How to cook a filet mignon?

Mighty_Quinn

So just curious - if you "hot tub" then sear, you're basically skipping any roasting on the Egg, and bypassing any of that hint of smoke that it would add to the steak, right? 

I mean, if you're gonna hot tub, then sear - you could theoretically do the sear on your stove, or even on a (gasp) gasser...

So basically, what I'm asking is - what benefit from the Egg does the steak get when cooking this way?

Thanks,
Rob

HH is specifically asking about the searing part...

I would think any method for searing would do the trick, since we generally discuss BGE here, I would say that's why the egg in this case.

Little Steven

HH,

 

Please don't make him post "the drawing"

:-O

stike

i sure as heck get smoke on the steak when searing.

>shrug<

The Cen-Tex Smoker

HH- A couple of things- Sous Vide totally cooks the meat throughout. It is essentially a poach under vacuum. When it comes out of the bag, it is basically flavorless med rare (in the case of steak- see pic below on steaks that just came out) top to bottom hunk of meat. It's what you do AFTER the sous vide that gives it such great flavor and it has to give a lot of flavor in a very short period of time (as the meat is already fully cooked perfectly to your desired temp). The egg is perfect because you can get smoke and char very quickly which is awesome. You are correct, you can pan sear, hit it with a torch, broil it, saute it, stir fry it- whatever. But when it comes to awesome smoke and crust, nothing is better than the egg.

So do you need an Egg to Sous Vide? No. Is it awesome in compliment? Absolutely. Plus you can do your other sides on the egg while stuff is in the sous vide. I use my egg 10-1 (maybe 20-1) over my sous vide, but when you use them together, it provides some awesome results. And i'll never cook chicken breast any other way again.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

HH- A couple of things- Sous Vide totally cooks the meat throughout. It is essentially a poach under vacuum. When it comes out of the bag, it is basically flavorless med rare (in the case of steak- see pic below on steaks that just came out) top to bottom hunk of meat. It's what you do AFTER the sous vide that gives it such great flavor and it has to give a lot of flavor in a very short period of time (as the meat is already fully cooked perfectly to your desired temp). The egg is perfect because you can get smoke and char very quickly which is awesome. You are correct, you can pan sear, hit it with a torch, broil it, saute it, stir fry it- whatever. But when it comes to awesome smoke and crust, nothing is better than the egg.

So do you need an Egg to Sous Vide? No. Is it awesome in compliment? Absolutely. Plus you can do your other sides on the egg while stuff is in the sous vide. I use my egg 10-1 (maybe 20-1) over my sous vide, but when you use them together, it provides some awesome results. And i'll never cook chicken breast any other way again.

ribeyes just out of sous vide. Weird looking. Med rare from top to bottom, no flavor whatsoever. Pics above are after sear on BGE. Great looking, tons of flavor. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

cen tex... if you are just prewarming for an hour, the tight temp hold isn't critical.  if we were going super long like i'm sure you do, you'd want serious temp control.  but if we back up and just look at the big picture, we're basically killing the chill of the interior, and getting the steak to within striking distance of 'done'. 

i use hot tapwater and a couple water changes. i don't even bother taking the temp of the water. i just sear to done by feel. 

True. It's a different process. I'm cooking throughout to a perfect doneness then searing. The cook is done in the sous vide, the flavor is done after if that makes sense.

stike

bingo.  great post C-T

it's something that's been discussed a lot, and never seems to 'stick'.  thanks for the effort to explain it.
frankly, keep that handy in a word.doc file, because you'll be cutting and pasting that a few hundred times.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

@ Cen-Tex-tops out around 104*F and pretty stable-should be able to get a whole side of beef in there, no problem...:)

nice. I'll find a way to load the temp chart. 140 is perfect for juicy steaks. Chicken breast is actually 146

The Cen-Tex Smoker

If you use a vac seal do a manual seal before the vacuum completes so you don't flatten the meat. Water can be anywhere over 100 but I wouldn't go over the finish temp myself. Nice looking steak CT!

