food STEAK!!

It might not have been clear, but the idea for this steak was to sous vide it w/ the salt treatment (common, but not done here to that extent prior), and then sear it off on the kamado ...
 
But I didn't build the kamado (or get to make pizza for that matter) because of work getting in the way.
 
Once I get it dialed in, I'm going to grab the $75 wagyu and treat myself for the holidays.
 
I have a lot of bat-shit-crazy shit planned. Probably going to put my stuff on a blog, though, and just link to it from here ...
 
You don't need to spend $75 a lb for good steak but you can. I was talking more in the $20 a lb range. but I guess it depends on what you can get locally. for example the steak below was less then $20 a lb, and was crazy good. 
steak_zps448c39b5.jpg
 
No place to buy that here locally but i'd love to try it. Had burger which was good.  Is that something you would order or can you source it locally? don't forget to take pics  :P
 
Stupid question, but since you seared it in a pan, why not just cook the steak in the pan, and if you like the slower cooking, sear, and then put in oven?
 
One pan, no fuss. Seeing as with your method, fats won't properly render and will be gristly and you probably knew that going in, so just seeing why you chose it.
 
Not knocking it. Just seems like too many tools for something inferior to me. I know you like to experiment so that's probably it.
 
From what I know fats can render at 130 but will take a hell of a long time so I don't see that happening, and rendered fat is juice.
 
The window. I don't know when my time to eat will come a lot of the time. I bought the sous vide originally because I wanted to transition from eating mostly red meat and dark meat (and organ meat, sausage etc) to eating more poultry ...
 
I have a long, rich history of making dry/boring poultry in the oven ... but I needed to get there from beef for health reasons and because Danielle prefers it ...
 
The window of "ready and perfect" with sous vide is LOOOONG ... over an hour for a decently thick piece of meat, multiple hours for tough meat, and an entire day for something like ribs ...
 
I can drop a steak and use it anytime from 1:45 to 3:00 later ... which provides the flexibility *I* need, to still eat food that's good (cooked well, if you will) ...
 
I used to cook filet in the pan ... searing hot dry pan, flip, flip, then add compound butter and finish it off ... they were good, it's how many 4 star restaurants make filet, I think ...
 
These days, I'd be most likely to sous vide the steak, so it's mostly done, and then when my opportunity arises, fire up the kamado and dear it off and eat it (probably at my desk, LOL) ...
 
I didn't get to build the grill this past weekend, though ...
 
I could have used the Weber, but I would have had to dissassemble the kettlepizza rig I'd pre-setup for the TD weekend (hoping I'd be able to squeeze it in)  ...
 
You are right re: the experimentation ... I'm kind of exploring the world or browning and searing right now ... as well as two-zone grilling, which I'd not done prior ...
 
I can't nail a 1.75" rib eye on the grill w/ confidence yet, and more often than not I'd have a tough exterior and too raw interior ...
 
Really, though ... I can't wait to have the kamado operational ... I think I'm going to really like it ...
 
That explains it. Cool.
 
Another question. Since 40-140 is the unsafe zone for food how does a long sous-vide at 129 degrees work? Don't you risk getting sick? 
 
The Hot Pepper said:
That explains it. Cool.
 
Another question. Since 40-140 is the unsafe zone for food how does a long sous-vide at 129 degrees work? Don't you risk getting sick? 
Click to expand...
 
Lots of stuff here.
 
First is the anti-pork asshats. If I'm not mistaken, there hasn't been a case of trichinosis in 40+ years (but it IS nasty) ...
 
If I'm not mistaken, I believe the new temp for all whole cuts of steak AND pork is 145F ...
 
Even in the case of chicken, the old adage isn't exactly right. Till the juices runs clear is true, but the meat can be pink. Pink left behind in the chicken MEAT is the same as in everything else, it's myoglobin (?sp) ...
 
145F is an incomplete metric, though  ...
 
Seconds at 160F = minutes at 145F = hours at 135F ... you are either killing bugs at a rate/min, or allowing them to multiply at a rate/min ...
 
There are 72 and 96 hour sous vide rib recipes ...
 
The more dangerous time is after the water bath, when it's decreasing temperature AND IN A VACUUM ... because that makes botulism ...
 
