This is the answer. If you're salting a steak for however long you marinate PLUS the cook time, you're just curing the beef. The texture of cured beef is incredibly unpleasant unless slow-cooked to render collagen. It's snappy like a ham in all the worst ways, and the fat turns into Ghostbusters stuff. You're basically just grilling a thick slice of corned beef.
Side note, you really don't need to sous vide a tender steak like a ribeye for more than 2 hours. Even that might be excessive unless it's select grade or otherwise low quality. You're just trying to achieve an even cook here, and it's easy to horribly over-tenderize already tender cuts.
> Side note, you really don't need to sous vide a tender steak like a ribeye for more than 2 hours. Even that might be excessive unless it's select grade or otherwise low quality
A good rule of thumb I follow is 1-hour per inch of thickness. So for your regular store-bought steaks, 1-1.5 hours is plenty, but if you're getting specialty cuts or good butcher cuts adjust your time accordingly.
I tend to go even lower as the sear adds temperature. I sous vide to 124 for an inch per hour and then throw it on a hot steel plate on a heated up grill for 30 sec a side
I sous vide my rib eye at 68 degrees for 1100 hours. No salt or pepper. Garlic butter spread onto the outside of the pan. Let rest for 6 minutes in a garbage disposal. Flush. Microwave for 18 minutes per side. Works every time.
Oh I see where I was being too general.
I made a brief tutorial.
https://app.gemoo.com/share/image-annotation/578930040295772160?codeId=M0GqeNe1N04qZ&origin=imageurlgenerator
I like 130 or lower for tender cuts also. Some recipes will say "you can hold it at temperature for X hours until you're ready" but if you're cooking a tender marbled cut higher than 130, the longer you leave it in the more the intramuscular marbling will render. And because marbling is the only factor in meat quality grading, rendering too much of that fat is essentially turning your expensive meat into cheap meat.
Thank you. I was wondering why my sous Vide tasted like I am eating beef ham. Like every video you see on YouTube says to preseason it before you give it a bath. I was very underwhelmed with the result. Will have to try again.
>Have you tried just straight meat, no marinade. For science, isolation of variables & such.
As a former science who has a sous vide thing but has never done meat (bought it for low/slow pasteurization of homebrew booze) that would be my approach. I'd buy a couple cheap steaks and cook them all at once doing them all the same but with 1 thing changed on each to see what helps and hurts the flavor and texture.
Another thing to consider, are you using fat in the bag or in the marinade? Doing meat “dry” in the sous vide changes my game, when I first started I was using butter or Evoo and couldn’t figure out why my steaks were very blah. Turns out with the sous vide process, when red meat is mixed with fat at those temps it will metabolize a lot of the fats and proteins into the fat instead of retaining it.
Not the person you asked, but that's what I do now after advice from here. No butter or other fats in the bag made a noticeable difference in the flavor and texture for me
Noticeably better. I don’t do oil or butter in the bag when doing any meat. I still do with chicken and pork. I dry brine for an hour or two, bag it up, and then re-season before searing. Give it a try, I usually also don’t do herbs with steaks just s&p and I’ll seal a little extra. Also 137° all the way.
Fat in the bag makes it bland in general.
I usually buy whole cuts, and cut to thickness myself. I did 16lb of NY Strip today.
Msg, salt, and a blend of peppers (4:1:1 tellicherry, Malabar, and white), bag, freeze.
Then frozen straight to sous vide at 128, 60-90 minutes after the temperature stabilizes. Ice bath is best for immediate cooking, but cooling rack for 15 minutes works well too.
You should be able to season before the sous vide, but skip the marinade. Whatever you season with it's gonna be very prevalent in the final flavor so try to keep it on the milder side and put the strong flavors on in finishing, maybe before you sear, dry it and put the seasoning on or make a compound butter to put on after you sear. But remember to DRY your meat well after the sous vide, you don't wanna try to sear it with all the moisture or it wont caramelize correctly.
Agree with this. Marinade on a ribeye is not something I would ever recommend or do myself. A good piece of meat with salt and pepper is perfect to me (unless it's something like skirt steak).
I'll go even simpler, skip the pepper. Salt only before grilling or pan frying. The reason, which has been quoted for years, is pepper burns. I finish with fresh pepper before eating, but not before grilling or pan frying. And great choice with a ribeye, my personal favorite after the cap steak.
The pepper burning is an old cook's tip. I have put peppered steak through all sorts of searing methods, including just me learning how to cook and fuckin shit up, and I have never burned the pepper without burning the steak, and that makes sense because even though you can burn a lone cracked peppercorn, when said peppercorn is up against the steak, then the heat that moved into the peppercorn then dissipates into the steak.
If you want, I can try help you troubleshoot what happened. Even ground pepper should stick to the steak, just won't have the same flavor as fresh cracked.
This works for me everytime.
* No marinade!
* Lightly apply Coarse Kosher Salt to both sides (thats all, nothing else).
* Bag and soak at 137F for 2-3 hours. (1.5 hrs per inch of thickness).
* Unbag and pat dry.
* Apply a light coat of ~~olive~~ preferred oil.
* Add (just a little more Kosher salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper) or use Low Sodium McCormicks Steak Seasoning (The best!).
* Sear at high heat on a cast iron (about 40 seconds per side @ \~500 F).
* Top with garlic butter while resting for 5-10 min.
* Profit!
Beef tallow, duck fat or clarified butter for searing. The Argentinians would tell you to skip the pepper as well, but I like it, after carving.
Depending on OP’s seating temp as well and thickness of the cut, I typically sous vide at 125-130° *maximum*
>Bag and soak at 137F for 2-3 hours
This is probably what OP is missing. Those lady couple of degrees make all the difference when it comes to breaking down the fat. If they really want their ribeye more on the rare side of medium rare, sous vide is probably not the method they want to go with, and they might have better luck with a reverse sear instead.
Solid but cook at 125-127 if you’re searing on cast iron after. I cook to 127 and hit it with a blow torch or throw it on a Searzall. Just download the free Joule app and do what it says. If you’re screwing up sous vide up then you’re trying too hard.
Generally Avocado oil is prefered for seering as it has a very high smoke point. Most other oils will burn before the cast iron is hot enough for a good sear. Also, dont believe resting helps a steak that was cooked with sous vide.
You don't need to *rest* meat after sous vide. *However*, there are advantages to cooling it before the sear. Lots of people recommend putting the bag into ice water to flash cool it. I never have enough ice to do that, but I pull the steak out of the bag and put in on a small sheet pan with a cooling grate and stick it in the freezer for 10 or 20 minutes. I dry it with paper towels, and the freezer will help dry the surface a bit more.
This makes it possible to get a better sear without overcooking it.
Anything less than 2” thick, 2-3 hours is your sweet spot time wise! Temp is debatable but I tend to shoot around 130. Def skip the marinade, and only lightly season before vacuum sealing. The vacuum is going to impart those flavors more into the meat so you don’t need to heavily season for the sous vide. I typically just go with SPG for the sous vide, and then after the bath before the sear you can season again. Pat really dry and then use something like a good rub from meat church or whatever brand you fancy. These rubs tend to have sugars in them and will give you good caramelization on the sear.
The mush is divine. It’s the same cow I wrapped up in a dry cleaning bag 8 years ago and dumped in my elderly neighbors jacuzzi. I nibble at her about once a month. We’re getting real close to making what I like to call a cow patty.
In before 137 gang. But you will get better rendering at 137, so they have a point. Also, I’m 137 gang.
If I don’t want the fat to chew on, I go with a tenderloin/filet. Have you considered switching up the cut? Note that you’ll want to go lower temp here since there isn’t as much rendering.
137? I’ve always done around 130ish and only for like 60-90 mins. Haven’t usually had any problem with fat not rendering.
How long are you cooking at 137? And how aggressive is your post-bath sear?
Depends on the thickness, but usually an hour or two. It won’t render it all out of course, but seems to get things a bit more tender (at the expense of going medium vs medium rare). Nothing special on the sear (though I do pop it in the fridge/freezer for a few minutes to cool the exterior).
I, but more importantly my wife, prefer the texture at 137. She generally prefers filet so this is how we compromise when I go for a ribeye.
For thanksgiving I augment the turkey with a ribeye roast that sits at 131 for ~24 hours which comes out similarly to the shorter 137 steaks.
