**The Art of Sous Vide Steak: A Step-by-Step Guide**

When it comes to cooking steak, many chefs and home cooks turn to traditional methods like grilling or pan-searing. However, for those who want to achieve perfectly cooked steaks with minimal effort, sous vide cooking is the way to go. In this article, we'll explore the process of cooking steak using the sous vide method, from preparing the ingredients to finishing the dish.

**Preparing the Steak**

To start, you'll need a high-quality steak that's suitable for sous vide cooking. The author recommends choosing steaks with an age smell, which indicates that they've been dry-aged and have developed a rich, complex flavor profile. For this recipe, we're using two steaks, seasoned with excess salt from the tray to get the edges looking right. The author notes that these steaks may not look appetizing when they come out of the bag, as they'll be wet and stewy, but don't worry – this is all part of the process.

**The Sous Vide Process**

Next, you'll need a vacuum sealer and a water bath set at 130°F (54°C). The author explains that this temperature ensures a perfect medium rare, with the heat penetrating to the center of the steak. To begin, place the steaks in the vacuum sealer bag, add some aromatics like thyme sprigs and garlic cloves, and seal the bag. Then, submerge the bag in the water bath for at least 45 minutes or about an hour, allowing the heat to fully penetrate the steak.

**Drying and Sealing**

Once the cooking time is complete, carefully lift the bag out of the water bath and dry it on some paper towels to remove excess moisture. This step is crucial, as moisture can prevent good browning. The author notes that the stakes will be quite wet coming out of the bag, but don't worry – this is just part of the process.

**Searing the Steak**

Now it's time to sear the steak in a hot pan. The author recommends using a neutral oil like canola or vegetable oil, as these won't overpower the flavor of the steak. To achieve a perfect crust, heat the oil in the pan and add a small amount of butter – yes, even more butter! – to infuse the dish with aromatics. Then, carefully place the steak in the pan, searing it for about 30 seconds on each side.

**Finishing Touches**

While the steak is cooking, you can also add some extra flair to your dish. The author suggests using a torch to caramelize the crust even further, if desired. Alternatively, simply let the steak sit in the hot pan until it's cooked to your liking. And that's it – your perfectly cooked sous vide steak is ready to be devoured.

**Important Safety Note**

When cooking at temperatures below 130°F (54°C), there is a risk of foodborne illness. To avoid this, make sure to cook the steak for no more than two and a half hours, as this will allow for even heat distribution and prevent overcooking.

**Tips and Variations**

One final note from the author: while sous vide cooking may seem like a set-it-and-forget-it process, it's essential to pay attention to the details. For example, using a torch can add an extra level of flavor and texture to your dish, but be careful not to burn the steak.

