My wife and I have a disagreement about how to good quality steak.
I thought sous vide was invented so you can leave the protein(steak) in the bag at the perfect temp until you are ready to make it. For example 2-6 hours.
My wife thinks it should be taken out just exactly as it reaches temperature(129 internal) so no longer than 2 hours. She feels any longer will overcook the steak.
So question: can I leave steak in sous vide until we are ready to sear after more than two hours?
Picture for attention, Aussie Wagyu whole loins my butcher is dry aging for 45 days for me.
by RveeD
35 Comments
You can hold a steak longer after it reaches temp, but after a certain amount of time it will affect the texture.
You can not hold a steak at <130 for more than 3h, as it will be prone to bacteria growth.
Buy two and find out and report back
It won’t ‘overcook’ as such*, and you can get away with going longer than two hours for sure. In fact depending on the thickness 2 hours might not be enough.
Your wife is probably used to pulling a steak from a grill or pan when the centre reads 129 as it will carry over cook a lot higher than that. Sous vide won’t carry over cook as nothing is higher temp than the setting.
But you can then overcook it on the sear. So you’ll want to cool it down and sear hot and fast. Getting as good a crust as you can without transfer too much heat into the centre of the steak and overcooking it.
** there is a limit to how long you can leave it in the bath. Even though it won’t overcook in the traditional sense of the temp going too high eventually it will start to take on an odd texture as the proteins breakdown
Doesn’t matter if it goes for an extra hour or so, it won’t overcook the steak. If you leave it in for five hours then the steak will have begun to break down into mush. There are certainly consequences for leaving it too long, but the internal temp of a steak in a 134° bath will never exceed 134°. If you want the internal temperature to reach 129°, set the bath to 129°.
Nope. Sous vide is remarkably forgiving once you get past the time required to be safe and done.
Temp is done ness. You can leave a steak in the bath at 131 for 12 hours and it’ll still be medium rare. And mushy, because time is tenderness and you can get it too tender.
I’ve done tough cuts of meat at 131 for 48 hours and they were a fork tender medium rare.
2 hours plus 1 or 2 more will make little difference in texture.
It wont over cook in the traditional sense. If you sous vide at 134 degrees, it’s not going to get above 134, so it won’t become more well done with more time. It will break down/become more tender with, and you can overdo it, especially with nicer steaks. It’s going to take a lot longer than 2 hours to overcook, I’d say 6 hours is around the time it would start getting too tender to the point of being a bit mushy. Depending on the thickness, I would sous vide for 3 or 4 hours, but with a nice steak just getting up to temp will be fine.
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You can’t “overcook” it in the traditional sense in that it becomes “well done”. It will still be medium rare.
But you can defintley over cook it and leave it too long to where the protein fibers start breaking down.
Also, for a steak of this quality, I’d be reverse searing not fuck around.
Sous vide is very forgiving but you don’t want it to be in there for a day. It’s not the end of the world if you leave it in there for longer than you set the time. I do it for three and the color is pretty amazing every time.
You are both wrong for different reasons. I’d recommend you both read [this article](https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-steak) to understand more about the SV method for cooking steaks.
137° is the way.
Look up Baldwins sheet in pasteurization times and temps.
It gives minimum times for different thickness meats.
Found the link
https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Table_5.1
One hour per inch thickness, and anything thick enough to need more than four hours I cook to at least 140. I don’t want a steak cooked too 140, so long cooks only happen on pork and corned beef.
This is a horror show comments section
Can anyone articulate why you would want to hold the steak longer once it reaches temp?
Ask your butcher, they are the expert and will happily tell you how to cook the cut they’re selling you.
How is it going to overcook something but NOT MAKING IT ANY HOTTER THAN ITS SURROUNDINGS? I’d say it’s high school physics, but I fucking failed that class and even I understand how it works.
Op, check out Serious Eat’s sous vide steak guide (google it). After 4 hours, the texture of the steak will be affected. So don’t go over that.
You are both wrong. SV is neither designed to ‘hold’ at temp, nor to ‘hit’ a certain temp and sear/serve.
It is actually designed for precision. For temperature this means safety; for time it means desired doneness (usually equated to texture and flavor). You should be thinking about these each as separate curves on a graph. Where the two intersect is your target.
