The Original Dry Bag Steak | Make Artisan Dry Age Steak at Home › Forums › Dry Aging Steak › Dry Aging Steak with UMAi Dry® › The Proof is on the Plate!
- This topic has 19 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 4 months ago by
Kent McLellan.
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April 10, 2016 at 11:04 pm #2592
K Haberer
MemberI have watched a whole lot of videos on aging beef and cooking the final product. Aging procedures and cooking may have some slight variations, but the final cutting of the aged cut into steaks seems to always produce something pretty special. Cooking the steaks is something else again. Personally, I aim for a consistent end result. I prefer a rare steak, but that can be bit iffy when grilling.
Several months ago I was introduced to a French technique called Sous Vide. Now it is pretty much all I use. When I try to tell folks about it I am greeted by a lot of healthy skepticism. To them it just seems weird. You put the meat in hot water? No. I seal the meat in plastic bags and immerse the bags in water for a prescribed period of time at a very precise water temperature. My steaks are all perfectly rare and juicy and flavorful. After removing the steaks from the water bath I finish them with a hot seer on the grill or stove top, or I use a butane torch. Now I use Sous Vide to cook everything – meat, fish, shrimp, scallops, lobster, mussels and a variety of veggies. Nothing ever dries out.
One very special thing for me with aged beef of all kinds is the texture of the finished cooked product. I often cut the aged dry bag NY strip, sirloin or rib eye into steaks without trimming it first. Often I just leave the bark on the steaks. Cooking Sous Vide softens the bark, leaving a very intense beef flavor. It’s to die for.
Try it. You may really like it!
April 10, 2016 at 11:36 pm #10154Ron Pratt
MemberThough I have only had my ANOVA brand sous vide unit since mid February I have yet to try any of my dry aged stash, but will do so soon. I have loved the pork, salmon, lobster and even filets and have no doubt what you say is true! The whole concept of dialing in to a given end temperature, plus never over shooting it thus drying it out is such wonderful culinary achievement let alone so easy with sous vide! Ron
April 14, 2016 at 5:18 pm #10176russell quesenberry
Membercan you please tell me how long this cooking method takes? Is there equipment to buy? ect ect
April 14, 2016 at 5:38 pm #10177K Haberer
MemberThere is equipment to buy – a rather large plastic container to hold the water and a sous vide device to control water temperature and water flow in the container. Absolute precision is required. For example, the water is brought to a temperature of 129 degrees Fahrenheit for rare steaks. I encase each steak in separate food saver plastic bags. I have cooked 6 at a time.
This is definitely not fast food. Preparation for these steaks, for example, requires 90 minutes in the water bath. Then they can be finished on a grill with a very brief seer, or they can be finished with a butane torch. The proof is in the flavor, whether preparing beef, pork, seafood or veggies I have prepared shrimp wrapped in jalapeno bacon (12 per bag) and then finished the bacon wrapping with a torch. Fantastic.
Look up sous vide equipment on Amazon. Lots of choices..
April 14, 2016 at 5:43 pm #10178russell quesenberry
Memberthanks for the info! I will check it out.
April 14, 2016 at 6:10 pm #10180Ron Pratt
MemberHere’s the unit I bought and am quite satisfied with it. It is very well built and simple to use and no you do not need a smart phone to operate it! Ron
April 14, 2016 at 8:00 pm #10181russell quesenberry
MemberPlease let me bother you guy’s one more time. you said 90 mins for rare, is that because the meat is already aged for so long? is there a time and temp for say medium to medium well? I see some people saying they cooked stuff for 72 hrs plus.
April 14, 2016 at 8:19 pm #10182Ron Pratt
MemberThat is one thing I still find frustrating…how long to cook using sous vide. I bought Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide by Jason Logsdon. In it he has 11 pages of suggested time and temperatures for nearly anything by name! Everything has a wide range time wise. A few examples – all for medium rare
Loin strip steak: 131º for 2 to 3 hours same for a T-Bone
Prime Rib Roast: 131 for 5 to 10 hours same for a sirloin roast
Ribeye steak: 131º for 2 to 6 hours
Flank steak: 131 for 2 to 12 hours
Top round steak: 131 for 1 to 2 daysGet my drift? Temperature is the same but the wide range of time is crazy in my mind.
I bought an app for my iPad which is supposed to calculate the time and temperature based on the meat and it’s thickness but can’t get it to work for me! Ron
PS I’ll be glad to tell you what his recommendation is if you tell me the cut you are cooking sous vide.
April 14, 2016 at 8:46 pm #10183russell quesenberry
MemberI’m looking at doing bone in prime cut ribeye’s about 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick. medium to medium well.
April 14, 2016 at 8:53 pm #10184Ron Pratt
MemberThat book recommends for a 2″ prime rib 140º for 5 to 10 hours for medium. Ron
April 14, 2016 at 9:03 pm #10185James
Memberthe times are primarily based on the thickness of the cut of meat and whether you are aiming to pasteurize the product or not. Doubling the thickness of a steak can result in a tripling of cook time. Sousvide cooking is based on equilibration of temperature of the meat being cooked to the outside water temp which can be precisely set. The reason it takes a lot more time than grilling a steak is because on a grill you are using outside temps of 600-1200F in order to reach the same 129F on the inside of the steak. For grilled steaks, this results in (if you are lucky) the middle of the steak at 129F and perhaps well done toward the edge of the steak. Sousvide lets you get med-rare 129 from edge to edge, but you gotta let enough time go by so that the whole steak gets to the same temp.
April 14, 2016 at 9:05 pm #10186James
MemberOh…the beauty of sous vide in addition to precise temperature is that you cannot overcook a steak, no matter how long you leave it in there to cook. I have put steaks from the freezer into sousvide bath in the morning and left them in there all day for dinner parties.
April 14, 2016 at 9:21 pm #10187russell quesenberry
MemberOk Great. Thanks for your help. I will be trying this.
April 16, 2016 at 6:37 pm #10204Greg Beam
MemberRon,
I have been looking for one of these water circulator to cook with and they can he very expensive. when I get the money I am going to buy one.April 16, 2016 at 7:04 pm #10206Ron Pratt
Memberyes they are expensive, but from time to time Amazon puts them on sale for some reason. Here, once again is the unit I bought:
But instead of $179 it was on sale for $139. Forty bucks is forty bucks!
Ron -
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