Sous Vide Steak

You might know from our channel that I cook a lot of steaks. One of my favorite ways is sous vide, then a sear in cast iron. The steak gets cooked in a vacuum-sealed bag in water held at the exact temperature I want, so by the time it goes in the pan it’s already cooked all the way through. All I do at the end is give it a crust.

This is the one I made at a campground in Arizona, for a surf and turf dinner with scallops and shrimp. Watch me make it, the steak part starts around 16:07.

Two hours in the water bath. I don’t need to touch it.

Only when we have power

I only really cook steak this way when we have shore power, or when there’s a lot of water, because the sous vide keeps a pot of water hot for 2 hours.

Why it’s the easiest way to cook a steak

If you’re not too confident searing a steak and checking the temperature, this is probably the easiest way to do it. There’s really no wrong way: set the temperature, set the timer for 2 hours, and wait. When it comes out of the bath it doesn’t look very appetizing. That’s okay, the sear makes it look nice.

Two things matter at the end. Cool it down first, so the inside doesn’t keep cooking in the hot pan. And dry it really well, because moisture is the enemy of a good sear. The cast iron press helps a lot too. It’s weighted, so it pushes the whole steak down onto the pan.

Garlic, thyme and butter go in on low heat at the end.

The dipping sauce

Don’t throw out the butter. That night I cooked the scallops and shrimp after the steak, poured the scallop butter in with the shrimp, and used it as a dip for the steak. Scallop and shrimp butter, with garlic. Another time I let the steak juice run into my garlic butter while it rested, and that became the dipping sauce.

Cutting into it, it came out perfectly. You basically cook it to perfection every time.

Pan-seared, no sous vide

Other times I skip the sous vide and just pan-sear. Same seasoning, same beef tallow (here’s how I make it), same press. On our induction cooktop I start at about half heat so the whole cast iron heats evenly, because on full power parts of the element get hot spots. Once the pan is smoking, I turn it all the way up. About a minute and a half per side with the press on, then the sides, then garlic, thyme and butter, and I keep basting. With a ribeye I pulled it at 114°F, a little earlier than the 116°F I normally do, and let it rest for about 10 minutes before cutting. I like it more rare nowadays. Spencer really liked that one.

One more lesson: not every steak seasoning works in a pan. I tried a buttery steakhouse seasoning once and it burned in the cast iron within a minute and a half. Montreal steak seasoning burns a little too, but nothing like that.