By following these simple steps and tips, you'll be well on your way to creating perfectly cooked sous vide steaks that will impress even the most discerning diners. So go ahead – give it a try, and experience the convenience and consistency of sous vide cooking for yourself!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enone thing that is great about cooking steak sous vide is it gives you such amazingly consistent results you can nail your perfect doneness every time whatever that is for you the way sous vide works is we have this immersion circulator which is a device that heats this water to a precise temperature of your choosing when you put the steak in this hot water bath and it just hangs out in there you can't overcook the steak you can't cook it past medium rare because once the steak reaches whatever the temperature of the water bath is it just stays there eventually if the meat is in the water for too long but we're talking many many many hours four plus hours the texture will start to change because the meat is still undergoing some changes in the water but it's not cooking more in terms of doneness that's awesome for entertaining because basically you can get your steaks going and then just let them hang out in there you can talk to your guests you can chat with your friends you can have a drink you're not worrying about whether your steak is going to overcook and you can use any cut of meat that you would eat as a steak any tender quick cooking cuts i'm talking strip steaks ribeye steaks porterhouse steaks shell steaks tenderloins skirt steaks hanger steaks you can do short rib even there's you have a lot of options generally you want to try to use a steak that's on the thicker side at least an inch preferably an inch and a half or even two inches thick with a thicker stick you get this perfect doneness from the center right out to the edge with very little gradient very little shifting towards more and more cook until you get to the very outside where it's seared it gives you just these amazingly consistent kind of perfect results almost soullessly robotic perfect no i'm just kidding i'm not kidding i'm kidding i'm not kidding once every steak there's really one main thing to think about and that's the temperature at which you're going to cook it and that really just depends on what you want if you love a very rare steak then you're probably cooking in the 120 degrees fahrenheit to about 129 from 129 to about 134 135 you're in the medium rare zone my hot water bath right now is at 1 30. so i'm aiming for kind of a low medium rare from about 135 to 144 fahrenheit you're in the zone of medium and then going above that you're getting it to medium well and eventually well done which at that point i don't even know why you would use suvi because you might as well just cook the crap out of your steak in a pan like it doesn't make much difference i have a vacuum bag here and i'll use a vacuum sealer but you can also use just like a zipper lock bag and you would use the water displacement method where you put your meat in the bag lower into the water and use the pressure of the water to push air out before sealing it i'll start by just seasoning my steak salt get the other side oh these steaks smell so good it's got that age smell and i i'll just use the excess salt that's on the tray to get the edges all right in goes a steak now i have some aromatics here this is optional but i'll throw in a couple time sprigs i'll put one for each steak and i'll chuck in a couple garlic cloves let's get the vacuum sealer here and i'm going to vacuum seal these steaks ready and i got my 130 degree fahrenheit water bath so that's a nice medium rare and in it goes in the water bath at least 45 minutes or about an hour to make sure that the heat fully penetrates to the center of the steak and then i can go right away taking them out of the bag and finishing them in a hot pan or i can just let them hang out in this hot water bath at 130 degrees fahrenheit for a few hours if i want only thing to keep in mind if you are cooking at a temperature below 130 degrees fahrenheit there is a food safety concern because you're kind of in the danger zone don't leave your steak in the hot water bath for more than about two two and a half hours not because it'll overcook because you can make yourself sick later yeah otherwise i'm gonna be hearing from it from some lawyers my stakes have been chilling in this hot water bath and um it's it's it's more than enough time they're ready to come out and they're ready to be seared so step number one is to simply lift the bag out of the water i know these instructions are hard to follow and we will dry them on some paper towels because this is a method where the steaks are quite wet also prepare yourself they don't look good at all coming out of this bag they're pretty gross looking i mean that's not attractive the stakes in terms of internal temperature at this point are perfect they're on the nose perfect medium rare because i cook them at exactly that temperature but as you can see they come into the bag they're wet they're stewie and moisture is really the enemy of good browning you just want to sear them really hard and really fast get as good of a crust as you can get on them as quickly as you can to maintain that perfect interior that you spend all that time guaranteeing by cooking sous vide in the first place and i'm going to do a little optional step i'm going to add some butter some thyme and some garlic to the pan also to infuse with even more aromatics but that's totally optional you can just sear in a neutral oil like canola vegetable oil grape seed oil peanut oil one other thing if you have a torch and even better if you have a sears all you can get the steak in the pan searing from one side and torching it from above trying to maximize that crust as much as you can you know be careful flame bomb also this is not technically the best tank to have on this top that you should get the broader ones so that it's more stable so just pretend i'm pretend i'm doing it right get some oil in the pan as soon as we see this oil smoking we're ready to get the meat in the pan very carefully watch your fingers steak goes in i'm gonna just drop oop that butter soft drop that butter in drop those guys in every 15 seconds or so flip it and now i'm going to i'll do the sears all flip it again whoa it came apart right there's a natural seam on the beef in it and it came apart that's fine sear those edges so if you if you use a torch alone your beef is going to taste like a gas station it's disgusting we're going to come over here the meat has been brought very slowly and gently up to precisely the perfect temperature you want there's no need to let it rest and reabsorb juices it's it's ready to go and it really is just a perfect medium rare there's still a little bit of an edge you know you gotta sear it but it's quite nice it's perfectly cooked super tender and it's got a decent sear on it it's not a great syrup and yeah could i have seared it harder yeah but i would have gotten more and more of a doneness gradient at which point you start to ask why'd you cook it sous-vide so what you get with sous-vide is you get really the most consistent perfectly