Turned out pretty dang good. Missing the smoke of fajitas but really tender, perfectly cooked, and a good sear crust in the cast iron.

Ended up cooking for 4 hours.

Started at 131 trained down to 128 and then 126. Wanted to make sure it had some headroom on the sear to not overcooke.

Been trying to do steaks with my Anova. Have been unhappy with my two attempts though as the ribeyes (prime) always end up chewy. Cooked them to 129 for about two hours then finished on a hot charcoal grill. The sear was good and they were a perfect medium rare, but chewy as hell. What am I doing wrong?

Aggiemundo said:

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Been trying to do steaks with my Anova. Have been unhappy with my two attempts though as the ribeyes (prime) always end up chewy. Cooked them to 129 for about two hours then finished on a hot charcoal grill. The sear was good and they were a perfect medium rare, but chewy as hell. What am I doing wrong?

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What kind of meat are you using?

Prime grade from HEB butcher. They were bone in.

I feel like grill is overkill. Just finish them on the cast iron stove. Easier to control.

How thick were the steaks? How long between pulling from sous vide to going on the grill? And how long did you sear each side?

My guess is you ended up getting a higher temp after sear and time to plate/rest than what would normally be the med-rare zone. 130-135 is what I aim for at med-rare. So doing sous vide at 129 is not leaving any temp range for the sear and time to plate. Maybe back off the temp on the sous vide to 120. After 2 hours, pull from bath, open and quickly pay dry and immediately place on the grill.

They were about 1.5" thick I'd say. They looked PERFECT and had a great looking sear and we're perfect pink medium rare in the middle. I nailed them on the grill with four flips over hot coals in 20 second increments so I really don't think that's the issue. They just were tough like I'd steamed them. I patted them dry pretty well after pulling out of the Sous vide, but it still just didn't seem right. Perhaps they needed more than 2 hours in? Could I have put them in before the water hit 129 and that caused the issue?

Aggiemundo said:

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They were about 1.5" thick I'd say. They looked PERFECT and had a great looking sear and we're perfect pink medium rare in the middle. I nailed them on the grill with four flips over hot coals in 20 second increments so I really don't think that's the issue. They just were tough like I'd steamed them. I patted them dry pretty well after pulling out of the Sous vide, but it still just didn't seem right. Perhaps they needed more than 2 hours in? Could I have put them in before the water hit 129 and that caused the issue?

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I put my steaks in frozen, cool water, and usually bathe total for about 2-3 hours.

So I've got some redfish half shells that I want to try and sous vide.

Think I can throw them in a bath on the half shells then just sear the meat side on the grill? If so how long and at what temp should they bathe?

Aggiemundo said:

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They were about 1.5" thick I'd say. They looked PERFECT and had a great looking sear and we're perfect pink medium rare in the middle. I nailed them on the grill with four flips over hot coals in 20 second increments so I really don't think that's the issue. They just were tough like I'd steamed them. I patted them dry pretty well after pulling out of the Sous vide, but it still just didn't seem right. Perhaps they needed more than 2 hours in? Could I have put them in before the water hit 129 and that caused the issue?

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For steaks that thick, they need more time in the bath. It's not possible to go too long with sous vide, but too short is definitely a possibility. Next time, try for at least 4-5 hours at temperature for steaks that thick. That should be enough time for the collagen to break down properly.

I think 4-5 maybe overkill.

1. Try a different butcher.
2. Try finishing 1 in pan, 1on the grill and see if that changes anything. Compare.

I did a 2" thick T-bone last night for 2:30 hours at 125 and finished with a torch sear and it was absolutely perfect. I would stay between 2-3 hours for a steak and anything over 4 I imagine would start impacting the texture.

My sous vide has ruined steakhouses for me since I can get the same quality of meat at Central Market and cook at is good or better with zero effort. Time to work on my side dishes!

Vade281 said:

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My favorite way to sear is to take the charcoal chimney and when it's ready to pour out...you just place your grill on top of the chimney and use that as your afterburner. Few seconds on each side and voila, you get a seared steak.