That is correct. Especially for burgers etc. Big thick steaks are usually ok but it's best to not vacuum it down all the way.Just until the bag is snugly around all the meat, then stop the vac and let it seal.  it can press the meat and leave little diamond patterns on the meat from the vac bag if you vac it too hard.

Mighty_Quinn

I get that it is competety safe, but I could never eat chicken at 146...that texture too wet for me...I like breasts well into the 160s.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I get that it is competety safe, but I could never eat chicken at 146...that texture too wet for me...I like breasts well into the 160s.

Trust me, it's not what you think. The texture is awesome. Very firm, juicy and plump. My kids won't even eat regular chicken anymore (except when I do a whole one on the egg like Sunday

stike

they aren't getting it, man. hahaha

trust me, no amount of explain' will transfer what's in yer head and experience into theirs
)

travisstrick

Sooooo.... Can you guys explain that again?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Sooooo.... Can you guys explain that again?

which part?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Sooooo.... Can you guys explain that again?

which part?

and do I detect sarcasm?

travisstrick

Just a little:)

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Just a little:)

Nice

tazcrash

Sooooo.... Can you guys explain that again?

which part?

The first part. 

Up until....

I get that it is competety safe, but I could never eat chicken at 146...that texture too wet for me...I like breasts well into the 160s.

Trust me, it's not what you think. The texture is awesome. Very firm, juicy and plump. My kids won't even eat regular chicken anymore (except when I do a whole one on the egg like Sunday

Hillbilly-Hightech

i sure as heck get smoke on the steak when searing.

>shrug<

which is why I posited the question of "why would I want to bypass 90% of that" - I realize you'll get some smoke from a sear, but I don't think anyone is gonna argue that you won't get MORE smoke from roasting the steak (either b4, or after) the sear. 

Sous-vide & hot-tub bypass the roasting part, unless you were to sous-vide or hot-tub to a very low temp, then roast, then sear. 

But the point is... ahhhhh... never mind... )

The Cen-Tex Smoker

i sure as heck get smoke on the steak when searing.

>shrug<

which is why I posited the question of "why would I want to bypass 90% of that" - I realize you'll get some smoke from a sear, but I don't think anyone is gonna argue that you won't get MORE smoke from roasting the steak (either b4, or after) the sear. 

Sous-vide & hot-tub bypass the roasting part, unless you were to sous-vide or hot-tub to a very low temp, then roast, then sear. 

But the point is... ahhhhh... never mind... )

That's all true. Just another way to do stuff that produces easy and great results. I've made plenty of awesome food without it. It's a fun tool to have though and it has opened my eyes to other ways of doing stuff. I'm all about experimenting and learning so it's fun for me. I love pulling smoky meteorites out of my egg too so I mix and match depending on how i feel. 90% egg, 10% sous vide is the norm for me. Wife uses it every week to do the chicken breasts we eat all week but I only use it when I have serious sinister meat plans in store. 

Eggbertsdad

I'm looking for a way to combine the hot tub, t-rex, and x-ert methods. Just kidding! 

Or not? 

:-?

Hillbilly-Hightech

Cen-Tex - no prob bud, wasn't tryin to say that 1 way or the other was better or worse.  Was really tryin to see what benefit the Egg gave to this method, and you guys answered my question to my satisfaction - so thank ya for that!!!

I've actually tried the "hot-tub" method in the past (actually used a crock-pot as the hot-tub vessel - I'm sure there are pics somewhere on this forum or the other showing my setup). 

Never have done a whole "sous-vide" style cook though (unless ya count the pre-packaged "boil-in-a-bag" food that ya just throw into boiling water) hehehehe  )

EDIT:  Here was my venture into the way of the "hot-tub": 

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1050219/finally-trex-success-w-a-hillbilly-mod#Item_0

Little Steven

The smoke ring stops developing at 140* but the smoke will flavour the meat throughout the cook.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Cen-Tex - no prob bud, wasn't tryin to say that 1 way or the other was better or worse.  Was really tryin to see what benefit the Egg gave to this method, and you guys answered my question to my satisfaction - so thank ya for that!!!