cooked piece of meat to whatever temperature you want without even having to think about it i mean it's just it could not be easier and it's you know it's deliciousone thing that is great about cooking steak sous vide is it gives you such amazingly consistent results you can nail your perfect doneness every time whatever that is for you the way sous vide works is we have this immersion circulator which is a device that heats this water to a precise temperature of your choosing when you put the steak in this hot water bath and it just hangs out in there you can't overcook the steak you can't cook it past medium rare because once the steak reaches whatever the temperature of the water bath is it just stays there eventually if the meat is in the water for too long but we're talking many many many hours four plus hours the texture will start to change because the meat is still undergoing some changes in the water but it's not cooking more in terms of doneness that's awesome for entertaining because basically you can get your steaks going and then just let them hang out in there you can talk to your guests you can chat with your friends you can have a drink you're not worrying about whether your steak is going to overcook and you can use any cut of meat that you would eat as a steak any tender quick cooking cuts i'm talking strip steaks ribeye steaks porterhouse steaks shell steaks tenderloins skirt steaks hanger steaks you can do short rib even there's you have a lot of options generally you want to try to use a steak that's on the thicker side at least an inch preferably an inch and a half or even two inches thick with a thicker stick you get this perfect doneness from the center right out to the edge with very little gradient very little shifting towards more and more cook until you get to the very outside where it's seared it gives you just these amazingly consistent kind of perfect results almost soullessly robotic perfect no i'm just kidding i'm not kidding i'm kidding i'm not kidding once every steak there's really one main thing to think about and that's the temperature at which you're going to cook it and that really just depends on what you want if you love a very rare steak then you're probably cooking in the 120 degrees fahrenheit to about 129 from 129 to about 134 135 you're in the medium rare zone my hot water bath right now is at 1 30. so i'm aiming for kind of a low medium rare from about 135 to 144 fahrenheit you're in the zone of medium and then going above that you're getting it to medium well and eventually well done which at that point i don't even know why you would use suvi because you might as well just cook the crap out of your steak in a pan like it doesn't make much difference i have a vacuum bag here and i'll use a vacuum sealer but you can also use just like a zipper lock bag and you would use the water displacement method where you put your meat in the bag lower into the water and use the pressure of the water to push air out before sealing it i'll start by just seasoning my steak salt get the other side oh these steaks smell so good it's got that age smell and i i'll just use the excess salt that's on the tray to get the edges all right in goes a steak now i have some aromatics here this is optional but i'll throw in a couple time sprigs i'll put one for each steak and i'll chuck in a couple garlic cloves let's get the vacuum sealer here and i'm going to vacuum seal these steaks ready and i got my 130 degree fahrenheit water bath so that's a nice medium rare and in it goes in the water bath at least 45 minutes or about an hour to make sure that the heat fully penetrates to the center of the steak and then i can go right away taking them out of the bag and finishing them in a hot pan or i can just let them hang out in this hot water bath at 130 degrees fahrenheit for a few hours if i want only thing to keep in mind if you are cooking at a temperature below 130 degrees fahrenheit there is a food safety concern because you're kind of in the danger zone don't leave your steak in the hot water bath for more than about two two and a half hours not because it'll overcook because you can make yourself sick later yeah otherwise i'm gonna be hearing from it from some lawyers my stakes have been chilling in this hot water bath and um it's it's it's more than enough time they're ready to come out and they're ready to be seared so step number one is to simply lift the bag out of the water i know these instructions are hard to follow and we will dry them on some paper towels because this is a method where the steaks are quite wet also prepare yourself they don't look good at all coming out of this bag they're pretty gross looking i mean that's not attractive the stakes in terms of internal temperature at this point are perfect they're on the nose perfect medium rare because i cook them at exactly that temperature but as you can see they come into the bag they're wet they're stewie and moisture is really the enemy of good browning you just want to sear them really hard and really fast get as good of a crust as you can get on them as quickly as you can to maintain that perfect interior that you spend all that time guaranteeing by cooking sous vide in the first place and i'm going to do a little optional step i'm going to add some butter some thyme and some garlic to the pan also to infuse with even more aromatics but that's totally optional you can just sear in a neutral oil like canola vegetable oil grape seed oil peanut oil one other thing if you have a torch and even better if you have a sears all you can get the steak in the pan searing from one side and torching it from above trying to maximize that crust as much as you can you know be careful flame bomb also this is not technically the best tank to have on this top that you should get the broader ones so that it's more stable so just pretend i'm pretend i'm doing it right get some oil in the pan as soon as we see this oil smoking we're ready to get the meat in the pan very carefully watch your fingers steak goes in i'm gonna just drop oop that butter soft drop that butter in drop those guys in every 15 seconds or so flip it and now i'm going to i'll do the sears all flip it again whoa it came apart right there's a natural seam on the beef in it and it came apart that's fine sear those edges so if you if you use a torch alone your beef is going to taste like a gas station it's disgusting we're going to come over here the meat has been brought very slowly and gently up to precisely the perfect temperature you want there's no need to let it rest and reabsorb juices it's it's ready to go and it really is just a perfect medium rare there's still a little bit of an edge you know you gotta sear it but it's quite nice it's perfectly cooked super tender and it's got a decent sear on it it's not a great syrup and yeah could i have seared it harder yeah but i would have gotten more and more of a doneness gradient at which point you start to ask why'd you cook it sous-vide so what you get with sous-vide is you get really the most consistent perfectly cooked piece of meat to whatever temperature you want without even having to think about it i mean it's just it could not be easier and it's you know it's delicious\n"