After tons and tons of experimenting… I have come to conclusion that the 137 club is amazing if your meat allows it… But that is not anything new. Everyone has been saying pick the most well marbled ribeye only. But the truth is I wish it was as simple as that. I have bought some usda prime ribeyes from costco that looked pretty well marbled and they were pretty dry at 137. (honestly I think costco steak quality has gone down over the years.) In the photo this is a usda prime picanha (dry brined, 137 sousvide, fridged for 10 minutes, seared on stainless with tallow and butter, rested) from a local butcher and the trend I always get with these is they always seem juicy no matter what temp i cook them at. Obviously I am not going to nuke them well done. So what I do now when I get new batches of meat and this only works in bulk. I always do the first steak around 130-133 and just from observing the meat quality you can tell if its a piece of meat that will be good at the 137 club.
by pchiggs
14 Comments
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Never had a 137 ribeye come out dry. Sounds like you just fucked it up
I think it also just what you prefer. If you prefer something approaching medium then 137, if you like something medium rare then 131 is better.
That makes a lot of sense, actually! I’ve had very mixed results with 137, even with prime ribeye (often from Costco!), and I haven’t been able to figure out what I’m doing that makes it so variable. It’s possible that something about the meat itself responds differently to 137. If you figure out any more about what properties of the meat make it work better, I’d love to hear about it!
or just do 135 and satisfy the round number OCD we all really have.
It’s not just about the meat though. The reason to go up to 137 even if that’s higher than you want your steak is that it renders the fat so much better which you need on fattier cuts.
I think you’re mostly discovering something most people on this sub don’t like to discuss: that beef quality varies quite a bit even if it the same grade. I have always found prime beef from Costco, for example, far less tender and flavorful than prime beef sourced locally.
Quality and grade are not synonymous. Some ribeyes are best cooked less, some more. And more important than either is the underlying quality of the steak.
This guy beefs
Costco meat is mechanically tenderized garbage. The ribeyes are often cut from the wrong section of the primal, either with almost no cap (like a rib roast) or too far the other end with the fat fist in the center. Sous vide excels at making bad beef better, but paying extra for their prime imo is not worth it. I’d rather get better prime and have it 1/5 less often to make up the price difference.
I’ve been doing 128.5 for years with spectacular results
I’m always 132, but wanted to stop by and say I’m anti blade tenderizing. Once I started try to avoid it at my local Costco my only choice was filet mignon. Why are they tenderizing ribeyes?
picanha is goated
Costco will use a Jaccard on some cuts of meat. That may be the issue
I’m anywhere between 134 – 138 depending on how I feel.