What are the downsides to cooking steak sous-vide vs. a more traditional method?
None! Just kidding. Sous-vide-style precision cooking is a technique, another tool in your arsenal, and just like all techniques, there's a tradeoff. Here are a few of the most immediate:
- It takes longer. A traditionally-cooked steak goes from fridge to plate in 15 to 20 minutes (a bit longer if you have to preheat your oven). A sous-vide steak will take an hour or more, though with sous-vide cooking, this time is almost 100% hands-off.
- You will not achieve the exact same sear. Sous-vide flag-waving zealots may claim otherwise, but the rapid sear you achieve after cooking sous-vide will not be as thick or crusty as the sear you get from a traditional cooking method. Some folks prefer a thicker sear, others prefer the thin sear achieved during sous-vide cooking.
- It requires more equipment. Cooking a steak sous-vide requires a precision cooker and a plastic bag or vacuum sealer in addition to all the tools required for more traditional methods. Chances are if you're reading this article you already have those extra tools.
When is the best time to season a sous-vide steak?
Seasoning a steak prior to vacuum sealing it then letting it rest in the bag can result in meat that has a firm texture similar to a mildly cured ham. Some folks find this texture off-putting, though I personally don't mind it. To avoid this texture, it's best to season and bag a steak immediately before cooking, or after cooking sous-vide and before searing.
In either case, only the exterior of a steak will be seasoned, so it's always a good idea to serve your steak with coarse sea salt such as Maldon for sprinkling at the table as your guests slice.
What happens if I leave a steak in the sous-vide cooker for longer than the maximum time recommendations?
So long as you're cooking at above 130°F, there are no real health risks associated with prolonged sous-vide cooking. You will, however, eventually notice a difference in texture. At 130°F, steak cooked for 1 to 4 hours will have a traditional texture with plenty of meaty chew. Above that timeframe and connective tissue will start to break down, turning the steak softer, for some folks unpleasantly so.
A slice of steak cooked at 130°F for 24 hours will look like a nice, pink medium-rare steak, but it will shred and flake as you chew it instead of gently yielding to pressure. These differences in texture over time will amplify at higher cooking temperatures. A steak cooked at a well-done 160°F, for instance, will be soft and shreddable (and dry) after only 8 to 12 hours.
For best results, I don't recommend cooking any longer than the maximum recommended time for each cut and temperature range.
Should I add butter, oil, or any other liquid or fat to the sous-vide bag?
No. Intuitively you may think that adding a flavorful fat like butter or olive oil will in turn help create a more flavorful steak, but in fact it achieves the opposite goal: it dilutes flavor. Fat-soluble flavor compounds dissolve in the melted butter or oil and end up going down the drain later on. For best results, place your seasoned steak in a bag alone.
Can I add aromatics like herbs or alliums to the sous-vide bag?
Yes you can. I like to add thyme or rosemary sprigs along with sliced shallots or garlic cloves to the bags with my steaks during cooking. Adding the same aromatics to the pan as you sear the steaks will bolster that flavor.
Can I add a spice rub to my steak?
Yes you can, but spice rubs behave quite differently under sous-vide conditions than standard cooking conditions. Normally, aromatic compounds will dissipate into the air in the kitchen or over your grill as a spice-rubbed steak cooks. At the same time, moisture dissipates, which means what's left of your spices sticks firmly to your meat. With sous-vide cooking, there's no way for that flavor to escape the bag. Meanwhile, spices rubbed on the surface of the meat have a tendency to get rinsed off by any juices that are being expressed.
The short answer is that it's very tough to predict exactly how spices are going to react in a sous-vide bag. I've found that if I want spice flavor, it's better to rub the spices into the meat after the sous-vide cooking phase and before the final searing phase.
Should I sear my steak before adding it to the bag?
After repeated testing and blind taste tests, I've found that pre-searing a steak--that is, browning the steak before it goes into the sous-vide bag then browning it a second time just before serving--serves at most a very minimal role in improving flavor or texture. In most cases, the difference is imperceptible. There's no harm in pre-searing a steak, but I prefer the ease and convenience of simply placing the steak in the bag raw before cooking, leaving the searing for a single step at the end.
