This is the second time I’ve done ribeyes in the Sous Vide Supreme. I packed them up with some salt, pepper, a bit of onion & garlic I sauteed in a pat of butter.
Vacuum Pack
Then it was into the water at the typical 134F for an hour. Comes out perfect every single time. Impossible to ruin.
Ribeye Steak Sous Vide
There are some tradeoffs, however. My wife & I have both agreed that for ribeyes, we just prefer them grilled. On the other hand, sous vide is such that the fat is very succulent. This time I used the kitchen torch to char the outside and that was probably a mistake. Better to use butter or ghee in a pan. Alternatively — and this is what I should have done — you could rub the steaks with butter and then torch them. I’ve done this before and have no idea why I didn’t think of this.
I guess we’ll just have to have more ribeye steaks. Damn!
with my SvS I’ve found that it is pretty vital to dry the outside of the steak before attempting to sear. I’ve had good luck on my Big Green Egg and in a cast iron skillet; however the egg gives that burnt-to-shit taste that I absolutely love for some reason.
I too am starting to prefer my steaks simply grilled, especially on my egg which seems to be able to melt the fat much better than any other method.
chicken, however is unbeatable in the SvS!
Ryon
I too prefer the grilled taste. The tastiest Sous Vide ribeye I’ve made involved setting up one of those charcoal started chimney’s half full hardwood lump charcoal (mesquite preferred, but that lets off a lot of sparks and is dangerous if you don’t keep an eye on it) and get that roaring with a cast iron grid (for those nice grill lines!) sitting on top.
Pull steaks out of the hot water and let sit in icewater for a few minutes, then pop ’em onto the after-burner-like flames shooting out of the charcoal chimney for the desired time (depending on how big a layer of well-done meat you can tolerate). Perfectly medium with a wonderfully smoky and crispy crust.
Hey Richard–
If they’re really tender steaks (such as ribeyes), you might not want to leave them in at 134F for an hour. Try 40 minutes or even 30 minutes to see the difference. Or try at 125F. The pain-in-the-butt part about sous vide cooking is that you have to experiment a little to find how to cook things exactly as you like them. Once you do, though, the advantage kicks in, which is that you can repeat ad infinitum and always get the same result.
Oddly enough, I’ve cooked scrambled eggs with this method once when I was hiking and forgot my pan. I’ve never thought to cook meat this way, but I can see how it would result in consistent levels of doneness. Is that a proper cooking term? haha.
I’ll have to give this a go next time I have steak.
Yep, grilled is just great, although I never tried the sous vide.
Wow… this looks amazing! Yum :)