I've actually tried the "hot-tub" method in the past (actually used a crock-pot as the hot-tub vessel - I'm sure there are pics somewhere on this forum or the other showing my setup). 

Never have done a whole "sous-vide" style cook though (unless ya count the pre-packaged "boil-in-a-bag" food that ya just throw into boiling water) hehehehe  )

EDIT:  Here was my venture into the way of the "hot-tub": 

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1050219/finally-trex-success-w-a-hillbilly-mod#Item_0

no sweat. I didn't think you were banging on me. Just chattin.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Cen-Tex - no prob bud, wasn't tryin to say that 1 way or the other was better or worse.  Was really tryin to see what benefit the Egg gave to this method, and you guys answered my question to my satisfaction - so thank ya for that!!!

I've actually tried the "hot-tub" method in the past (actually used a crock-pot as the hot-tub vessel - I'm sure there are pics somewhere on this forum or the other showing my setup). 

Never have done a whole "sous-vide" style cook though (unless ya count the pre-packaged "boil-in-a-bag" food that ya just throw into boiling water) hehehehe  )

EDIT:  Here was my venture into the way of the "hot-tub": 

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1050219/finally-trex-success-w-a-hillbilly-mod#Item_0

no sweat. I didn't think you were banging on me. Just chattin.

That is one dank looking steak! made me hungry with that one

Cullum

Seal it in a food saver or suck the air out of a zip lock and place it in stable temp water at your desired temp. It will cook it through and hold it at that temp until you are ready to finish. When ready, you season it and hard sear it to produce the Mailard reaction (caramelizing) and you have food cooked perfectly throughout with an awesome crust.

If you have a reliable way to hold water temp, it's a great way to cook. Made way better when you have an egg to finish on. 

Thinking about getting the SousVide Magic that is used with a crock pot. Know anything about these?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Seal it in a food saver or suck the air out of a zip lock and place it in stable temp water at your desired temp. It will cook it through and hold it at that temp until you are ready to finish. When ready, you season it and hard sear it to produce the Mailard reaction (caramelizing) and you have food cooked perfectly throughout with an awesome crust.

If you have a reliable way to hold water temp, it's a great way to cook. Made way better when you have an egg to finish on. 

Thinking about getting the SousVide Magic that is used with a crock pot. Know anything about these?

I don't but I do know that there are a lot of ways to do it. Lots of guys build their own etc. I can tell you that there is noting super special about mine. It's overpriced for what it is but I love it. If you can find a way to reliably hold temp in water, you can make it work.

Cullum

Have you found this to be the best way to get the most tender steak, by going with the sous vide method then searing on the BGE?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Have you found this to be the best way to get the most tender steak, by going with the sous vide method then searing on the BGE?

It's really good but I would say there is even a bigger difference with chicken and seafood though. If it's only steak you are after.....it's a coin toss for me. If you do other stuff like chicken and seafood, the difference is amazing. I guess the best thing about it for me is that it is fail safe to cook to perfect temp. You can leave a steak in there for 8 hours and it just holds at whatever perfect temp you set. Then you sear it and it's perfect med rare (in my case)  from top to bottom. That is pretty cool. You can drop a frozen steak in before you go to work, then sear it in 2 min when you get home and you have an unbelievable meal in minutes. You will never eat restaurant meat again without a smirk on your face once you go this route. The egg is so awesome to compliment the flavor. it comes out of the sous vide essentially flavorless (they way I do it). I want all my flavor coming from what happens after and it provides really easy, perfect results every time

Eggbertsdad

Can you do the sous vide method with a burger and get the same results? I've got a friend coming over tonight and I want to cook burgers. Can I vacuum seal them and place in a crock pot on warm or around 140 or so and then sear on the egg?