How to cook a great steak. In your mash tun!

[GooberMcNutly]

I was reading this little article about cooking a great steak: http://blog.khymos.org/2007/01/21/perfect-steak-with-diy-sous-vide-cooking/

It talks about how to wrap a steak in a plastic bag and submerge it in water that is the right temp to make the inside of the meat the right "doneness". Well, medium steak should be around 145 degrees and medium well steak should be around 155-160 degrees internally. I heard that and the first thing I thought of was "mash temp".

So, take a steak, wrap it tightly in a thick plastic bag (no air and no leaks) and just lay it on top of your grain bed when you start mashing. Or just submerge when you start doughing in, then pull it out at your last stir (45 minutes later should be enough time). Put it in a hot pan or on the grill and by the time you are sparging you could be eating a tasty steak. It only takes 5 minutes on the grill, even if really thick.

When else are you going to have 5 gallons of 150 degree water just laying around?

Restaurants cook this way all of the time, to boost delivery speed, it's one of the reason that restaurant steaks taste so good. (That and the salt). No overcooking the outside to get the inside cooked enough.

[numsquat]

medium steak should be around 145 degrees and medium well steak should be around 155-160 degrees internally

Not a bad idea, although anything above med-rare is overcooked

[GooberMcNutly]

medium steak should be around 145 degrees and medium well steak should be around 155-160 degrees internally

Not a bad idea, although anything above med-rare is overcooked

I agree. That is why I would limit the amount of time and/or lay it on the top of your mash where temps are natually a little lower. Or up against the side of the tun or something.

[drewbage1847]

There's a couple of things to be careful of.

Firstly, only really fancy pants high end restaurants are typically using sous vide techniques. The reason being is that they will use very carefully temp controlled baths and timers to pull it off. It's also important the the meat be under vacuum in true sous vide so that the meat doesn't seep and braise.

The other thing is that it's extra easy to cause bacterial problems with this technique if you're not extremely careful with it. Last year a bunch of high end ($150+ meals per person) restaurants in NYC were forced to stop using sous vide for a while when there was a rash of food poisoning incidents from cook's trying this out without having been properly trained.

That said, I've done sous vide at home with home vacuum packed fish. Sanitize the bags after sealing and then poached. And really, that's all this technique is a dry form of poaching.

Oh and take big heed of their warning to raise the surface temp of the meat. It's not just for searing purposes. It's also to kill surface bacteria!

And yeah, I'm also a food nerd on top of being a beer geek. Go figure!

[Pseudolus]

Hmm. Might be good for fish, but I like the outside of my steaks a little charry. And that's not going to happen in a totally moist cooking environment like this. It'll be poached, essentially.

Reminds me of Dishwasher Salmon.

Edit: Okay, now that I've actually read the link (:oops:), I see that they do say to brown the outside of the steak afterwards. If I'm going to be cooking in a pan (or on the grill) anyway, I don't see myself making the extra effort to prepare the whole beef-in-a-bag-in-some-water thing. I'll just cook it in the pan (or on the grill).

Conceptually, it's a nifty idea, though.

[GooberMcNutly]

A couple of points that aren't always obvious from the article:
1) Don't use liquids if you don't have to. It will give a boiled appearance to the food. Plain meat is best. A little dry rub is fine.
2) I would sear the meat first, but when I did it I seared it after "steeping" and it removed the gray surface texture pretty well.
3) Don't use the knockdown, day old steak from the discount grocery store. Fresh meat from a known quality source. Any steak thick enough to benefit from this process is probably OK if it has been handled well. Don't expect to store it in the fridge or freezer for a month before cooking this way.

The real benefit is if you are doing a 2 inch thick slab. Regular fire grilling makes the outside 1/3 overcooked in order to bring the middle up to 145 degrees.

Hey, now you know the risks. Decide if you want to do it or not.

[Pseudolus]

The real benefit is if you are doing a 2 inch thick slab. Regular fire grilling makes the outside 1/3 overcooked in order to bring the middle up to 145 degrees.

Okay, I can see that.

[DannyW]

This sounds like a great use for the food saver and all these vaccum seal bags I have hanging around for storing hops.