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This is a good idea

For doing fish, I would suggest not using a grill to sear. Cast iron or a torch if you have one. A torch would be ideal. You would be able to get a good crust without fear of over cooking.

As for the sous vide temp, google tells me that 20-30 minutes at 122 is all you need.

I agree with Deats. For steaks that thick and bone in, I'd go 3 hours.

I also would not sear the fish on the grill. It will be extremely tender and flaky coming out of the bag, you have to be very careful. I'd go griddle or pan and not for very long, with a good a good metal spatula

Yeah I didn't even think about that. And these halfshells are too big for my cast iron pan.

I'm thinking torch or even broiled on a baking sheet.

Thanks fellas!

Vade281 said:

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My favorite way to sear is to take the charcoal chimney and when it's ready to pour out...you just place your grill on top of the chimney and use that as your afterburner. Few seconds on each side and voila, you get a seared steak.

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I do the same. Wife likes the taste of charcoal (instead of a cast iron sear) and this works well to get a hint of that charcoal taste.

Made Sous vide Coq Au Vin last night using this recipe as a base: https://www.sousvideways.com/sous-vide-coq-au-vin/. Turned out really nice so I thought I'd share.

Instead of just thighs, I had a large FFA chicken which was just recently processed, so I cut it up into 10 parts (the boobs were huge so I cut each in half). To me, a big advantage of doing Coq Au Vin Sous vide was being able to use both the white and dark meat without worrying about texture/moisture differentials.

I split the parts and liquids between two bags and wish I'd used three because the bags were kind of unwieldy.

I also added some chopped carrots to the recipe. I bumped up the liquids by 25% or so to get more sauce, which I intended to reduce a bit more in the finishing process. I also deglazed the pan which I seared the chicken in with a healthy splash of brandy in addition to some burgundy.

One other change I will make next time I do it is to reduce the stock and wine (w fresh thyme already thrown in) some on the front end before cooling a little and pouring it on top of the chicken in the bags. I ended up reducing it longer than I wanted on the back end and it still wasn't quite as thick/rich as I wanted, although still very good.

Served w garlic parmesan thyme mashers.

I did some Sous vide prime ribeyes recently that had been frozen for a month or so. This was my first time putting steaks in straight from the freezer, and I had a strange result.

I did not season before putting in the pot since they were frozen. When I took them out after the cook time (I did about four hours at 129) there was a brownish gray meat film (my vocabulary is struggling with this) on the steaks which I scraped off and discarded. They smelled fine and the doneness seems good, so I seasoned and served them. Tasted great.

But the film was strange. Anyone ever encountered that?

On a separate note, which is why I came to post before remembering my strange results from my most recent Sous vide cook, I am hoping for some input on Sous vide baby backs.

I typically smoke my ribs. I am heading out this weekend to our vacation lodge where the smoker is a propane grill comboed with propane vertical smoker with a chip tray which I have had a heckuva time keeping the temp as low as I'd like. It's always a fight when I smoke ribs on it, and requires several different tactics to get them to turn out well.

Now that I have Sous vide as an option, I'm thinking about maybe getting a good smoke on there in the smoker and then going low and slow Sous vide, and then back on the smoker and or grill to get the moisture off and then glaze.

Anyone ever tried anything like this with racks of pork ribs?

I'm also unsure about whether my Anova can handle the volume of the container and water I will need to do four racks of baby backs. To this point I've used a medium size stock pot only, so I will need to get a Cambro or something to handle the length of the ribs.

I've done ribs once and they turned out pretty good. I say pretty good because I experimented with a new rub that didn't give my the flavor I was looking for, but it was no fault of the sous vide method. Here's the guide I followed for times/temps.

The Food Lab's Complete Guide to Sous Vide Barbecue Pork Ribs

I don't see a problem with smoking first but I've never seen anyone do it or hear anyone recommend it so I just throw on the pit afterward. Figure there's got to be a reason.

As for the container get yourself a cheap igloo cooler and cut a hole in it. I have an Anova and found a hole saw that's the perfect diameter for dropping the sous vide right in the hole. I use the cooler for big like ribs, pork, or brisket. Fill it with the hose, plug it in, and set it out in the patio for however long you need it.

