4 ms·
I used to sous vide steak in college with just some hot water and my roommate's six-pack cooler. Water should be no more than 5F warmer than the cook temp. For
by wildzzz 2mo ago
I used to sous vide steak in college with just some hot water and my roommate's six-pack cooler. Water should be no more than 5F warmer than the cook temp. For a medium rare steak, cook temp is 129F so get close that. Salt the steak no more than an hour before you start. Steak goes into a Ziploc bag, submerge it up to the zipper to let water pressure force out the air and then seal it shut. Close the lid and come back in an hour, two hours if it's a thicker steak. Take it out of the bag, blot it with a paper towel, apply some steak seasoning, and toss it on a pan at the hottest temperature you can make it. Wait 3 minutes and flip, wait another 3 minutes and serve immediately. Toss a pat of butter on top while in the pan if you're a hedonist.
Only prerequisites are a cheap kitchen thermometer, a ziploc gallon bag, and a cheap cooler. Everything is available at your typical supermarket or even goodwill. This is a very hands off cooking method and requires no experimentation, just follow the recipe and you get a perfect steak every time.
The key is that a cooler holds hot things just as well as cold things but without a circulator and heater to keep the water warm, you're at the mercy of the cooler's R-value. The water will eventually get too cold to effectively cook the meat so you're limited in the length of time you can sous vide. Doing a 24 hour chuck roast is simply not going to work unless you're refilling the cooler every couple hours.
- crazygringo 2mo agoThe sous vide is not the hard part here. It's the deep frying for the sear. Not many people are willing to deep fry in their kitchens. It's messy, potentially dangerous, and not only stinks up the entire house for days but leaves a layer of oil over everything in the home that builds up and you can never really fully remove. There's a reason restaurants have massive powerful vents above the deep fryer, and that people who regularly deep-fry at home do it outdoors.
- foobarian 2mo agoMy problem with deep frying (besides the points you bring up) is the waste. I can't stomach the amounts of oil I end up disposing even if I get several uses.
- danielmarkbruce 2mo agoyes, it is the annoying part. I just use a wok. Since I'm only deep frying for 30 seconds and it's fully submerged in the oil, it's... not tooooo bad. But it's annoying to do and quite dangerous.
- wildzzz 2mo agoSimple answer, don't deep fry a fucking steak. I have never seen anyone do that and I can't imagine why you would need to do it. Just put it on a hot cast iron pan (you can buy one cheap at good will). - Meat thermometer (you should own one anyway, keeps you from under/over cooking chicken) - Sixpack cooler (again, very common to own one, very cheap to buy 2nd hand) - gallon sized freezer bag (probably costs about $0.05-0.10 depending on how big of a box you buy) - Cast iron pan (can probably get one for $5 2nd hand or just use a normal stainless steel) No oven needed which means you can make this with a single electric hotplate.
- danielmarkbruce 2mo agoIt does sound crazy. You don't need to do it. But it works remarkably well.