Sous Vide, or not Sous Vide, that is the question:

Sous Vide, or not Sous Vide, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to fire up the grill and risk over or under cooking meat.

El Diablo gave me a Sous Vide device/stick to play with. I did some research on the inter-web about how Sous Vide devices are supposed to work and what to use them for.

Sous Vide is French for “under vacuum”. The food is first vacuum sealed in a food safe plastic bag and then “cooked” in a water bath between 131°f and 140°f. If you want to know more go to Wikipedia for the full meal deal about how it works and food safety.

I had used a similar technique many times before I even knew Sous Vide was a thing. I would heat up water in my huge stainless steel pot that I bought in Toronto for cooking many (6 or more) lobsters. This would happen outside using a turkey fryer propane gas burner. The burner would bring the water to a boil. Then you turn off the burner and put whole smoked briskets that had been vacuum sealed in FoodSaver bags and then monitor the water temperature. The ideal water temperature for Brisket is  around 190°f to breakdown the collagen and make the meat tender. When the water temperature dropped to 160°f, crank the burner back on till we were at about 200°f, then turn it off. Depending on the ambient temperature, I would need to do this trick every half hour. It was worth it.

I’m on my second FoodSaver. The first one we bought in the grandstand at the Minnesota State Fair a million years ago.

El Diablo also told me to go to Serious Eats website and check out everything they have for cooking steaks Sous Vide. I did, It is a great website.

So the whole idea of doing the Sous Vide trick is to insure perfectly cooked steaks for you and your guests. So medium rare is right around 133°f or so.

Unfortunately, being a son of a butcher, I have been conditioned to never commit the mortal sin of overcooking any meat. For 40 years or so I’ve been reasonably successful doing this on gas and charcoal grills.

Inch and a half to two inch thick steaks are the Sous Vide norm. These inch and a half, Chuck Eye steaks were perfect. The cooking chart said: One and a half to four hours at your favorite temperature would be ideal. I choose two hours at 133°f. The steaks had a bit of Trader Joes Coffee Rub on them in their FoodSaver bags.

The Sous Vide device is slick. Just program in the cooking temperature and the time, clip it onto the vessel you wish to cook in, add an appropriate amount of water and the bags o’ meat, and turn it on. It heats up and circulates the water, and then when you reach operating temperature, the count down timer to doneness begins.

No gawking necessary. Walk away. Create side dishes, or wash some. When there is 15 minutes left, preheat your skillet gently or light the grill so you can put a bit of char on the steaks. When the count down is over, no panic. Make sure your side dishes are ready and then calmly remove the bags o’ meat from the water, open them and place the steaks in or on the charring device.

I chose to use my 44 year old 12 inch cast iron skillet that had been warmed for about 10 minutes on low. All the doors in the kitchen were closed and sealed with painters tape, the kitchen window was wide open and the vent hood was put on overdrive. A tablespoon of peanut oil was put in the skillet and the temperature was set to high. Steaks were installed and the char and smoke began. Maybe 2 minutes a side, then a bit top and bottom before the fire department had to be called. I plated the steaks and She Who Must be Obeyed and I removed our respirators.

As you can see from the photo the outside of the steaks looked good. The insides were perfect. Sorry, I was hungry so no photo.

Would I do this again this way? Maybe. Maybe not. We were lucky. The outside temperature was 60°f, so opening all the windows was okay. The steaks were excellent. I’ve got an electric burner I could use to heat my skillet in the garage or on the deck and char out there so we don’t die of smoke inhalation.

The idea of building a charcoal fire or preheating my gas grill for 15 minutes to cook on it for 5 is repugnant to me. If I’m going to do all that I can avoid the Sous Vide and take my chances and just grill. But there is a Tri Tip in the freezer that I could Sous Vide, because you know with that tapered shape how hard it is to not overcook the pointy end and undercook the fat end. Hmmmmmmm……

Sous Vide, or not Sous Vide, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to just fire up the grill and risk over or under cooking meat.