What did I do wrong?

Did my first sous vide steak - and had mixed results. Set it for medium - but the result was medium in the middle with rare on one end (rare). I though this method was supposed to cook the steak (ribeye) evenly. I'm sure I did everything correctly. The only thing I can come up with is the bag. I used the one gallon zip lock bag - but form some inexplicable reason - I zipped it half closed. Could this have caused the different cooking results? Thanks

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brian_martin2001

As long as no water got in the bag and the plastic was pressed against the meat, that shouldn't matter. What temperature did you set it to? A number would be preferred. How long did you cook it in the water bath? How thick was it? How long each side did you sear it for? Did you dry it prior to searing? Did you dip it in any ice bag prior too searing?

Thomas_Dickens_1012573

Thanks for the questions Brian. I'll look up the different steps you've mentioned (many of which I didn't do or watch for) and redo the process this weekend. The steaks were ribeyes - about 1 1/2" thick. I set the temp to 133 degrees - and the middle came out perfect - but one end of the stead came out rare. I can eat rare - I just thought the cook would be a lot more even. Again, I'll look into some of the other things you mentioned. Oh - they cooked for 1 hour 30 minutes.

montebello1964

The cook will be perfectly even if you had good circulation around the bag and its contents and if you cooked it for long enough relative to the thickness of your steak (and assuming you didn't sear it unevenly). An open bag could conceivably affect this.

The proper time for different thicknesses can be estimated by referring to the Joule app or Baldwin (everyone who does sous vide cooking should read Baldwin in its entirety): http://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html