Meat continues cooking after sous vide?

robert.c.brown15

Hello,

I am pretty sure I know the answer to this but wanted to get some clarification from experienced people. 2 weeks ago I did a filet mignon at 55C and it came out a gorgeous red, perfectly cut, one of my favorite sous vide experiences so far. I checked the core temperature and it was exactly at 55C. I seared it and let it rest for at the most 5 minutes before eating.

Last week I did a 54C filet mignon. I checked the core and it was at 54C. I then seared it and let it rest this time for probably 20 to 30 minutes as the pan sauce I was making took longer than I thought.

When I cut into it, I was expecting a deep red like the 55C if not darker (rarer), instead it was pink and while I didn't think to put a thermometer in it, it looked on the higher side of medium rare than what I was looking for.

Can sous vide meats, in this case steak, continue cooking once out of the bag? Much like a steak off of the grill? Both steaks were cooked sous vide from frozen for around 1.5 to 2 hours and were at core when I pulled them out of the bath.

Thanks for the help. Both were great, just curious as to how the 54C seemed to be cooked more than the 55C.

Doing a cryofried steak tomorrow and didn't want this to happen again if I could help it.

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Comments

Samuel_68313

Well the temperature theoretically can keep rising but assuming the temperature was set on your circulator within one or two degrees of the core temp there just isn't enough residual heat there to rise the temp more then a negligible amount.

Obviously this is different when searing though as the pan is very hot (or should be), so the residual heat from this can certainly raise the internal temperature a degree or two while resting.

How long did the searing take? And how thick was the beef?

robert.c.brown15

Beef was 1" to 1.5" thick. I seared it both sides for 30 seconds to a minute. When I cut it open, it was the same doneness edge to edge. The first time I did steaks sous vide I seared too long and got the various gradients of doness so I know that can happen, but that wasn't apparent here. My circulator is calibrated fine as I checked it against my thermapen. I was surprised since a lot of the meats I see on here at 54C have such a dark red color and mine was a perfect pink.

Jack_Mayer_85396

Just a guess here, but perhaps the carryover cooking time from the searing step caused the internal temp to go a bit past what you were expecting? I'm sure the pros here will provide the real answer.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Resting for 20-30 minutes I'd guess you have more or less set the meat and let it cool, the liquids would

have solidified, kinda like what you'd see with a roast beef at the store.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I agree with Johan, I think the color is just a result of the longer resting period as opposed to being cooked to a significantly different temperature.

robert.c.brown15

Cool.

grant

It can come come from several things here.

Myoglobin reacting to the air as it sits, goes from deep red to then brown.

Bath was over temp. Even a temp of 60c will make a deep red/pink piece of beef.

Overcooked during searing.

Product not myoglobin rich, tenderloin has the least anyways.

robert.c.brown15

I would say it would be the two Myogloblin reasons you listed. Bath temp. was perfect and it wasn't overcooked during searing (at least didn't look like that at all when I cut it open).

Thanks. I'll be sure to better judge my rest time, etc.