice bath not necessary after sous vide.