Looks something like this.

DTP02 said:

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I did some Sous vide prime ribeyes recently that had been frozen for a month or so. This was my first time putting steaks in straight from the freezer, and I had a strange result.

I did not season before putting in the pot since they were frozen. When I took them out after the cook time (I did about four hours at 129) there was a brownish gray meat film (my vocabulary is struggling with this) on the steaks which I scraped off and discarded. They smelled fine and the doneness seems good, so I seasoned and served them. Tasted great.

But the film was strange. Anyone ever encountered that?

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Brownish gray surface is normal for me, and I though that was part of why we reverse sear. But it sounds like you're talking about something different... did the film come off as coherent pieces or were you just scraping the surface of the steaks?

I usually add a dash of soy and/or fish sauce to the bag, which affects the color a bit.

Definitely talking about an actual substance not just color. It was coagulated so it tended to stay together but it wasn't a solid piece of film you could peel off. I actually tried to add some to the beef stock and red wine reduction sauce I had simmering and it didn't really mix in so I ended up fishing it out with a slotted spoon and chunking it. This makes me think it primarily fat but IDK. Strange.

Thanks for the input. Do you cut the racks to fit in a normal gallon ziploc bag or what do you use for the bag?

DTP02 said:

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Definitely talking about an actual substance not just color. It was coagulated so it tended to stay together but it wasn't a solid piece of film you could peel off. I actually tried to add some to the beef stock and red wine reduction sauce I had simmering and it didn't really mix in so I ended up fishing it out with a slotted spoon and chunking it. This makes me think it primarily fat but IDK. Strange.

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I think the temp is too low to render fat. Coagulated blood?

You could do that.

I have a vacuum sealer so I can make bags of any length.

If you see yourself doing larger cuts of meat like ribs, brisket, and pork shoulders often then I'd look into getting a vacuum sealer. Ziplocs work for me on the normal day to day cooks but the sealer comes in handy for some of the bigger stuff.

So I'm brand new to sous vide, and I'm sure this question has already been answered somewhere in this thread so I apologize. Is it possible to leave a food item in the bath stage for too long? I understand steaks take about 2 hours normally, but if I was to start a steak in the morning around 6 am, leave it in all day, and then come back to eat it at 6 or 7 pm, would that affect it in any way?

My Dad Earl said:

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So I'm brand new to sous vide, and I'm sure this question has already been answered somewhere in this thread so I apologize. Is it possible to leave a food item in the bath stage for too long? I understand steaks take about 2 hours normally, but if I was to start a steak in the morning around 6 am, leave it in all day, and then come back to eat it at 6 or 7 pm, would that affect it in any way?

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Yes, you can have it in too long. There's a point where chicken or pork can become rubbery. I don't recall that time off the top of my head though.

Been curious about doing something like this as well but have been concerned about the cooler insulating the heat TOO well and the temperature getting too high. Am I overthinking this?

My Dad Earl said:

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So I'm brand new to sous vide, and I'm sure this question has already been answered somewhere in this thread so I apologize. Is it possible to leave a food item in the bath stage for too long? I understand steaks take about 2 hours normally, but if I was to start a steak in the morning around 6 am, leave it in all day, and then come back to eat it at 6 or 7 pm, would that affect it in any way?

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Just prep everything, leave the bag in cool water, and then kick it on via WiFi when you need to (assuming you have that feature on your circulator).

HouseDivided06 said:

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Been curious about doing something like this as well but have been concerned about the cooler insulating the heat TOO well and the temperature getting too high. Am I overthinking this?

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I think you are. as soon as the water temp reaches the cooking temp, the heating element will shut off, and no more heat will enter the system

HouseDivided06 said:

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Been curious about doing something like this as well but have been concerned about the cooler insulating the heat TOO well and the temperature getting too high. Am I overthinking this?

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Yes, you're overthinking. An immersion circulator wont over heat by more than a few tenths of a degree. Its the whole point of the cooking method.