Sous Vide: Ribeye Steak

 I am still testing how salting beforehand affects the texture of the meat. Some say it makes it less juicy or tougher. My main reasoning for salting early is so that the salt can penetrate into the meat. I am not a fan of having a salty exterior with a relatively bland interior. I like the steak seasoned through. I applied a dry rub (a little brown sugar, cumin, salt, garlic powder and pepper), vacuum sealed the steak and left it in the fridge for a day. I have found that the water loss is not too significant.

Pat the steak dry, put on a drying rack (or paper towel) and let it sit in the fridge to allow the surface to dry. A steak that's dry will sear better and lets you avoid those strange boiled meat flavors that come with searing a wet steak.

I like using a cast iron skillet heated in oven set to high broil but my girlfriends kitchen only had a nonstick skillet. I set it to high, let it heat up and seared each side for about a minute in some butter. The steak went straight from the fridge to the pan. Most say to let the steak come to room temperature before searing but I prefer this method. The pan needs to be ripping hot to overcome the cool temperature of the steak but having a cool center keeps the heat from penetrating too far into the meat.

The exterior looks almost burnt (don't worry, the burnt flavor really mellows as it cooks in the circulator and adds a great smoky flavor) but the center is very raw.

I like to put the steak back into the fridge as I get the circulator and bag ready.

With this steak, we tried the ziploc vacuum sous vide bags that come with a $3 hand pump. You really do not need to spend a few hundred dollars on a foodsaver. A little butter on top and bottom adds flavor and improves cooking in the water bath.

Cook the steak sous vide at 54 degrees celsius for at least one and a half hours in the water bath.

AFTER cooking sous vide, I find that the steak is not as hot as like my steak to be. The center is perfectly cooked but I really like the surface of my steak to be sizzling. Take the steak out of the bag and dry off with paper towels.

Refresh the sear in a pan set to high with a little butter. This makes the crust a little crispier and gets that sizzling crust and high temperature you would expect with a steak fresh off the grill.

As you can see, the heat did not penetrate the meat too much and the steak is very juicy.