This must be a world’s first, combining the techniques of frozen seared steak with Sous Vide!
Instead of using a cast iron pan for searing, i used my panini grill to get even searing and etched grill marks. The added advantage of using a panini grill is that both sides of the steak are seared at the same time.
Based on past experience, i decided on 50 degrees and only 30 minutes of Sous Vide. Previously, the steak turned out a little dry when cooked at 51°C for 40 minutes. However, i have forgotten that this time, the steak was frozen instead of having been fully thawed. Probably 51°C for 35 minutes would have been more appropriate.
Although a little rare, the steak was definitely more juicy, with an evenly seared crust, but something was not right. It felt dry. That’s because no oil was applied when searing! To fix the problem, i cut the steak into small pieces and pan fried it. The result was perfect.
This experiment showed that frozen pre-seared followed by Sous Vide is the way to go. Next time, after the Sous Vide cooking, i will do another round of low heat searing, with oil applied, coupled with torching. I guess there is minimal loss of juice when the steak is seared without being thawed first. Keeping the Sous Vide cooking time to a minimum also reduces dehydration.
One step closer to the perfect steak!
Update
Over searing happens easily with the 2 rounds of searing. Maybe it works better for small pieces of beef. I guess I will not be continuing with this method.
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