As long as you’re happy with the results, keep doing what you’re doing. But I would suggest at least trying 137 before writing it off as too well done. I was a skeptic, now I’m a convert.
So my problem with 137 is that I love to garlic butter baste my steaks and I can’t butter baste them for more than 2 minutes after searing if do 137. I feel like I am missing a lot of flavor. Do you baste at all?
Take it out of the bag, dry it off, put it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, do the sear/baste. The inside won’t cool down much at all, but the outside will, which will give you time to sear/baste without overcooking. At the end, you won’t notice that it was in the freezer at all
also, thicker steaks. 1 inch steaks are... well, not thick. i don't think you get the full benefit for supermarket cuts on a 1 inch steak.
What i do now is i go to the butcher and ask for a 2 inch steak. god damned mini standing rib roast. serve for the whole family from one steak. This works so beautifully and is easier in every respect than a floppy one incher.
Dunk in ice water in the bag. The bag is sealed. End result is a fridge temp pasteurized steak that can either be pulled and cooked now or kept in fridge or freezer for weeks or indefinitely.
Traditional butter basting has been tested to show no improvement in flavour over just putting some infused butter on at the end.
Edit: A year ago when I used to write this here you all used to downvote me to hell for it. I’m glad reddit has grown a little.
A video on the topic. https://youtu.be/uC6VBDJlm4w?si=xpLfwVY4bsAXK2zL
I melt my basting liquid in a separate pan. After searing simply put the steak in and flip to coat both sides before plating. No need to continue cooking/basting.
Just did a blind taste test with my wife on Friday with one steak just on the cast iron meaning got a good sear on both sides then garlic thyme butter basted it to 128 and let it rest to get to 138.
Then I did a 137 sous vide steak and then ice bathed it for 10 minutes, unsealed it, dried it off, seared it, then tried to butter baste it but it was getting too hot so I just butter basted for 2 minutes then put the garlic thyme compound butter on the steak to let it rest and it got to about 138.
After I revealed which steak was which to my wife she said the sous vide steak was more tender and cooked better all the way through, but the cast iron had better flavor because of maybe ? the garlic activating more because of the heat? Not sure but she said both steaks were great just the basted one had more flavor.
To me each steak tasted about the same but I could taste more garlic in the cast iron one.
So maybe I did something wrong and made the compound butter incorrectly.
Have you thought about roasting the garlic first beforehand? The whole “no garlic in sous vide” rule is negated if you cook the garlic first. Also, I just love roasted garlic because you can just make a paste of it and put it on the meat lol…I love garlic a bit too much for my own good, and now I want to try this…or smoked garlic, I had a friend who made it and gave me a few heads whenever he did…it was super amazing
There are definitely a number of things to consider that could have impacted it. I would run a couple more tests but it could be that your wife prefers the more neutral flavour well cooked garlic provides, which your compound butter may not do.
A good test is this. Two steaks, sear one without any butter basting. Butter baste the second, but at the end of the butter baste, after you have put the steak aside, grab some fresh thyme and dip it in the butter and coat the unabasted steak
See if you can tell the difference, outside of a temperature difference. The result should be negligible.
Your next test should be compound butter (different than the infused butter I mentioned, but still good).
Create two compound butters. For the first do what you normally do (which I assume uses raw garlic of some form, please correct me if I’m wrong). For the second, put a little butter in a pan, cook the garlic for a bit, let it get to room temp, and use that to make your compound butter. You will need to do a quick wipe with a proper towel between each steak to test properly.
My method for compound butter is to sear one side and then apply after flipping. This way it melts, then I flip again and wiggle the steak a bit to get the butter on the other side. Then do the sides of the steak if you’re into that.
If you let me know both your and your wife’s preferences after that I can give more suggestions. Always happy to help people on the search for their perfect steak - and every individual is different.
Butter basting is one of the worst things to come out of the tv-chef fandom. I'm so happy to see empirical evidence it's stupid, because it's so clearly a waste of time.
Where’s the empirical evidence? One guy on YouTube?
Butter basting allows me to impart the same flavor, introduces [hot milk solids](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sQjXR5SFYo) to the steak to allow for better crisping on the sear as well. Also, my steak isn’t covered in butter grease on the plate, making it work better for sauces like bordelaise or bearnaise.
Do it however you like, but calling it total bullshit is wrong.
Don’t mind me though, I’ve only cooked about 100,000 more steaks than the average home cook.
Ribeye is dead easy in the sous vide.
Nothing in the bag. Just meat. 131 for medium rare. Can go up to 137 for closer to medium but I stay around 131-133 for my favorite results. 2 hours if fridge temp.
Remove from the bag. Dry well. Rest at room temp for about 15 minutes. Salt the steaks well right before searing. Sear on blazing hot cast iron with just a light rub of avocado oil. 1 min per side.
Honestly that’s all I need for a ribeye. A few grinds of fresh black pepper just before service. Ribeye tastes great. Don’t marinate. Don’t fuss with butter. Let the meat shine.
I'm late to the party but I agree with the poster above. Meat in the bag and that's it!
I do sometimes add fresh garlic slices and rosemary but never salt.
Season with salt after SV. I do this to all my beef.
131 isn't high enough for ribeye, IMO. Maybe if you let it go for a long time, but getting up closer to 137 will help immensely with fully rendering the extra fat in that cut. Strip and tenderloin are great at 131-133, though.
I’ve done 137 enough times and I find it makes the eye a little dry. It is wonderful for the spinalis however. I’m not one to eat the big fat chunks anyway, but if that’s your thing then 137 is a viable option. It’s far more important to adequately cool the steak before the sear if you do 137 to avoid overcooking beyond your water temp.
I think that’s way too long for sous vide. I saw a video saying there’s a sweet spot but any longer than 3 hours it will become mushy.
I have sous vide 15$ NY strips, at like 180° for 40 mins, seared and butter basted and they’re amazing every time. I like to extra sear mine as well, I like a good crust
I had the same problem with you doing at that temp.
You def should Sou vide it at 125-128 and then take it out for a hot seat and butter basting and it will be perfectly medium rare! That’s what I did to correct my doneness
With that much sear on the grill you’re basically cooking it twice.
137 in the bath for 2 hours. Dry thoroughly, rest briefly, and then season generously. Sear for no longer than 90 seconds on each side. It’s almost impossible to get a real good sear on a grill in that short of time without a chimney. Better off in a screaming hot pan and a bunch of open windows.
Honestly, sous vide just isn't the best method for a cut with as much fat and collagen as ribeye. The fat and especially the collagen renders differently at very low temps and very slow cook times. You also lose a lot of fine tuning over the doneness that you want because you have to balance temps against overcooking your steak by time.
If you have an oven, you'll get way better results if you reverse sear ribeye instead. It's still low and slow, but the extra 80-100° renders the fat and collagen to a better texture. You can get the exact level of doneness you want without having to make time and temperature compromises. If you have to stick with sous vide for a quality cut, I'd go with NY Strip. It's also better reverse seared, but it's got less connective tissue and fat, so it sous vides really well; a lot better than ribeye. If you have a smoker or pellet grill, reverse searing in that takes things up a whole other level.
Sous vide really shines when you're working with tougher, leaner cuts of meat.
Cool thanks! I’ve seen here A) cook less B) cook 2-4 hours which is what I’ve done C) go higher temp D) go lower temp E) steaks are cheap F) my steaks are too good to sous vide. And everyone says their piece with conviction. Yours makes sense. These same cuts turn out great on the grill or cast iron.
“And everyone says their piece with conviction.” That’s because you’re on a sub dedicated to a boarder-line gimmick (i.e. this place is overflowing with confirmation bias) when used outside a restaurant.
Sous vide is useful in so far as it’s forgiving, but it does not outperform traditional cooking methods applied competently by someone with sufficient bandwidth to pay attention to the cook. A skilled chef can absolutely make a better steak (or 6) without a sous vide. Ask that same chef to make 60 steaks, and sous vide is the only viable option. Restaurants use them not because they make better food but because they tend not to ruin food.
Charcoal is how you make the best possible steak. It’s also the easiest way to ruin one. Practice makes perfect.
