r/sousvide • u/jmlay420 • 7d ago
First time ever
My dad got me an Anova for my birthday and good lord I’m never making a steak any other way. 130 for 4 hours, cut with a fork tender
Edit: MY BAD, DAMN! lol good to know, thank you. I’m excited to start experimenting with different stuff
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u/TheTrueBComp 7d ago
Haha I love the “I’ve clearly not been in this sub long, here’s a big stick of butter!” Posts that have to catch people off guard.
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u/jmlay420 7d ago
Trial by fire and I’m here for it
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u/TheTrueBComp 7d ago
Honestly so much better to learn early. Had a lot of tender beef that I thought, “hmm not as flavorful as I expected” until I learned. It’s not as embarrassing as running my smoker while often closing the chimney and trying to convince myself chalky stale smoked brisket was good. Glad you liked it, we use our sous vide 3-4 times a week.
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u/semihelpfullguy 5d ago
Butter to learn early than not at all
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u/siouxzieb 6d ago
Did it taste good? Like buttery beef? With a nice buttery beefy sauce practically ready to go? If so, then do it however the f*ck you want. Such stupid gate keeping.
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u/ffc404 5d ago
Wait do we not put butter in the bag?
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u/Ok-Head4979 1d ago
a lot of people swear it ruins the whole dish.
thats ofc bullshit, imo the difference is barely noticeable and masked by so much other choices
but people need sth to vent i guess
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u/sephraes 6d ago
It's more like ragebait. If you're looking this very specific sub up enough to post here, then you d prob already caught it. Particularly given the massive increase in these posts recently. Which means that it's even more obvious.
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u/Tonanelin 7d ago
How'd you like it?
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u/jmlay420 7d ago
It was hella good!
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u/BadgerSauce 7d ago
Fellow NorCal brother?
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u/jmlay420 7d ago
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u/Temporary_Ad7973 5d ago
New time dont use butter...it takes alot of thr flavor that would go into the meat from the aromatics
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u/maak_d 7d ago
I don't know about anyone else but a large part of why I follow this sub is for the butter posts. Thank you, OP. You carry on a proud tradition.
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u/jmlay420 7d ago
God dang man lol I didn’t see that coming
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u/Old-Machine-5 6d ago
Yeah, people in this forum could be assholes. lol It’s not our fault that a lot of the guides show exactly what you did. Happened to me last year and they tore me apart. Glad I stuck with it, you should too.
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u/Best-Subject279 7d ago
I get the whole “don’t put butter in the bag” but could someone explain why exactly?? I did the same thing the other day and it turned out great 😭
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u/ElasticSpeakers 7d ago
Its one of those things where you do it and it tastes good in the end because it's beef and butter - how bad could that be??
The real answer is let's fast forward to after the cook but before the sear. You know what your cooked, ice bathed but unseared steak should look like prior to searing it? It's probably going to be weirdly grey and it should be dry dry DRY! Like you used 15 paper towels to suck up alllll the moisture off of that steak. But if you just wiped off literally all the moisture, where's your butter? It doesn't get 'absorbed' into the muscle fibers. You don't want it on the surface or in the crevices. So where is most of that butter? In the compost bin on the paper towels, down the sink drain or in the trash.
Warming up some ghee and drizzling it on after searing it is the way to do it so you still get the intense beef/butter flavors and you use like 1/10th the amount.
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u/Best-Subject279 7d ago
I see, thanks for the explanation! I basted my steak in the slow cooked butter after but I definitely lost some of it on the outside like you said, so I’ll just wait until after searing next time!
Really quick follow up, I see you mentioned ice bath? Do you do that immediately after it’s out of the sous vide? I just got one so I’m still figuring it all out :)
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u/ElasticSpeakers 7d ago
Yes, I keep the steaks in the bag and they go into an ice bath for 10-15 min while I'm getting everything prepped for the sear. If you don't arrest the cooking on the inside, you'll have way less margin of error when you sear maybe a touch too long and you end up overcooking the thing you've been babying for hours/days.
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u/unkilbeeg 6d ago
There's no cooking going on after you pull it from the bath, assuming it's been in long enough to all come to temperature.
However, lowering the internal temperature means that you're less likely to push the interior above your target temperature in the searing process.
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4d ago
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u/KingMidas212 4d ago
It does if you were to cook meat in a more traditional manner (oven or pan), where the higher residual heat from the outside continues to cook the inside.
If you sous vide a steak, the entire steak will be whatever you set the temperature to. If the entire steak is 135°, it won’t continue to cook any higher than that once it is removed from the water bath.
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u/wycliffslim 4d ago
How?
The entire steak is exactly the temperature of the water bath.
Carryover cooking takes place from grill, pan, oven, etc because the outside of the food is hotter which means the overall temperature will equalize slightly up. A sous vide does not have that impact. As soon as you pull the steak out it will begin cooling down towards ambient.
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u/MonkeyKingCoffee Professional 7d ago
Instead, make a hotel butter and place a pat of that on top just after broiling.
What do I put into my bag? The steak, some salt, and green peppercorns. Easy steak au poivre that way.
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u/CartographerOne8846 6d ago
I never cooled my steak after sous vide. Why do you do that, isnt it cold inside then?
