All,

Here's the final product from that reddit post:


And the video:


Looks like overall pretty solid technique (didn't listen to video though). But the end result looks pretty medium with a lot of gray band and an unimpressive sear, especially in the middle. I'm guessing he could have benefited from having his pan a little hotter and flipping some during the basting process.

He spouted room temperature. He said don't touch it once it's in the pan. He said rest it for 10 minutes after a 3 minute sear. Seems like he's just parroting things he's heard online without knowing the reason why.

Gobbo,

Think of the juices!

Yea he was really close, and by internet at large standards, that is clearly a good video. But it wasn't above average itt.

I'm going to write it up so its easier to critique.

His steps:
1. Salt and Pepper, rest for 30 mins
2. Cook in oven til 115f at 250f for ~60 mins
3. Cook in cast iron using lard on med-high
4. Flip and baste with butter and thyme
5. Remove from heat, rub butter on top, and rest for 10 mins


1. I think the time there doesn't really make sense?
2. Correct
3. Let rest here for 10 mins first instead of later, but maybe he kinda did without saying it? Sear the sides! huge error. Pan doesn't appear hot enough. Thinks he cannot flip it for any reason.
4. Why is he rubbing raw butter on it now? Why is it resting here? It can be eaten immediately.

If he seared the edges, used a higher temp, flipped it a bit more instead of basting, then it could have been really good.

Pretty sure Kenji did some tests and a half hour is the worst time to salt a steak. It draws the water out of the steak, but it's not enough time for the muscle fibers to reabsorb it. I think he says sear it immediately or salt it for at least an hour, or else the surface of your meat will be wet and you'll get a weaker sear. Reverse sear might mitigate that somewhat though

Yea that's what I was thinking about and couldn't exactly remember.

i think kenji later retracted that stance

Not steak, but grilled up some burgundy, garlic, peppercorn tri-tip with cucumber, onion, tomato salad. I forgot how much I love that salad.

Snipe,

Uh, that's def steak

I love that "salad" too. I often go even simpler w/ just tomato, red onion, olive oil, vinegar, S&P.

What is the main benefit to an Annova against a beer cooler? The amount of **** you can do for longer than the hour a beer cooler holds temperature? Like pork and vegetables and ****?

Yes and precise control which is very important for longer cooking close to the bacterial danger zone.

Also controlling to specific degrees or tenth of a degree makes a yuge difference if you're cooking eggs, tempering chocolate, custards or similar applications.

Part of the beauty of SV is that the window of time where something is cooked perfectly is long and it's totally hands off until you finish it. Beer cooler is not as hands off.

Pork is totally fine in a beer cooler. Veggies too. It's stuff that needs to cook more than 4 hours that's generally needed to be heated up constantly. Beer cooler holds the temp for a while but if you're cooking something 24 hours you can't really adjust the temperature while you're sleeping.

If all you want to do with sous vide is basic steaks and fish and pork and the like then you don't need an expensive setup at all. A cooler with a ziploc bag is all you need. Anova is for doing bigger projects.

Yeah, that's what I figured. Although tempering chocolate sounds pretty fun. I tried with just a pot and changing temperatures quickly and failed.

What do you call a bigger project, gobbo? Gimme a few examples! I'll get by for now, but would love to learn to cook tons of other **** and SV seems to simplify lots of stuff.

Doing a long braise like short ribs or any kind of BBQ. I threw a whole pork belly in my container and did it for 36 hours and then roasted it for super bowl then deep fried it to finish and it was all airy and crackly and ****. Long cooks do a lot of amazing things to a lot of meat that a 4 hour cook just won't do.

As mentioned above, also, precise temperature control is big too. Shellfish, salmon, eggs, etc are all great but shine at a very small temp window. Can't really do that with a beer cooler because it dips as time goes on.

phresh,

Long cooks like short ribs and pork belly and brisket are the #1 reason imo.

Precise temperature control for stuff like eggs is also cool:
(from http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=3911.html)

IMO eggs are better at higher temperatures with timed cooking because the whites and yolks want different temperatures.

I've never gotten better results with sous vide but maybe LOL me.

That's what's up. What's the biggest thing you've guys rigged the Annova to? I'm imagining me trying to sous vide like 10 steaks for a big BBQ before finishing on a grill and needing to drill a hole in my beer cooler or something. Guess the attachment can clip to the side pretty easy though.

You mean container-wise? I use a full size deep hotel pan for big stuff. Most ITT seem to prefer clear plastic cambros.

I use a big beer cooler. Fits a ton of meat.

Sweet, I'll keep my beer cooler and see how it fits when I get an Annova.

I find it odd that the default word for sous vide machine on this site is now "Annova". There are lots of other machines, Joule, Sanasire, Nomiku, etc. but for some reason people are referring to the machine as Annova all the time. This thread has done a ton to increase people's steak game, and I bet Annova has made some money as well because people just default to that word.

Disclosure, I have had a Sansaire since Kickstarter, and love it.

Steak peeps,

Had some skirt steak from the beef draft. Marinated it for an hour or so in balsamic/soy/worcestershire/honey/pepper. In a pretty hot pan for something like 1:45/side.





Delicious! You can't really tell from the cut pic, but it was like half-inch thick max.

can we all agree to stop spelling it wrong tho?

good looking skirt

chipotle serving sous vide steak now. must have seen the stuff in this thread.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/chipo...ry?id=37696967