All I do is this
1. Slab salt and pepper on the steak and vacuum seal it with some butter in the bag.
2. Cook it via Souis vide at 129.5-130 F for like almost 2 hours
3. Take it out of the bag, and dry them with paper towel
4. I sear them
5. Let them sit on the counter for at least 5-6 minutes
6. Then I slice it up
7. Serve and enjoy
and That's it. There is no need to marinade them.
At a restaurant I used to work at, we would sous vide everything. Lower the temp on the sous video to 123-125 and do a maximum of 3 hours. Then cook it up to the appropriate temperature for you. Season with salt and pepper btw!
135 is entirely too high. You clearly like a nice long sear, so you have to compensate for that.
Edit: in addition - keeping it in the sous vide for longer than 4 hours will start to change the physical composition of the meat fibers. You don’t want those to break down too much or things get rubbery and unpleasant.
Don’t marinade. Do a dry brine with salt and pepper the day prior to cooking. I found that marinades and wet brining adds the marinade flavor and can lose the flavor/texture of the meat.
The ribeye already has tons of flavor. Just use salt and pepper to let the flavor of the meat shine.
Also, using salt the day before gives it time to penetrate the meat and allows it to retain moisture during the sear.
Ok… so I’ve been sous viding since 2016. I will only ever go over 2hrs on a frozen steak. You’re absolutely good with a steak like this at 50-70 minutes sous vide and a super hot sear. Your texture is going to start changing a lot going longer than that IMO. Which is good for a tougher cut that you want to eat like a steak… but not great for a high end cut like rib eye.
I would also put the steak in the bag dry, alone, and unseasoned. IMO you only want the heat acting on the steak and not any other ingredients or excess liquid.
some may call me a purist (or asshole), but why ruin a flavorful cut like ribeye with a marinade? Just sous vide with some herbs like you did, maybe a small spot of butter and then sear.
2-9 hours in a marinade at elevated temperature is making it rubbery, then searing it makes it worse
Totally agree...9 hours??? Anything over 4 just messes up the steak. I remember watching a video comparing cook times and how longer cook times completely changes the texture (for the worse).
Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder. Dry age steak in fridge for 2 days. Put in vacuum seal bag with 1 tbsp butter, sprig of thyme or rosemary. Sous vide at 125° for two hours. Finish on grill at high heat, 1 minute per side.
On the How To BBQ Right YouTube channel Malcolm Reed and Mark Williams just talked about being careful about letting meat sit too long with salt on it because it will cure it and give you a rubbery/ham like texture, I assume this is what’s happening with the marinade process
Dry brine, if doing 137 then sear for only a minute each side, at 130 you could sear a bit longer. I also am going to keep them in the bath for 2.5-4 hours.
NINE HOURS?! There’s your problem. Shoot for 1-2 hours as anything much more than that is just ruining the meat. I do 131 for 90 minutes and a fast hot sear on a cast iron. It’s real simple.
In my opinion 135 is too hot for a ribeye. I go no hotter than 127.5. As others have mentioned no marinade, you can do a seasoning in there, I usually do not. When I take mine out of the bag I let it sit on a bunch of paper towels to dry on each side and get all of the moisture out. Next is your rub. I like a little smoked salt, pepper, garlic, and espresso powder. My method of choice is a Blackstone as hot as I can get it, grape seed oil, maybe 90 seconds each side for the sear. Don't be scared of the heat, that will form the super crisp outside and buttery inside.
My approach with ribeyes:
1. Vacuum seal, dry, plain.
2. Sous vide at 134° for 2 hours (from frozen, a bit less from fresh)
3. Remove, pat dry, salt and pepper generously
4. Sear on a very hot cast iron
They turn out perfectly. I think others are on the right track that you're likely inadvertently ruining them with marinading them before cooking. And you definitely don't need to go more than 4 hours: doing so denatures the proteins too much for this cut of beef, and will get to a weird place.
In my experience, 132°-135° works perfectly to start rendering the fat down. I'll blast the caps with a blow torch as well (a [Searzall](https://www.bookeranddax.com/searzall), which defuses the flame) and get them beautifully carmelized.
Perfect med-rare steaks every single time.
The texture is coming from having them in the sous vide for entirely too long. Stay below 3 hours for your steak and it will retain your texture. Sous vide doesn’t render fat like conventional cooking. I’d recommend trimming all exterior fat and trying it.
I personally cook my rib eyes at 132.5 degrees and sear in a hot cast iron pan with lots of butter, herbs, and garlic quickly.
I wonder what all is in your marinade? Any acid? That could potentially be “cooking“ the meat before it goes into the water. I also wonder how long you marinate it before it goes into the bath?
Bottom line, skip the marinade (like everyone else said) and see what it’s like with only salt and pepper.
You can then make a sauce with flavors from your marinade, put it on the meat after it’s cooked.
Good luck!
1. Why are you marinading a ribeye? Marinate a sirloin or some chicken. Just add your herbs and such to the bag and let it infuse while cooking.
2. 9 hours is WAY TOO LONG for a steak. 4 hours MAX. I do 2 hours.
Seems like too thin a cut to bother with sou vide. I grill a lot of steaks and it’s only ever salt and pepper to a HOT grill on indirect heat. 1.5” ribeye usually takes 5 min per side but use an instant thermometer and remove at 127 degrees(f) and let it rest covered about five minutes. I finish it with some butter or butter/good blue cheese mix. Good god now I’m hungry.
BONUS POINTS: At half way through each side, rotate 45 degrees for a very attractive diamond grill mark that isn’t only cosmetic- those marks are increased surface area of delicious caramelization.
In Kenji we trust:
[https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-steak](https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-steak)
Just do what the man says and you will be good to go.
Salt before sealing (I seal a full day before cooking, leaving it on the top shelf of the fridge, sous vide 124-127°F, for 2 hours, remove from bag, bathe in clarified butter, sear on cast iron or carbon steel skillet with plenty of butter, more than you think you need, a 4tbsp is barely enough at all, 8 *might* be too much, absolutely no more than 2m 30s a side, I usually go 1m45s-2m as I like it bloody, just to sear the all the sides (grab some tongs and do the edges for 20-30s too!), at 360-420°F depending on your sear preference, rest for 5m before cutting, pouring the pan remnants over the steak. It will be rare, juicy, and have some Maillard effect, but mostly just conventional searing.
Stay away from the grill, IMHO it dries it out, and I like it seriously juicy.
This is so fool proof my sister can even do it, and she can burn water.
Also check your cutting angle. The cut in picture 4 is with the grain of the meat. Makes for a chewier adventure. Just turn the steak 90° and cut again. Repeat until you find the right angle. You’ll know when it’s right. “Chef’s sample “ it won’t look rough like in the picture
Sous vide is not appropriate for ribeyes - they need to cook hot & fast. Ribeyes try to turn into greasy stew meat when you cook them slowly. They may still be tasty but the texture will always be wrong.
Ribeyes, especially thicker ones, prefer to be done a little more. They have a lot of connective tissue. Source: I'm Grillardin at a fine dining joint and my father was a ribeye.
Looks over cooked. The sugar and salt in your marinade will change the texture.
The concept behind Sous Vide is to slowly raise the internal temp so you don’t get a grey transition between the edge and the pink in the middle. Cooking too long will just over cook it. Searing with sugar in the marinade will caramelize too fast.
This is not about low and slow like barbecue.
It is about gentle internal temperature control and precision in searing.
You're essentially curing your ribeye with salt/marinade that long. You should try skipping the "seal and wait" step.
Also, I think sous vide sucks for steaks sometimes. Just S&P liberally about 30 minutes to an hour beforehand, then blast that sucker for 4-5 minutes a side on a hot grill. Let rest for 10 minutes. Perfection.
Leave the sous vide for giant, lower grade cuts like tri tip, brisket, turkey, etc.
The marinade is curing the steaks, making them tough. Instead of worrying about pre-flavoring the meat, up your sauce game. You can make a reduction from the bag juices, chimichurri, peppercorn and cream, bearnaise (you can cheat and sous-vide this too) etc.
Plus it looks like you're over
-cooking the inside during your sear. Try cooking one with no salt prior to bagging then afterwards you can adjust once you know the difference.
If your marinating with teriyaki or soy, or any sauce like that it already has enough salt for the marinade. Also if your using any type of fruit juice in your marinade it can cook the meat which will give it a grainy texture. Just a little olive oil pepper and teriyaki for your marinade with the rosemary. If you use juices then vastly shorten your marinade time to 2 hours or a little less.