What about deep-frying the steak instead of searing after cooking sous-vide?
Deep-frying a steak cooked sous-vide can be a lot of fun and it's true, you'll get a very quick, evenly browned crust on your meat, but there are a few downsides. First, the obvious: it requires you to have a large vessel filled with hot oil to deep fry. If you're anything like me, you like to keep deep frying to a minimum at home.
Perhaps more importantly, deep frying has a relatively low maximum temperature that is defined by the oil's smoke point--generally around 450°F (232°C) or so. Oil in a skillet or a steak on a grill, on the other hand, can achieve temperatures a couple hundred degrees higher than this, allowing your steak to char rather than simply brown. For me, this charring and the intense flavor it brings is one of the hallmarks of a great steak experience.
Can I use a torch alone to finish a steak?
I would strongly recommend against it. Torches are extremely intense heat sources that basically follow the inverse-square law: their intensity dissipates with the square of the distance from the torch head. What this means is that any unevenness in the surface of your steak gets amplified; Areas that are slightly elevated will singe before areas that are lower will even begin to brown properly.
While it's possible to get reasonable browning with a torch by holding it at a distance great enough that this effect is minimized and by making multiple slow passes across the surface of a steak, I find the hassle and time it takes to do so much more of a headache than simply cooking a steak in a hot skillet with the torch as an added heat source. Besides, a steak cooked with a skillet and torch combo comes out with a better crust in the end anyway.
What's the best torch for searing steak?
Standard propane torches with manual-ignition heads have trouble staying lit when inverted. This can be a problem when you're frantically trying to relight a torch as your steak sears in a hot skillet. Adding a Searzall unit [JKLA: can we link to this?] will not only ensure that the flame stays lit, but it will also diffuse the flame, allowing you to get a more even sear.
Want to keep things on the cheap? I find that a standard butane gas canister with a high-intensity torch head like the Iwatani Torch Burner does a more than adequate job. It's what I pack in my travel cooking kit.
Does steak finished with a torch acquire any off-aromas?
Finishing a steak with nothing but the naked flame of a propane or butane torch can indeed leave an off, gasoline-like aroma on the surface of the meat due to imperfect combustion. However, if you are using the skillet-torch combination method, the added heat from the skillet will help the fuel combust more completely while the dilution of any un-combusted fuel by the fat and juices in the pan will render them completely imperceptible.
If, for some reason, you do choose to sear with a torch alone, a Searzall unit will improve combustion efficiency and completely eliminate those odors.
Can I chill and reheat my steak after cooking it sous-vide if I haven't opened the bag?
It's true that given a high enough temperature (130°F or higher) and a long enough time period (several hours), the contents of a sealed sous-vide bag should be close to sterile, which means that rapid chilling via an ice bath followed by rapid reheating should pose no health risks, though I still strongly recommend against it whenever avoidable: it's not doing any favors for the quality of your steak.
Word of warning: never chill and reheat any food that has been cooked or held at a temperature lower than 130°F. These temperature are not hot enough to destroy dangerous bacteria.
Can I cook a steak straight from the freezer?
Yes! I often seal seasoned, ready-to-cook steaks in sous-vide bags and stack them in the freezer. For steaks an inch to 2 inches thick, when ready to cook, allow an extra hour for the steak to fully thaw in the hot water bath before you begin timing it for doneness.
Does sous vide steak need to rest?
Traditionally cooked steaks need to rest. That is, they need to be placed aside for five to ten minutes before cutting and serving. This resting period is to allow time for the temperature gradient within the steak to even out. The cooler center is gently heated by the hotter outer edges, while they in turn lose some of their heat to the outside world. Even temperature is important: it's what prevents a steak from leaking its juices everywhere the moment it's been sliced open.
Because a sous-vide steak cooks from edge to edge more or less perfectly evenly, there is no temperature gradient inside. A medium-rare steak should be 130°F from the very center to the outer edge with only the outer surfaces hotter after searing. Sous vide steaks should be served immediately after searing.