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u/Ok_Tadpole_4092 5d ago
10 minute ice bath cools down the steak enough that when you sear it the meat isn't over cooked. It brings it to the perfect internal temp and let's the maillard effect happen
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u/FappyDilmore 7d ago
Butter creates a fat soluble environment that pulls out fat soluble flavor molecules and worsens the liquid loss associated with SV cooking. If you butter baste after cooking the butter just coats the steak and adds to the flavor and moisture.
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u/redlancer_1987 7d ago
I think the idea is that you end up with beef flavored butter instead of butter flavored steak.
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u/RealCleverUsernameV2 7d ago
It leads to higher cholesterol and a desire to eat steak every day. Dangerous stuff.
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u/Ziddy 6d ago
https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-steak#addfat
I've seen recipes that recommend adding fat to the bag, though none that offer plausible reasons for doing so. I decided to test whether or not it adds anything to the process by cooking three steaks side by side: one with nothing added to the bag, one with olive oil, and one with butter. I also repeated the test with some thyme sprigs and garlic added to each bag.
Intuitively, you may think that adding a flavorful fat, like butter or olive oil, will in turn help create a more flavorful steak. In fact, it turns out that this achieves the opposite goal: It dilutes flavor. Fat-soluble flavor compounds dissolve in the melted butter or oil and end up going down the drain later. Similarly, flavors extracted from aromatics end up diluted. For best results, place your seasoned steak in a bag with no added fats.
I think Kenji is the one who mentioned all this.
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u/NerdModeXGodMode 7d ago
One of those, less is more kinda things probably. People really overdo butter most the time
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u/doincatsdoggystyle 7d ago
Don't listen to them, butter in the bag is delicious. I've done several blind taste tests with friends and family and everyone prefers the butter bag.
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u/skippyjifluvr Home Cook 7d ago
Do a more scientific test. Add the same amount of butter to the steak after the cook.
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u/doincatsdoggystyle 7d ago
Yup, it's been spooned over after the sear. The bag butter spooned over wins.
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u/mpeters967 7d ago
Lol. Welcome to reddit? All about the hugs and the feels. Or the triggered. 😆
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u/Craigbeau 7d ago
I always put crushed garlic in mine but never butter. Do you OP
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u/Beepbeepimadog 7d ago
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u/Craigbeau 7d ago
I’m a harden repeat offender, going to need an army to stop me.
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u/Beepbeepimadog 6d ago
I mean if actively making your food worse won’t stop you I’m not sure an army would either!
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u/Craigbeau 6d ago
In no way does it or has it ever made my food worse.
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u/Beepbeepimadog 6d ago
Unless you’re cooking at a hotter temp than normal sous vide recommendations then it’s not hot enough to cook the garlic or really impart any flavor. At best you’re passing some raw garlic flavor localized to where it made contact with the meat, any “better” is placebo.
I hate to “acktually” anyone but unless you view localized raw garlic flavor on a few bites better you’re definitely not improving the steak.
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u/thecakeisali 7d ago
Is sous vide steak with butter good? Yes it is. Is it better without? Absolutely. Save your butter for finishing. Bot ulism risk aside I have tried it with the garlic before and it has a very acrid taste at steak temps so I think it’s better without and not worth the risk.
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u/mattjoleary 6d ago
I love sous viding my steaks also.. normally I will go for 119 degrees for 1.5 hours, then hit it on a screaming hot cast iron with butter to finish 1 minute a side for a good med rare. They are generally a little thicker though.. 1.5 to 2 inch thick ribeyes!
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u/HugsAllCats Celsius of GTFO 6d ago
I just fill my sous vide container with butter instead. Makes the wand blades work really hard at first but once it melts it is fine.
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u/bevo_expat 6d ago
How to trigger Reddit sous vide sub.
Step 1) Add butter 🧈 to steak 🥩
Step 2) Take pictures and post
Step 3) 🧈 🚨
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u/Tscynthia 6d ago
Hi I love the pic of your steaks ready to go. I have been Sous viding for about a year. Love it.
I do need to caution you tho. In your pics of your stakes you have raw garlic cloves in the bags. Do a search on here. Raw garlic in Sous vide a no no
Garlic powder is fine. Also do not reuse your bags. Toss them after use. Having cooked in them. You want to minimize any chance of microplastics.
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u/billding1234 6d ago
And it only gets better. Next time try it without the herbs and butter in the bag but add them to the hot pan after you sear (I do this with cast iron and the heat off) and pour them over the steak while it’s resting. See which you prefer.
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u/bullgod1964 2d ago
Wait till you cook a cheap cut and it turns out this good. I did a chuck roast on my second ever Sous cook. It took 42 hours to cook but it was so good and tender. For a 13 dollar piece of meat it was great value as well .Made my first pan sauce to go with it. Not gonna lie, ChatGPT walked me through it. Only mistake is planning ahead. I had to take it out in the morning and that was not when I planned to eat it lol.
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u/ossifer_ca 3d ago
It’s funny all the people ridiculing the butter but nobody’s making fun of the obvious thing—the plastic bag.
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u/[deleted] 7d ago
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