Let’s take filet mignon, my favorite rare cut *at 125 to 129* (fattier ribeye is better a little higher IMO). I cook a thick one for 2 hours. The center will hit temp far sooner than 2 hours, but the texture is far better IMO. It will NOT overcook in the classic sense of ‘not red enough’. With SV there is no such thing as carryover cooking/heat. That’s one of the core advantages of this method.
On the other hand, you do NOT want to hold for more than 2 hours at 129 for safety reasons. Under 130 is the danger zone. That is unsafe to hold, say for example at 6 hours. On the other hand let’s say you hold at 131 for 6 hours. Strictly speaking that is safe, but after a few hours your food might be mushier than you’d like. That is a taste thing, but not an overcooked thing in terms of ‘color’.
ETA: the cut is irrelevant so long as you stay within the confines of these parameters. I intentionally picked a more delicate/tender cut to illustrate the point.
3 hours is fine. You can go much longer but the texture will begin to break down after 4 or 5. This article is like my steak bible for sous vide. It explains in detail what to expect across the spectrum of temps, times etc. https://www.seriouseats.com/food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-steak
Depends on the thickness of the piece and the type. If left too long the meat starts to break down. ( Several hours too long). 2 to 3 hours seems enough for a cut that is already tender.
Tougher cuts like a brisket you can cook for 12 to 24 hours with little issue.
Personally I think sous vide is a waste of time for a wagyu steak. It has awesome marbling and the sv will just render it away. Naturally this is open to debate, but that’s my opinion.
I’d honestly cook wagyu without sous vide, sear on the pan, then oven and carefully measure temp.
texture will change drastically after about 6 hours on a regular steak. Better to aim 5 degrees lower than done and finish on grill or in broiler
Pro tip dry aging wagyu won’t have the effect you think it will. Dry aging affects the saturated fat flavor wagyu is more polyunsaturated. Angus would be more ideal to age.
Cooking meat is a function of temperature + time. When your target temperature is far below the cooking instrument’s temperature (stove/grill/oven), you have barely any control over the time, since you must remove it virtually as soon as it reaches the target temp. Sous vide, on the other hand, allows you to add to the time variable of the equation, and cook the meat longer, rendering the meat without raising the temperature, or “doneness”, giving you more control. If you take it out as soon as it reaches temp, you’re probably better off doing reverse sear (some people prefer that way anyway since it simultaneously dries the steak).
If I had that rib roast you and you had a feather in your a$$ we would both be tickled. That thing looks amazing!
You are both kind of wrong. It won’t “overcook” but it will start to break down and the texture will go weird. It is also not food safe.
It really depends on the cut of meat. My favorite steak is Skirt steak which can be very tough, I SV 128 F for 8 hours. It’s always perfect and great texture.
I never liked going over 2 hours on the 3 dry aged steaks I tried it on….
I just ate a chuck roast that had left in my sous vide for 48 hours at 135°. Unbelievably delicious.
I would never Sous Vide that steak.
2 hrs for ribeye as its tender already, ny is not the same type of tenderness so you can take it a bit longer.
The longer you keep a sustained temp the meat texture starts to breakdown and is slowly approaching “mush”. But 6 hrs is not going yo be anywhere near mush.
What i suggest is why not do a fun experiment, but some cheap ny and do sv for 6 hrs and 2 hrs and compare.
I prefer ribeye so my sv is usually 2hr max and extreme high heat sear on the grill.
Also note if any of you like rare steak then i wouldn’t even bother with sv and just grill it.
Sv for medium rare.
Post some pics on the final steaks.
Wife here 🤣 First of all, I said 137 for 2 hours based on the tiny bone in veal chop we had. Specifically for that cut!! I never said anything about it reaching a certain internal temperature. He even tried to but the bag in before it even came up to temp because he thought it didn’t matter and that he could leave the veal chop in the sous vide water until we were ready to sear it 6 hours later. So yea I said he was wrong. Yes I sent him the serious eats link to the sous vide guide. No I’m not going to let him sous vide that beautiful wagyu he has aging at the butcher. And in all honesty the veal came out absolutely perfect after two hours. We were both ready to die on our separate hills so thank you all for your advice 🤣🤣
Probably the wrong sub to say this in, but here it goes…don’t sous vide that steak…you’re much better off reverse searing.
Why hide the prices lmao