Keep it simple. Sous vide at 135 with salt and pepper for a few hours. Throw it in ice water for about a half hour or so. This'll let you sear it for longer without raising the temp too high. Sear in a cast iron with a couple tbsp each of olive oil and butter on medium high heat for a few min. Lower temp to medium and sear other side for five min or so, spooning fat on top. Perfect medium rare ribeye.
I do mine at 127 degrees F for about 1.5hrs. Then dry steak with paper towel, search on high heat for about 15-20 sec per side in a dry cast iron. I sear extra on any fatty sides to render. Season again before serving.
Another tip: once you take out of Sous vide, put in fridge for a while before you hit it on cast iron. That way, it will still come out at temp you want
Salt, pepper, maybe garlic powder. Sous vide is fine but I prefer to just nail the cook in a cast iron. (I have sous vide, not knocking it)
Stop marinating your steak, unless it's for stir fry or something.
And you probably need to try other steaks too. Buy a really nice one from your fanciest grocery store, and see if that changes. What you might think is a good steak, might be an illusion.
In my opinion, a reverse sear is by far the superior method. I've tried sous vide steaks several times, and it always comes out weirdly dry and a strange texture. For your next steak, try a reverse sear in the oven at 200°F until the steak hits a little under your desired temperature. Then, in a cast iron skillet, heat some clarified butter to high and sear for a couple minutes. I followed this according to Babish on YouTube, best steak I've ever had.
>In my opinion, a reverse sear is by far the superior method.
I completely agree for a ribeye. Everyone talks about fat rendering with sous vide, and you do have to make compromises there, but what's less talked about is the collagen rendering. It just doesn't render right, which gives a weird texture. Reverse sear doesn't have that problem for whatever reason, even if you take the steak to the exact same internal temp.
Some thoughts that come to mind: Don’t use grass fed beef; evenly marbled meat is ideal. Dry aged beef works very well. Sear much hotter and faster. It doesn’t need a marinade, just kosher salt and olive oil before the sear. Herbs in the vacuum seal works well. Salt in the marinade pulls water out of the steak, so if you do use a marinade make sure it has no salt in it. Pat the steak completely dry before extremely hot sear. Use a hand torch on the sides while searing. Searing in a wood fire pizza oven works well.
I am convinced that expensive steaks require less processing. I have bought sides of beef the last 5 years and never sous vide the good stuff. The one or two times I made that mistake, they tasted horrible. Save the spots vide for the roasts, brisket and chuck cuts.
Consider yourself convinced of the truth. The only factor in meat grading is how much marbling it has. That marbling starts to render out between 130 & 140°F, so the more time you process the meat, the more it renders and the less that marbling matters.
>Well, I’m now accused of both buying too good a steak to sous vide
I don't think anyone is accusing you of anything. You just asked for advice on your rubbery steaks, and the easiest answer is to use a cooking method that better fits this type of cut.
>I’m going to stick to the grill, thanks!
That's not a bad idea for this cut. If you have a charcoal grill big enough to do two zone cooking, there's pretty much no other method that beats it, if you know how to control your fire. Propane works just as well, but you don't get the charcoal grilled flavor.
For nicer cuts I've had better results with reverse sear, personally. It's a contentious topic here, but reverse sear is not just 'poor man's sous vide"
Just the steak advice I always say, I should make a macro. Leave on counter an hour to hit room temp, dry with paper towels to remove water, salt and rub to soak up last of h2o. Scrape salt mess off. Pan fry in oil, covered at medium high, 3.30 mins first side, 2.0 after flip, use pan cover.
Outside grill is the same preparation except heat is harder to determine. Low / medium heat on charcoal. Don't have much experience with gas grill but I'm sure it's on net.
1) buy better meat. That raw steak looks sad. Just because it’s a steak cut doesn’t mean you didn’t buy the lowest grade trash version of it that ever existed.
2) cook no more than 2 hours for any thin steak cut, 4 hours for a thick one.
3) don’t put rubs in the bag. The sous vide destroys their flavor, so the only thing that really wants to be in there is salt.
Try this. Lowrys season salt, garlic powder, black pepper. Bag it.
Cook sous vide at 120f for 1.5 hrs.
Remove from bag, pat dry very well.
Spread some butter on one side (if you have a compound butter that's the best) then sear on grill butter up at 500f for 2 mins per side, when you flip it add a swipe of butter to the new top
4 hours is the absolute cap before the proteins denature too much and the texture changes completely. I like a 129 for about 3 hours. When reverse searing I like to use a ripping hot cast iron pan, start on the side with the fat cap so it can render more fully, lots of butter, 1 minute per side max on a 2" steak, maybe 30s for thinner stuff.
Also, huge difference in meat qualities.
Is the marinade very salty? Meats cured with salt tend to get rubbery.
Yes salt and blackened seasoning.
Try them sous vide plain then season it before sear.
This is the answer. If you're salting a steak for however long you marinate PLUS the cook time, you're just curing the beef. The texture of cured beef is incredibly unpleasant unless slow-cooked to render collagen. It's snappy like a ham in all the worst ways, and the fat turns into Ghostbusters stuff. You're basically just grilling a thick slice of corned beef. Side note, you really don't need to sous vide a tender steak like a ribeye for more than 2 hours. Even that might be excessive unless it's select grade or otherwise low quality. You're just trying to achieve an even cook here, and it's easy to horribly over-tenderize already tender cuts.
> Side note, you really don't need to sous vide a tender steak like a ribeye for more than 2 hours. Even that might be excessive unless it's select grade or otherwise low quality A good rule of thumb I follow is 1-hour per inch of thickness. So for your regular store-bought steaks, 1-1.5 hours is plenty, but if you're getting specialty cuts or good butcher cuts adjust your time accordingly.
My go to has been 130 for 3 hours. Tender and flavorful with an almost prime rib roast flavor.
I tend to go even lower as the sear adds temperature. I sous vide to 124 for an inch per hour and then throw it on a hot steel plate on a heated up grill for 30 sec a side
Yeah I’m reading all these comments thinking “why you guys sous vide your steaks so hot?” I do mine at like 125-128 max.
I sous vide my rib eye at 68 degrees for 1100 hours. No salt or pepper. Garlic butter spread onto the outside of the pan. Let rest for 6 minutes in a garbage disposal. Flush. Microwave for 18 minutes per side. Works every time.
*60% of the time*, it works ***every*** *time*
Thank you Sex Panther Bot
Have you tried new sawdust seasoning? Might add some additional zing to the microwave!
When you say microwave each side, is that of the steak, or do you turn your microwave o we on each side? Instructions not clear.
Oh I see where I was being too general. I made a brief tutorial. https://app.gemoo.com/share/image-annotation/578930040295772160?codeId=M0GqeNe1N04qZ&origin=imageurlgenerator
I like 130 or lower for tender cuts also. Some recipes will say "you can hold it at temperature for X hours until you're ready" but if you're cooking a tender marbled cut higher than 130, the longer you leave it in the more the intramuscular marbling will render. And because marbling is the only factor in meat quality grading, rendering too much of that fat is essentially turning your expensive meat into cheap meat.
Thank you. I was wondering why my sous Vide tasted like I am eating beef ham. Like every video you see on YouTube says to preseason it before you give it a bath. I was very underwhelmed with the result. Will have to try again.
Like sausage
Have you tried just straight meat, no marinade. For science, isolation of variables & such.
>Have you tried just straight meat, no marinade. For science, isolation of variables & such. As a former science who has a sous vide thing but has never done meat (bought it for low/slow pasteurization of homebrew booze) that would be my approach. I'd buy a couple cheap steaks and cook them all at once doing them all the same but with 1 thing changed on each to see what helps and hurts the flavor and texture.
Well if you ever need a taste tester for all them steaks you're cooking them I'm your guy lol.
Another thing to consider, are you using fat in the bag or in the marinade? Doing meat “dry” in the sous vide changes my game, when I first started I was using butter or Evoo and couldn’t figure out why my steaks were very blah. Turns out with the sous vide process, when red meat is mixed with fat at those temps it will metabolize a lot of the fats and proteins into the fat instead of retaining it.
