Need some quick advice Sous Vide style

michigan_jason

What temp should the water be if I want the finished product to be medium. Perhaps 125 water? For how long in the water? Last time I seasoned them and then put them in the food saver bags, but it seemed to lack flavor. Should I season after the bath and prior to the sear? Thanks guys.

Skiddymarker

I season before the "hot tub" in the Trés Booblay, Assuming medium is 140-145º, I use 130-135º water. (135º over four hours is great for tri-tip that has been hit with the Jaccard.)

I do not like the taste of garlic in the sous vide so I stay away from it. Rosemary adds a nice touch. I season the meat, seal in Food Saver bag and then freeze. This way the storage bag becomes the cooking bag. 

Dry the surface of the meat out of the bag to speed the sear if that's what you are doing. 

Use of a board sauce is ideal for sous vide steaks, IMO. 

nolaegghead

I agree with skiddy.  Always season before the sear, and I season the bag.

billybon

I also season in the bag as well as before the seer. I frequently cold smoke for a short time before bagging the meat.

ericp

Yup. I season the bag and before the sear. I always wipe the meat dry before I reseason to get the best sear

Grillmagic

I will be following this post as I bought a SV Demi a couple months ago and have not cooked a great meal with it yet, I have tried steak three times, chicken twice and pork chops twice and veggies several times. I dry seasoned  two two inch Ribeyes and tubbed them at 120 for 4 hours then dried them off and re seasoned and seared them on my XL in a cast iron pan at 600 for 120 seconds on the first side and 90 on the second and took them off at 130 and the doneness was Perfect but the taste wasn't no where near as good as reverse searing them, my wife said can you send it back! The other 2 steaks were similar and same with the chicken and pork, I did the chicken breasts to 145 for 3 hours and raised direct at 400/425 until they reached 165 and the same with the pork chops. the veggies came out the best.

Chuck

Dimondale,Michigan

www.chuckkingcomedy.com

The Cen-Tex Smoker

What are you cooking?

nolaegghead

^^ good point.

There's no advantage to sous vide for steaks UNLESS you have a very thick steak AND you want it rare or medium rare all the way through.  That said, there's no advantage cooking a steak via sous vide at 120-30F for 4 hours ever.  Once the inside is at temp, it's not doing anything good to your steak, and anywhere in the temp sub-130 range for over 4 hours can be a petri dish.  Look at the tables that are published all over the web for the approximate time to hit temp inside a steak based on thickness.

Where you see people, myself included, cook stuff for days on end, we're breaking down connective tissue on chefs cuts - tough stuff like brisket, ribs, picnic, butts, chuck, etc.  This is where sous vide shines.  You want it in the bath just long enough to do the job of collagen breakdown.  For fowl, white meat is quick, and duck and other dark meat, depends on the temp, but you can get the job done in 4 hours.  Or you can cook it lower and stretch it out.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

If you are talking about steaks then: http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1145949/perfect-sous-vide-steaks-in-3-steps-and-no-words-it-s-that-easy

The Cen-Tex Smoker

And I never season in the bag. Lots of people do and it's kind of "a thing" with the SV crowd so I'm probably doing it wrong. That being said, from what I can tell (with steak) is that all the flavor comes from the finish. Again- I could be doing it wrong but I have found (for me, anyway) that I get the best results when I let it ride naked in the bath and add all the seasoning at the sear stage.

Grillmagic

nolaegghead said:

^^ good point.

There's no advantage to sous vide for steaks UNLESS you have a very thick steak AND you want it rare or medium rare all the way through.  That said, there's no advantage cooking a steak via sous vide at 120-30F for 4 hours ever.  Once the inside is at temp, it's not doing anything good to your steak, and anywhere in the temp sub-130 range for over 4 hours can be a petri dish.  Look at the tables that are published all over the web for the approximate time to hit temp inside a steak based on thickness.

Where you see people, myself included, cook stuff for days on end, we're breaking down connective tissue on chefs cuts - tough stuff like brisket, ribs, picnic, butts, chuck, etc.  This is where sous vide shines.  You want it in the bath just long enough to do the job of collagen breakdown.  For fowl, white meat is quick, and duck and other dark meat, depends on the temp, but you can get the job done in 4 hours.  Or you can cook it lower and stretch it out.

I called SV Supreme about exchanging my Demi for the larger one before I used the unit and the guy at the help desk said I could exchange it since it had not been opened and while I was speaking with him I told him about my 2 to 2 1/2 inch steaks that I was doing and that I wanted a nice sear/crust and wanted them medium rare to rare and he suggested 3 to 4 hours because how thick they were at 120 which he said would be rare and because I wanted a nice crust that searing them a couple minutes a side show bring it up to 130 which it did and by the time they rested went to 134/135 and were cooked perfectly but they did not taste as good as the same steaks I have cooked reverse seared on my egg.

Canugghead

FWIW most, if not all, red meat SV recipes I came across in MCAH do not season in the bag. On the other hand, they have preseasoned turkey leg confit with duck fat, and appple+milk injected turkey breast roll SV recipes.

@skiddymarker, I read that garlic powder is preferred for SV.

nolaegghead

Roughly an hour an inch to get the core temp to match your bath temp in the 120-135F range. 

Grillmagic

nolaegghead said:

Roughly an hour an inch to get the core temp to match your bath temp in the 120-135F range. 

I will give those times a try next time, it's not so much about the texture or doneness (it was perfect) it was the taste, I seasoned the same way I would with just a simple reverse sear and it hasn't been as good. I'm still learning.

nolaegghead

I know this sounds nuts, but try only adding a tablespoon of butter, dash of salt and maybe some msg.

Grillmagic

nolaegghead said:

I know this sounds nuts, but try only adding a tablespoon of butter, dash of salt and maybe some msg.

Will do, its the flavor I'm missing, I have used a Tablespoon of Bacon Fat and a little S & P to Asparagus at 160 for 45 minutes as well as Butter and S & P to Carrots and they both came out very good.

Fred19Flintstone

It's nice to see you posting Jason.