If you want to keep sous vide stuff, you are to put it in an ice bath to cool it quickly, and then pop it in the freezer or fridge to store ...
 
Happy to discuss ... love the experimentation ...
 
PS - If sous vide didn't make good meat, do you think I'd keep popping steaks in there? (considering I have like a half-dozen ways I could cook it) ... it's good shit. It's also not something you can appreciate from appearance alone. The slimy dull appearance of food out of the bath is definitely outputting ... enter the Searzall =)
 
I always think back to... kids taking ham sandwiches or chicken salad sandwiches to school for lunch... 5 hours at room temp, every day, and all is good. Picnics too.
 
Yeah, people freak about mayo ... mayo is still damn near shelf-stable after opened ...
 
People automatically think about meats, but the sugars often used as a replacement for meat/fat are a much better fuel for increasing the bug counts ...
 
I'll share something I did recently that I will *NEVER do again ... Jaccard ... you are driving surface contaminants into the meat, where it'll have less time to get worked out ...
 
Not to mention the liability it presents in cleaning it ... I'm totally done w/ that thing ...
 
Good point! Never thought about it like that. But I've never "tenderized" beef.
 
I'm afraid the wagyu will be a dissapointment. Don't get me wrong, it's a very fine steak breed.. But not worth the additional 50 bucks per lb imho.

There are better steak breds out there, I'm sure there are premium meat suppliers in your region. You still spend a lot of money for the steak, but you usually get cleaner cuts (in you can pick your own). With 75 bucks
per lb the butcher is often a bit Leary.

Also consider Lomo al Trapo. I love it for special occasions. But the best thing about the holiday is that you still have plenty of time to try stuff.

You wouldn't want to serve your parents in law dissapointing meat now, Would you? Haha.


But the sous vide is New to me. I think I'm going to try it, the result looks great as well. The steakpic above also looks great, very nice marbling.

PS. Excuse typos, my autocorrect is fighting my English..
 
I am not a big fan of Sous vide when it comes to good grilling steaks. They are tender enough without  , that the texture after sous vide is actually somewhat off putting to me.  I can see playing around with a blade steak or some other tough cut, but for rib eyes and fillets there is no payoff from that method for me. 
Plus I am all about the Maillard when it comes to steak. I like the nice red interior but without a beautiful crust it  don't work for me.   Torching, fast sears, etc just don't build it the same as following a method like FB outlined below. 
 
 
FreeportBum said:
I love the dedication of trying new things and mastering them. But imo if you want a really good tender steak with no " gray band" as you put it would be the following. 
first start with the best quality steak/beef you can find/afford.  Really top quality steak is expensive but worth it if you in search of the ultimate.  I like to rub with a little kosher, then into the refrigerator until your ready to cook then I hit with fresh cracked pepper. no rest at room temp- directly from the cold to the grill. I prefer to grill over hardwood lump charcoal. big fan of indirect then direct to crisp things up at the end.reverse works great as well. No gray meat,perfect even color- for me is medium rare-leaning more towards the rare side. 
 
Click to expand...
 
pretty much exactly my game plan when grilling a good steak. One minor tweak is ,     I blot  with paper towels to make the steak as dry as possible before dropping onto the grill .   I flip repeatedly, as I don't really care about pretty lines, I want lots of maillard and even cooking though.
 
I didn't get a chance for an interior shot,  but it was  on the rare side of med rare.   
 
 
I wasn't intending to post this here but  just as an example of what lots of flipping can do, because this one wasn't spiced up in any way.  I took it right to the edge  , the last pic is misleading, in the photo it almost looks burnt but in reality was just a very dark brown. 
,
dry aged tommahawk. AAA beef ( similar to choice grade in USA)   butcher said approx 14 days on the  aging
 
tommahawk_zps6504c9b7.jpg

 
 
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GEDC5009_zps333eb5d7.jpg

 
 
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Holy crap!
 
Nice caveman steak Ashen, and FB, WOW! Au poivre is a fave of mine, but your take is killer! And the cheese... man... I call that a million dolla steak cuz that is RICH! High Five! (Borat accent)
 
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