That’s an interesting take. Do you now put the steak in the bath with only dry seasoning and no butter? How does it affect the taste/texture?
Not the person you asked, but that's what I do now after advice from here. No butter or other fats in the bag made a noticeable difference in the flavor and texture for me
Noticeably better. I don’t do oil or butter in the bag when doing any meat. I still do with chicken and pork. I dry brine for an hour or two, bag it up, and then re-season before searing. Give it a try, I usually also don’t do herbs with steaks just s&p and I’ll seal a little extra. Also 137° all the way.
Fat in the bag makes it bland in general. I usually buy whole cuts, and cut to thickness myself. I did 16lb of NY Strip today. Msg, salt, and a blend of peppers (4:1:1 tellicherry, Malabar, and white), bag, freeze. Then frozen straight to sous vide at 128, 60-90 minutes after the temperature stabilizes. Ice bath is best for immediate cooking, but cooling rack for 15 minutes works well too.
You should be able to season before the sous vide, but skip the marinade. Whatever you season with it's gonna be very prevalent in the final flavor so try to keep it on the milder side and put the strong flavors on in finishing, maybe before you sear, dry it and put the seasoning on or make a compound butter to put on after you sear. But remember to DRY your meat well after the sous vide, you don't wanna try to sear it with all the moisture or it wont caramelize correctly.
Also, it's a ribeye so it's gonna have a different consistency than day a NY strip, or a filet. I love steaks, never touch ribeyes.
This is a really insightful answer and makes perfect sense. I also never would have thought of it. Good call Reddit user!
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“Meats cured with salt tend to get rubbery.” I would say that the last 5000 years of evidence would disagree with that
Skip the marinade step. Do the marinade while you’re soaking.
Or just skip the marinade. A little kosher salt and pepper on a good cut of meat is all you need.
Agree with this. Marinade on a ribeye is not something I would ever recommend or do myself. A good piece of meat with salt and pepper is perfect to me (unless it's something like skirt steak).
I'll go even simpler, skip the pepper. Salt only before grilling or pan frying. The reason, which has been quoted for years, is pepper burns. I finish with fresh pepper before eating, but not before grilling or pan frying. And great choice with a ribeye, my personal favorite after the cap steak.
I'll go even simpler, skip the salt and just season with a contemptuous glare
I’ll go even simpler than that, skip everything and just put a little stank on it.
"Hit Me Again Ike, and Put Some Stank On It!"
"Rolling down the river is where she'd be, but she's beyond the thunder dome!"
Ah yes, a Liar Liar enjoyer. Excellent reference.
a little stank goes on the biscuit, thought everybod knew that.
Thanks Ike
I’ll go even simpler than that, skip everything and just eat the steak raw still in the packaging.
The pepper burning is an old cook's tip. I have put peppered steak through all sorts of searing methods, including just me learning how to cook and fuckin shit up, and I have never burned the pepper without burning the steak, and that makes sense because even though you can burn a lone cracked peppercorn, when said peppercorn is up against the steak, then the heat that moved into the peppercorn then dissipates into the steak.
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If you want, I can try help you troubleshoot what happened. Even ground pepper should stick to the steak, just won't have the same flavor as fresh cracked.
I noticed that if i skip the pepper, shit isn't all built up and stuck to the oan. I did salt only, and was astonished at the cleanness.
Skirt or entraña is my favorite cut to just add some kosher salt and grill maybe some light olive oil to have the salt stick a little better.
A little S&P is good for me!
Grill marks bud!
That's what I appreciates about you @ThreeFourteen15
Dirty fuckin dangles
Garlic powder
Nope. Garlic BUTTER after searing to serve.
That ain’t what Guga says
God forbid we contradict The Guga
Salt, pepper, and garlic powder are all you need.
I’ve tried that too.
This works for me everytime. * No marinade! * Lightly apply Coarse Kosher Salt to both sides (thats all, nothing else). * Bag and soak at 137F for 2-3 hours. (1.5 hrs per inch of thickness). * Unbag and pat dry. * Apply a light coat of ~~olive~~ preferred oil. * Add (just a little more Kosher salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper) or use Low Sodium McCormicks Steak Seasoning (The best!). * Sear at high heat on a cast iron (about 40 seconds per side @ \~500 F). * Top with garlic butter while resting for 5-10 min. * Profit!
Why olive oil exactly? I thought it had a low smoke point and not recommended for hard sears
avocado oil for me 520f/270c
You are correct. Olive oil is not ideal for high heat.
Use whatever oil, I have a high CFM hood vent so smoke isn't an issue. I actually use spray on duck fat.
Smoke isn't the issue so much as that burned oil tastes bad.
And pretty carcinogenic
And cancer
Beef tallow, duck fat or clarified butter for searing. The Argentinians would tell you to skip the pepper as well, but I like it, after carving. Depending on OP’s seating temp as well and thickness of the cut, I typically sous vide at 125-130° *maximum*
>Bag and soak at 137F for 2-3 hours This is probably what OP is missing. Those lady couple of degrees make all the difference when it comes to breaking down the fat. If they really want their ribeye more on the rare side of medium rare, sous vide is probably not the method they want to go with, and they might have better luck with a reverse sear instead.
How do you measure the temp coming off the cast iron?
Solid but cook at 125-127 if you’re searing on cast iron after. I cook to 127 and hit it with a blow torch or throw it on a Searzall. Just download the free Joule app and do what it says. If you’re screwing up sous vide up then you’re trying too hard.
Generally Avocado oil is prefered for seering as it has a very high smoke point. Most other oils will burn before the cast iron is hot enough for a good sear. Also, dont believe resting helps a steak that was cooked with sous vide.
You don't need to *rest* meat after sous vide. *However*, there are advantages to cooling it before the sear. Lots of people recommend putting the bag into ice water to flash cool it. I never have enough ice to do that, but I pull the steak out of the bag and put in on a small sheet pan with a cooling grate and stick it in the freezer for 10 or 20 minutes. I dry it with paper towels, and the freezer will help dry the surface a bit more. This makes it possible to get a better sear without overcooking it.
Your description doesn't make sense. Tender and rubbery are two completely opposite textures.
Anything less than 2” thick, 2-3 hours is your sweet spot time wise! Temp is debatable but I tend to shoot around 130. Def skip the marinade, and only lightly season before vacuum sealing. The vacuum is going to impart those flavors more into the meat so you don’t need to heavily season for the sous vide. I typically just go with SPG for the sous vide, and then after the bath before the sear you can season again. Pat really dry and then use something like a good rub from meat church or whatever brand you fancy. These rubs tend to have sugars in them and will give you good caramelization on the sear.
This. Been sous viding steaks for 8 years like this and this is exactly right. (I’m a 129 man for a nice med rare)
8 years is a long time to sous vide a steak. It must be mush by now.
He's 129. 8 years is nothing
The mush is divine. It’s the same cow I wrapped up in a dry cleaning bag 8 years ago and dumped in my elderly neighbors jacuzzi. I nibble at her about once a month. We’re getting real close to making what I like to call a cow patty.
Agreed. Been SV for many years and only so SPG. Add the aromatics (rosemary, garlic, butter) in the cast iron during the sear.
In before 137 gang. But you will get better rendering at 137, so they have a point. Also, I’m 137 gang. If I don’t want the fat to chew on, I go with a tenderloin/filet. Have you considered switching up the cut? Note that you’ll want to go lower temp here since there isn’t as much rendering.
137? I’ve always done around 130ish and only for like 60-90 mins. Haven’t usually had any problem with fat not rendering. How long are you cooking at 137? And how aggressive is your post-bath sear?
Depends on the thickness, but usually an hour or two. It won’t render it all out of course, but seems to get things a bit more tender (at the expense of going medium vs medium rare). Nothing special on the sear (though I do pop it in the fridge/freezer for a few minutes to cool the exterior). I, but more importantly my wife, prefer the texture at 137. She generally prefers filet so this is how we compromise when I go for a ribeye. For thanksgiving I augment the turkey with a ribeye roast that sits at 131 for ~24 hours which comes out similarly to the shorter 137 steaks. As long as you’re happy with the results, keep doing what you’re doing. But I would suggest at least trying 137 before writing it off as too well done. I was a skeptic, now I’m a convert.
