Steaks with different doneness

Has any consensus formed on the best way to prepare, for instance, my 1" steak at medium rare and my wife's at medium, or even medium well? My first instinct would be to put them all in ~129° water for an hour for the mid rare, then pull the mid rare steak and increase the temp to ~140° for the medium well. But for how long to actually get the steak up to 140°?

Or is there a better way?

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Comments

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Go the other way. Start one steak at 140 for an hour, drop the temp to 129, add the other steak.

Bob_136985

You could get a new wife that likes her steak properly cooked, scratch that, another Joules would be cheaper.

fisher23

+1 with what @Brandon_Byrd_40557 said, drop the more done steak first, for your one inch steak 140° F for an hour, drop the temperature to 129 °F, add some ice to the bath to drop it quicker. Just leave the first steak in the bath and when the temperature is 129 °F add the second steak and cook for an other hour, don't worry it won't hurt the 140°F steak because the temp is lower it just keep it hot. Then you can finish them together at the same time. Another way, also courtesy of Bandon, buy steaks when they are on sale, pre-sear them, bag and cool, and refrigerate the ones not going into the bath. Cook some at 129 °F, ice bath and freeze. Cook the rest at the higher temperatures, medium or medium well. Then ice bath and freeze. Make sure to mark the bags with the doneness. Whenever you want steak set the bath temp for the lowest temperature of doneness, i.e. 129°F re-therm your frozen steak for an hour and post sear, both done to perfection. Doing this you could also cook a 129°F medium rare steak for 1.5 hour to make it a 140° F medium well steak. Re-therming a frozen steak takes about as much time as cooking fresh but if you are cooking multiple doneness steaks it does save time for that cook because you don't have to cook one and then the other. I have a friend that likes his medium-well so I always have some in the freezer. Thanks again Brandon, until you mentioned this to me I had two sous vide baths going one at each temp. BTW, IMHO the frozen steaks are as good if not a little more tender.

Michael_Houang_415811

Hi John, I would love a demo of your suggestion of freezing pre-cooked steaks. If you're suggesting that I can stock up my freezer with an endless supply of pre-cooked steaks that I can get ready whenever, at my bidding, then sign me up!

P.S. does this method transfer to other proteins as well?

fisher23

Yes, steaks, chops, chicken and roasts. I don't recommend doing that with fish, though. I have a freezer full of pre cooked proteins. I buy when on sale. Especially when doing a long cook, I cook two or three at the same time, eat one, ice and freeze the other two. When I took the time to make corned beef, I did three. We ate one then and froze the others. Then when you are ready to eat, re-therm and can be ready in about an hour. I blanch, vacuum seal and freeze veggies too. I retherm those SousVide too. Of course I vacuum seal leftovers and the re-therm those sous vide, it's great they don't get dried out.

fisher23

I almost forgot pork ribs. I cook four or five slabs (cut in half and bagged) at a time, ice and freeze. Re-therm for an hour and finish on the smoker, quick and easy.

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

and a hell of a lot easier...

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

like @John_Fisher_218893, I cook a shit load (greater than 2 kilos) at a time. I buy my beef filets, NY strips and rib eyes from a restaurant meat purveyor. they are cut, trimmed and frozen and cost less than the whole tenderloins or rib roast per pound. I buy a 20 lb case at a time....set up a pre sear line and then season, bag and cook SV. I bag them two to a bag...The majority are rare, a few are med rare...if somebody wants medium I show them the grill or the door...they can choose Just mark all the bags with what...the date and the temp cooked at. I do 7-8 pounds of pork belly at a time and also portion it. The pork belly requires about 3.5 to 4 bottles of wine....it takes about 8 hours the way I like it and that is about 1/2 bottle an hour...

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

I LIED I have never only had a 1/2 bottle an hour....

Boyd_Garrett_31034

That approach requires at least a couple of hours, but cooking them both to 129° first only requires you to raise the medium well from 129° to 140°, which would be considerably faster, I would think. Why is it better to take two+ hours instead of an hour plus the time to get that steak up 11 more degrees?

Boyd_Garrett_31034

Hardcore! :-) I'll have to keep my eyes open for sales, but the cheapest place for decent proteins around here is Sam's Club (I'm sure Costco is just as good), and I've never noticed significant price fluctuations there.

brian_martin2001

If you take 1 steak out, it's gong to start cooling down whole the other steak is still cooking. You still need to Let the other steak come up to temperature, which Will take just As long As getting the steaks cooked to 129. That's just the way physics works.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Brian is right on the money. If you pull one steak at 129F, it will just be sitting around and cooling off while the other one cooks. Using calculations from the Sous Vide Dash/Polyscience SV Toolbox app, it will take roughly 40 minutes for a 1" steak to go from 129F to 139F in a 140F bath. That's not counting additional time for the bath to come up to temp. The time savings of using that method are marginal, and you have the added problem of figuring out how to keep the first steak hot while the second one cooks.

Boyd_Garrett_31034

This is the actual answer I was looking for: how long would it take a 129° steak to get to ~140° in a 140° bath? Thanks!

Jay_Schultz_740974

Does this mean you cook the first steak to full time, turn down the temperature, add the second steak and cook it to full time for desired doneness?

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Yep!

Bob_Milstead_760085

What I want to do is cook a bunch of steaks that I plan to cool in ice water and then freeze for later use, in the most time efficient manner. I want half to be med-rare and half to be medium. Maybe 12-20 steaks at a time in a cooler. So, the med rare could come out and go in the ice bath, while the medium keep cooking, but, what is the minimum time I need to bring the steaks up and hold at the medium temperature? Thanks.

Bob_Kruijsse_864240

Cooking with wine. That's the only way to do it!

Max_Herr_868338

The real solution . . . blindfold everyone and let them all eat 129F steaks. No one will be disappointed, and no one will know they've eaten meat with their piehole that they never would have with their eyes. I couldn't get my wife to eat medium rare-medium until she tried her first SV NY strip steak with a little extra sear. Now she says, "You don't have to sear it so much."

Max_Herr_868338

Just cook the medium rares and chill, then freeze. Once you have removed all the MRs, raise the water bath to the medium temp you prefer and cook for 2 hours, as usual. Then chill and freeze.

If you have already cooked to medium before freezing and are asking about reheating, no need to bring mediums back up to that original temp. Any lower temp will still heat the meat thoroughly and not overcook it. A serving temp of 120F-130F will be fine -- that's not much lower than the hottest temp at which most people would put a piece of meat in their mouths, even if well done -- about 145F-- much hotter burns tongues and taste buds.

This is one of the real benefits of SV -- evenly heating the meat to the same temperature from exterior to core. Slow smoked meat can come pretty close. Grilled steaks can't do that -- they heat the meat one side at a time, and at medium rare, the exterior will be hotter than the interior, with the interior many times not really heated at all (or much). People who would actually enjoy a medium rare SV steak, would probably avoid medium rare in a restaurant because the center of the steak is not cooked to their liking -- even feeling raw. SV medium rare is nice and pink, but totally heated . . . a brain teaser for the visual eaters.

You can REHEAT already done medium rare and medium steaks in the same bath at the same time to the medium rare temp, nothing will be overdone, and everyone will be happy after the sear.