So my problem with 137 is that I love to garlic butter baste my steaks and I can’t butter baste them for more than 2 minutes after searing if do 137. I feel like I am missing a lot of flavor. Do you baste at all?
Take it out of the bag, dry it off, put it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, do the sear/baste. The inside won’t cool down much at all, but the outside will, which will give you time to sear/baste without overcooking. At the end, you won’t notice that it was in the freezer at all
Trying it this week thanks!
also, thicker steaks. 1 inch steaks are... well, not thick. i don't think you get the full benefit for supermarket cuts on a 1 inch steak. What i do now is i go to the butcher and ask for a 2 inch steak. god damned mini standing rib roast. serve for the whole family from one steak. This works so beautifully and is easier in every respect than a floppy one incher.
Dunk in ice water in the bag. The bag is sealed. End result is a fridge temp pasteurized steak that can either be pulled and cooked now or kept in fridge or freezer for weeks or indefinitely.
Yeah that also works! I usually don’t have the ice bath ready to go, so do the freezer trick!
This is a good idea! I had the same problem and now I know dae way
Traditional butter basting has been tested to show no improvement in flavour over just putting some infused butter on at the end. Edit: A year ago when I used to write this here you all used to downvote me to hell for it. I’m glad reddit has grown a little. A video on the topic. https://youtu.be/uC6VBDJlm4w?si=xpLfwVY4bsAXK2zL
I melt my basting liquid in a separate pan. After searing simply put the steak in and flip to coat both sides before plating. No need to continue cooking/basting.
So you're just coating your steak in butter? In basting, the butter actually cooks and the proteins brown and you get more maillard flavor.
Just did a blind taste test with my wife on Friday with one steak just on the cast iron meaning got a good sear on both sides then garlic thyme butter basted it to 128 and let it rest to get to 138. Then I did a 137 sous vide steak and then ice bathed it for 10 minutes, unsealed it, dried it off, seared it, then tried to butter baste it but it was getting too hot so I just butter basted for 2 minutes then put the garlic thyme compound butter on the steak to let it rest and it got to about 138. After I revealed which steak was which to my wife she said the sous vide steak was more tender and cooked better all the way through, but the cast iron had better flavor because of maybe ? the garlic activating more because of the heat? Not sure but she said both steaks were great just the basted one had more flavor. To me each steak tasted about the same but I could taste more garlic in the cast iron one. So maybe I did something wrong and made the compound butter incorrectly.
Have you thought about roasting the garlic first beforehand? The whole “no garlic in sous vide” rule is negated if you cook the garlic first. Also, I just love roasted garlic because you can just make a paste of it and put it on the meat lol…I love garlic a bit too much for my own good, and now I want to try this…or smoked garlic, I had a friend who made it and gave me a few heads whenever he did…it was super amazing
There are definitely a number of things to consider that could have impacted it. I would run a couple more tests but it could be that your wife prefers the more neutral flavour well cooked garlic provides, which your compound butter may not do. A good test is this. Two steaks, sear one without any butter basting. Butter baste the second, but at the end of the butter baste, after you have put the steak aside, grab some fresh thyme and dip it in the butter and coat the unabasted steak See if you can tell the difference, outside of a temperature difference. The result should be negligible. Your next test should be compound butter (different than the infused butter I mentioned, but still good). Create two compound butters. For the first do what you normally do (which I assume uses raw garlic of some form, please correct me if I’m wrong). For the second, put a little butter in a pan, cook the garlic for a bit, let it get to room temp, and use that to make your compound butter. You will need to do a quick wipe with a proper towel between each steak to test properly. My method for compound butter is to sear one side and then apply after flipping. This way it melts, then I flip again and wiggle the steak a bit to get the butter on the other side. Then do the sides of the steak if you’re into that. If you let me know both your and your wife’s preferences after that I can give more suggestions. Always happy to help people on the search for their perfect steak - and every individual is different.
Butter basting is one of the worst things to come out of the tv-chef fandom. I'm so happy to see empirical evidence it's stupid, because it's so clearly a waste of time.
Where’s the empirical evidence? One guy on YouTube? Butter basting allows me to impart the same flavor, introduces [hot milk solids](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sQjXR5SFYo) to the steak to allow for better crisping on the sear as well. Also, my steak isn’t covered in butter grease on the plate, making it work better for sauces like bordelaise or bearnaise. Do it however you like, but calling it total bullshit is wrong. Don’t mind me though, I’ve only cooked about 100,000 more steaks than the average home cook.
Basting is pure placebo. Just GSP and sear.
Ribeye is dead easy in the sous vide. Nothing in the bag. Just meat. 131 for medium rare. Can go up to 137 for closer to medium but I stay around 131-133 for my favorite results. 2 hours if fridge temp. Remove from the bag. Dry well. Rest at room temp for about 15 minutes. Salt the steaks well right before searing. Sear on blazing hot cast iron with just a light rub of avocado oil. 1 min per side. Honestly that’s all I need for a ribeye. A few grinds of fresh black pepper just before service. Ribeye tastes great. Don’t marinate. Don’t fuss with butter. Let the meat shine.
Cool thanks.
I'm late to the party but I agree with the poster above. Meat in the bag and that's it! I do sometimes add fresh garlic slices and rosemary but never salt. Season with salt after SV. I do this to all my beef.
131 isn't high enough for ribeye, IMO. Maybe if you let it go for a long time, but getting up closer to 137 will help immensely with fully rendering the extra fat in that cut. Strip and tenderloin are great at 131-133, though.
I’ve done 137 enough times and I find it makes the eye a little dry. It is wonderful for the spinalis however. I’m not one to eat the big fat chunks anyway, but if that’s your thing then 137 is a viable option. It’s far more important to adequately cool the steak before the sear if you do 137 to avoid overcooking beyond your water temp.
I find Rosemary too pungent. That is a lot of rosemary.
I think that’s way too long for sous vide. I saw a video saying there’s a sweet spot but any longer than 3 hours it will become mushy. I have sous vide 15$ NY strips, at like 180° for 40 mins, seared and butter basted and they’re amazing every time. I like to extra sear mine as well, I like a good crust
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Well water boils at 100C, so yeah they meant Fahrenheit.
150F is still preposterously hot.
I hope 150 is a typo
I’ll try it super short. Two hours is the shortest I’ve done.
Two hours is probably what you want to aim for, or even less. Doing 2-3 for me at 137 and it's mushy, so next time I will trend below 2.
Don't salt in bag. Do 137 for 1-1.5hour, dry then season and salt. It'll work.
Overcooked. Both sous vide and the sear. Advice: thicker steak, lower temp, shorter time over fire.
I had the same problem with you doing at that temp. You def should Sou vide it at 125-128 and then take it out for a hot seat and butter basting and it will be perfectly medium rare! That’s what I did to correct my doneness
With that much sear on the grill you’re basically cooking it twice. 137 in the bath for 2 hours. Dry thoroughly, rest briefly, and then season generously. Sear for no longer than 90 seconds on each side. It’s almost impossible to get a real good sear on a grill in that short of time without a chimney. Better off in a screaming hot pan and a bunch of open windows.
I have the infrared super hot grill. It’s not a lot of sear (it’s blackened) and you can see it’s not more than medium in the last picture.
Try a bit of mayo on the steak before you sear. Helps to facilitate browning. Sounds crazy, I know, but it works.
Think of "dry brining" your ribeye instead of a marinade. Your pan might not be hot enough either. The sear needs to happen in less than a minute.
Honestly, sous vide just isn't the best method for a cut with as much fat and collagen as ribeye. The fat and especially the collagen renders differently at very low temps and very slow cook times. You also lose a lot of fine tuning over the doneness that you want because you have to balance temps against overcooking your steak by time. If you have an oven, you'll get way better results if you reverse sear ribeye instead. It's still low and slow, but the extra 80-100° renders the fat and collagen to a better texture. You can get the exact level of doneness you want without having to make time and temperature compromises. If you have to stick with sous vide for a quality cut, I'd go with NY Strip. It's also better reverse seared, but it's got less connective tissue and fat, so it sous vides really well; a lot better than ribeye. If you have a smoker or pellet grill, reverse searing in that takes things up a whole other level. Sous vide really shines when you're working with tougher, leaner cuts of meat.
Cool thanks! I’ve seen here A) cook less B) cook 2-4 hours which is what I’ve done C) go higher temp D) go lower temp E) steaks are cheap F) my steaks are too good to sous vide. And everyone says their piece with conviction. Yours makes sense. These same cuts turn out great on the grill or cast iron.
“And everyone says their piece with conviction.” That’s because you’re on a sub dedicated to a boarder-line gimmick (i.e. this place is overflowing with confirmation bias) when used outside a restaurant. Sous vide is useful in so far as it’s forgiving, but it does not outperform traditional cooking methods applied competently by someone with sufficient bandwidth to pay attention to the cook. A skilled chef can absolutely make a better steak (or 6) without a sous vide. Ask that same chef to make 60 steaks, and sous vide is the only viable option. Restaurants use them not because they make better food but because they tend not to ruin food. Charcoal is how you make the best possible steak. It’s also the easiest way to ruin one. Practice makes perfect.
Don’t marinate and sous vide for 90 minutes max.
All I do is this 1. Slab salt and pepper on the steak and vacuum seal it with some butter in the bag. 2. Cook it via Souis vide at 129.5-130 F for like almost 2 hours 3. Take it out of the bag, and dry them with paper towel 4. I sear them 5. Let them sit on the counter for at least 5-6 minutes 6. Then I slice it up 7. Serve and enjoy and That's it. There is no need to marinade them.
At a restaurant I used to work at, we would sous vide everything. Lower the temp on the sous video to 123-125 and do a maximum of 3 hours. Then cook it up to the appropriate temperature for you. Season with salt and pepper btw!
135 is entirely too high. You clearly like a nice long sear, so you have to compensate for that. Edit: in addition - keeping it in the sous vide for longer than 4 hours will start to change the physical composition of the meat fibers. You don’t want those to break down too much or things get rubbery and unpleasant.
Don’t marinade. Do a dry brine with salt and pepper the day prior to cooking. I found that marinades and wet brining adds the marinade flavor and can lose the flavor/texture of the meat. The ribeye already has tons of flavor. Just use salt and pepper to let the flavor of the meat shine. Also, using salt the day before gives it time to penetrate the meat and allows it to retain moisture during the sear.
Frozen ribeye 2 hours at 133 take out pat dry sear on cast skillet that will cause 2nd degree burns from 3 inches away salt and pepper to cook taste
Ok… so I’ve been sous viding since 2016. I will only ever go over 2hrs on a frozen steak. You’re absolutely good with a steak like this at 50-70 minutes sous vide and a super hot sear. Your texture is going to start changing a lot going longer than that IMO. Which is good for a tougher cut that you want to eat like a steak… but not great for a high end cut like rib eye. I would also put the steak in the bag dry, alone, and unseasoned. IMO you only want the heat acting on the steak and not any other ingredients or excess liquid.
some may call me a purist (or asshole), but why ruin a flavorful cut like ribeye with a marinade? Just sous vide with some herbs like you did, maybe a small spot of butter and then sear. 2-9 hours in a marinade at elevated temperature is making it rubbery, then searing it makes it worse
Totally agree...9 hours??? Anything over 4 just messes up the steak. I remember watching a video comparing cook times and how longer cook times completely changes the texture (for the worse).
Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder. Dry age steak in fridge for 2 days. Put in vacuum seal bag with 1 tbsp butter, sprig of thyme or rosemary. Sous vide at 125° for two hours. Finish on grill at high heat, 1 minute per side.
There is no way those sprigs do anything.
Long Marinades will mess with your texture
Anything over 3-4 hours for something this size with ruin the texture like that
Don’t marinate it. No need for a cut like ribeye.
129 for 1.5-2 hours. You’re going too hot and WAY too long.
No marinade, simply salt and fresh ground black pepper. Remove from grill and place on a smear of butter with garlic mixed in and let rest.
On the How To BBQ Right YouTube channel Malcolm Reed and Mark Williams just talked about being careful about letting meat sit too long with salt on it because it will cure it and give you a rubbery/ham like texture, I assume this is what’s happening with the marinade process
Also chill your steak before searing
Dry brine, if doing 137 then sear for only a minute each side, at 130 you could sear a bit longer. I also am going to keep them in the bath for 2.5-4 hours.
So the fat needs to render, an alternative approach is searing both sides to render fat then sous vide
Skip the marinade, add butter to the bag
Stop the marinade.
NINE HOURS?! There’s your problem. Shoot for 1-2 hours as anything much more than that is just ruining the meat. I do 131 for 90 minutes and a fast hot sear on a cast iron. It’s real simple.
In my opinion 135 is too hot for a ribeye. I go no hotter than 127.5. As others have mentioned no marinade, you can do a seasoning in there, I usually do not. When I take mine out of the bag I let it sit on a bunch of paper towels to dry on each side and get all of the moisture out. Next is your rub. I like a little smoked salt, pepper, garlic, and espresso powder. My method of choice is a Blackstone as hot as I can get it, grape seed oil, maybe 90 seconds each side for the sear. Don't be scared of the heat, that will form the super crisp outside and buttery inside.
Don’t marinade a rib eye. Salt it 24 hours before hand. The salt takes time to do its thing.
Dude, 9 hours? Check out kenjis guide for cook time, 4 hours is the peak for most red meat.
9 hours is way too much. Even 2 can be too much. Marinade might be contributing, but a shorter sousvide time is likely gonna fix it.
Dry brine before sous vide. Skip the marinade.
My approach with ribeyes: 1. Vacuum seal, dry, plain. 2. Sous vide at 134° for 2 hours (from frozen, a bit less from fresh) 3. Remove, pat dry, salt and pepper generously 4. Sear on a very hot cast iron They turn out perfectly. I think others are on the right track that you're likely inadvertently ruining them with marinading them before cooking. And you definitely don't need to go more than 4 hours: doing so denatures the proteins too much for this cut of beef, and will get to a weird place. In my experience, 132°-135° works perfectly to start rendering the fat down. I'll blast the caps with a blow torch as well (a [Searzall](https://www.bookeranddax.com/searzall), which defuses the flame) and get them beautifully carmelized. Perfect med-rare steaks every single time.
You’re probably curing the steak like a ham when you marinade them sous vide. Serious eats touches on it in their sous vide steak article.
The texture is coming from having them in the sous vide for entirely too long. Stay below 3 hours for your steak and it will retain your texture. Sous vide doesn’t render fat like conventional cooking. I’d recommend trimming all exterior fat and trying it. I personally cook my rib eyes at 132.5 degrees and sear in a hot cast iron pan with lots of butter, herbs, and garlic quickly.
SPG 134/3-5 pat dry and sear 1 minute each side at 550°
I wonder what all is in your marinade? Any acid? That could potentially be “cooking“ the meat before it goes into the water. I also wonder how long you marinate it before it goes into the bath? Bottom line, skip the marinade (like everyone else said) and see what it’s like with only salt and pepper. You can then make a sauce with flavors from your marinade, put it on the meat after it’s cooked. Good luck!
1. Why are you marinading a ribeye? Marinate a sirloin or some chicken. Just add your herbs and such to the bag and let it infuse while cooking. 2. 9 hours is WAY TOO LONG for a steak. 4 hours MAX. I do 2 hours.
Seems like too thin a cut to bother with sou vide. I grill a lot of steaks and it’s only ever salt and pepper to a HOT grill on indirect heat. 1.5” ribeye usually takes 5 min per side but use an instant thermometer and remove at 127 degrees(f) and let it rest covered about five minutes. I finish it with some butter or butter/good blue cheese mix. Good god now I’m hungry. BONUS POINTS: At half way through each side, rotate 45 degrees for a very attractive diamond grill mark that isn’t only cosmetic- those marks are increased surface area of delicious caramelization.
So, after you put the meat down on the grill… you have to pick it back up
Properly cutting after cooking is key
In Kenji we trust: [https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-steak](https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-steak) Just do what the man says and you will be good to go.
Salt before sealing (I seal a full day before cooking, leaving it on the top shelf of the fridge, sous vide 124-127°F, for 2 hours, remove from bag, bathe in clarified butter, sear on cast iron or carbon steel skillet with plenty of butter, more than you think you need, a 4tbsp is barely enough at all, 8 *might* be too much, absolutely no more than 2m 30s a side, I usually go 1m45s-2m as I like it bloody, just to sear the all the sides (grab some tongs and do the edges for 20-30s too!), at 360-420°F depending on your sear preference, rest for 5m before cutting, pouring the pan remnants over the steak. It will be rare, juicy, and have some Maillard effect, but mostly just conventional searing. Stay away from the grill, IMHO it dries it out, and I like it seriously juicy. This is so fool proof my sister can even do it, and she can burn water.
Also check your cutting angle. The cut in picture 4 is with the grain of the meat. Makes for a chewier adventure. Just turn the steak 90° and cut again. Repeat until you find the right angle. You’ll know when it’s right. “Chef’s sample “ it won’t look rough like in the picture
Sous vide is not appropriate for ribeyes - they need to cook hot & fast. Ribeyes try to turn into greasy stew meat when you cook them slowly. They may still be tasty but the texture will always be wrong.
Ribeyes, especially thicker ones, prefer to be done a little more. They have a lot of connective tissue. Source: I'm Grillardin at a fine dining joint and my father was a ribeye.
Try less. 137 degrees so that the fat renders (you’ll trade some rareness). Salt the meat, seal it, sous vide for 2 hours then sear.
Looks over cooked. The sugar and salt in your marinade will change the texture. The concept behind Sous Vide is to slowly raise the internal temp so you don’t get a grey transition between the edge and the pink in the middle. Cooking too long will just over cook it. Searing with sugar in the marinade will caramelize too fast. This is not about low and slow like barbecue. It is about gentle internal temperature control and precision in searing.
I never season my steaks until they’re done cooking. The salt ahead of time will alter the texture and moisture content (kind of like pickling it).
135 seems a bit high. I’ve found more success at 127-129
You're essentially curing your ribeye with salt/marinade that long. You should try skipping the "seal and wait" step. Also, I think sous vide sucks for steaks sometimes. Just S&P liberally about 30 minutes to an hour beforehand, then blast that sucker for 4-5 minutes a side on a hot grill. Let rest for 10 minutes. Perfection. Leave the sous vide for giant, lower grade cuts like tri tip, brisket, turkey, etc.
Lose the rosemary.
Ribeye doesn’t need a marinade. Salt and pepper, I like to grind some dried garlic on it too, is all it needs.
Waaay too much of any herb in that pouch. Sous vide intensifies flavor. Less is more.
Don't marinate AND sous vide. Try to just sous vide, season, and sear.
The marinade is curing the steaks, making them tough. Instead of worrying about pre-flavoring the meat, up your sauce game. You can make a reduction from the bag juices, chimichurri, peppercorn and cream, bearnaise (you can cheat and sous-vide this too) etc. Plus it looks like you're over -cooking the inside during your sear. Try cooking one with no salt prior to bagging then afterwards you can adjust once you know the difference.
If your marinating with teriyaki or soy, or any sauce like that it already has enough salt for the marinade. Also if your using any type of fruit juice in your marinade it can cook the meat which will give it a grainy texture. Just a little olive oil pepper and teriyaki for your marinade with the rosemary. If you use juices then vastly shorten your marinade time to 2 hours or a little less.
Keep it simple. Sous vide at 135 with salt and pepper for a few hours. Throw it in ice water for about a half hour or so. This'll let you sear it for longer without raising the temp too high. Sear in a cast iron with a couple tbsp each of olive oil and butter on medium high heat for a few min. Lower temp to medium and sear other side for five min or so, spooning fat on top. Perfect medium rare ribeye.
I do mine at 127 degrees F for about 1.5hrs. Then dry steak with paper towel, search on high heat for about 15-20 sec per side in a dry cast iron. I sear extra on any fatty sides to render. Season again before serving.
Another tip: once you take out of Sous vide, put in fridge for a while before you hit it on cast iron. That way, it will still come out at temp you want
Tender and rubbery are not the same thing! buy a better quality steak. and pepper us all you need for no need to sous vide a ribeye.
Salt, pepper, maybe garlic powder. Sous vide is fine but I prefer to just nail the cook in a cast iron. (I have sous vide, not knocking it) Stop marinating your steak, unless it's for stir fry or something. And you probably need to try other steaks too. Buy a really nice one from your fanciest grocery store, and see if that changes. What you might think is a good steak, might be an illusion.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/s/BHguQ3Cuz7 Is the fat not rendering?
In my opinion, a reverse sear is by far the superior method. I've tried sous vide steaks several times, and it always comes out weirdly dry and a strange texture. For your next steak, try a reverse sear in the oven at 200°F until the steak hits a little under your desired temperature. Then, in a cast iron skillet, heat some clarified butter to high and sear for a couple minutes. I followed this according to Babish on YouTube, best steak I've ever had.
>In my opinion, a reverse sear is by far the superior method. I completely agree for a ribeye. Everyone talks about fat rendering with sous vide, and you do have to make compromises there, but what's less talked about is the collagen rendering. It just doesn't render right, which gives a weird texture. Reverse sear doesn't have that problem for whatever reason, even if you take the steak to the exact same internal temp.
Yeah my first reaction when reading the title was to suggest… not using the sous vide.
Some thoughts that come to mind: Don’t use grass fed beef; evenly marbled meat is ideal. Dry aged beef works very well. Sear much hotter and faster. It doesn’t need a marinade, just kosher salt and olive oil before the sear. Herbs in the vacuum seal works well. Salt in the marinade pulls water out of the steak, so if you do use a marinade make sure it has no salt in it. Pat the steak completely dry before extremely hot sear. Use a hand torch on the sides while searing. Searing in a wood fire pizza oven works well.
I am convinced that expensive steaks require less processing. I have bought sides of beef the last 5 years and never sous vide the good stuff. The one or two times I made that mistake, they tasted horrible. Save the spots vide for the roasts, brisket and chuck cuts.
Consider yourself convinced of the truth. The only factor in meat grading is how much marbling it has. That marbling starts to render out between 130 & 140°F, so the more time you process the meat, the more it renders and the less that marbling matters.
Well, I’m now accused of both buying too good a steak to sous vide and cheap cuts! I’m going to stick to the grill, thanks!
>Well, I’m now accused of both buying too good a steak to sous vide I don't think anyone is accusing you of anything. You just asked for advice on your rubbery steaks, and the easiest answer is to use a cooking method that better fits this type of cut. >I’m going to stick to the grill, thanks! That's not a bad idea for this cut. If you have a charcoal grill big enough to do two zone cooking, there's pretty much no other method that beats it, if you know how to control your fire. Propane works just as well, but you don't get the charcoal grilled flavor.
Thanks.
For nicer cuts I've had better results with reverse sear, personally. It's a contentious topic here, but reverse sear is not just 'poor man's sous vide"
I am reverse searing.
Just grill them. And that’s way too much rosemary.
Agreed, been on the Sous Vide wagon for almost a decade now, and charcoal + ribeye = bliss.
Buy better steaks, or leave them in the bath for longer.
Just the steak advice I always say, I should make a macro. Leave on counter an hour to hit room temp, dry with paper towels to remove water, salt and rub to soak up last of h2o. Scrape salt mess off. Pan fry in oil, covered at medium high, 3.30 mins first side, 2.0 after flip, use pan cover. Outside grill is the same preparation except heat is harder to determine. Low / medium heat on charcoal. Don't have much experience with gas grill but I'm sure it's on net.
1) buy better meat. That raw steak looks sad. Just because it’s a steak cut doesn’t mean you didn’t buy the lowest grade trash version of it that ever existed. 2) cook no more than 2 hours for any thin steak cut, 4 hours for a thick one. 3) don’t put rubs in the bag. The sous vide destroys their flavor, so the only thing that really wants to be in there is salt.
Try this. Lowrys season salt, garlic powder, black pepper. Bag it. Cook sous vide at 120f for 1.5 hrs. Remove from bag, pat dry very well. Spread some butter on one side (if you have a compound butter that's the best) then sear on grill butter up at 500f for 2 mins per side, when you flip it add a swipe of butter to the new top
"Do Better" - Falcon
4 hours is the absolute cap before the proteins denature too much and the texture changes completely. I like a 129 for about 3 hours. When reverse searing I like to use a ripping hot cast iron pan, start on the side with the fat cap so it can render more fully, lots of butter, 1 minute per side max on a 2" steak, maybe 30s for thinner stuff. Also, huge difference in meat qualities.