Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Since my bday is coming up, I think I might try this butter poaching steak idea. I'm probably going to do a ghetto sous-vide setup on the stovetop or with a crockpot so I don't have to use 5 lbs of butter.

Amy/Tim/whoever else wants to comment, what do you think of this plan: I'll use frozen butter to allow for a good vac seal, then let the steaks sit in the faux sous vide until they are about 120, remove and sear in a dangerously hot cast iron pan.

How long do you think ~1 1/2 inch NY Strip steaks will take to get to 120? (Of course without a circulator the temp may vary a few degrees.) Do you think 120 is a good target temp? (I'm aiming for a medium rare steak in the end).

TIA for the advice!

Paul is probably the best person to comment on your ghetto sous vide setup, but will tell you I cook my strip steaks to 135 for medium rare. When you're cooking sous vide you get consistent temp throughout the product, so you typically cook it to different temperatures than you do when cooking traditionally, which is trying to balance the fact you're "over-cooking" the exterior, while "under-cooking" the interior. Does this make sense?

My personal thought is to use the crockpot, and if you can find a cheap aquarium circulator, use that.

In Keller's book Under Pressure he has a recipe for butter poached lobster which requires a fair amount of Buerre Monté (a butter and water emulsion). It's cost effective for them in the restaurant as they can pre-cook (one of the significant advantages to cooking sous vide) a large amount of product in that expensive bath.

Amy

Edited to add: The way Keller does lobster (and how you'd do a true butter-poached steak) isn't technically sous vide as the protein isn't vacuum sealed. It's really just highly temperature controlled poaching.

Hi,

I have slow roasted a lot of steaks and chops in a 250 degree oven. I usually target 20 degrees below my final temperature to allow for searing. This assumes a fresh 1/1/2" steak with two days of dry age. In example, slow roasting (sous vide or butter poaching) to 105 degrees will allow me to sear to a final temp of 125. Part of this process included searing the outside surface of the meat for a minute on each side.

A thicker steak would dictate slow cooking to within (a guess) 10-15 degrees. Dry aging for 15-30 days dictates less searing and results in a faster temp increase during the searing process.

Last year, I dry aged an 8 pound USDA Prime strip roast for 28 days. This was cut into 2" thick medallions and roasted in a 250 degree oven. We had 8 people with different requests ranging from rare to medium. Using that 20 degree cushion allowed us to cook everything perfectly; the hardest part was keeping the steaks in order.



Delmonico's pan cooks their dry-aged steaks in lots of butter, basting as they go. They sear and continue under fairly high heat. There is an interesting thread on this method on eGullet.

Bourbon Steak also butter poaches their lobsters. The best dish at the restaurant was a lobster pot pie.

Tim

Using this table, if you are doing an 'equilibrium' method (internal temp is roughly the same as the bath temperature), which would be the recommended method, then you would need on the order of 1h40m to get to temperature.

Note that with this way of sous-vide (which is the usual way), there is absolutely no "coast" in temperature afterwords. How much the core rises on searing very much depends on how you sear, but in lastest ones I have been doing (*) it is only 30s per side and seems to effect the core temperature very little. A blowtorch will do even less (which I've also used).

For me, medium rare is more like 130. But clearly people will differ.

Your ghetto set-up should work fine. I think kenji did one with just hot water in a portable cooler...

One more thing: Sous-vide temperatures do not render the fat. This means you'll typically want a steak without large pieces of fat, as they will not particularly soften( well some, but not to a huge degree) or render. The sear will do some, but not nearly as much as using other methods. With a blowtorch, you can hit them a little extra hard; sometimes while searing in the pan, I also use the blow-torch...

(*) For one reason or another, I've had great success with cast iron searing, but not with SS frying pan, even though it is a *very* heavy SS frying pan (with 7 layer construction). With the SS, I just have to leave it in too long.

Like Paul, my post-sous vide sears are about 30 seconds (max) per side. You simply need a really hot pan (preferably cast iron), and to pat dry the product well, so I really don't feel I'm bringing up the temp of the product much, if at all.

Amy

I love reading all these, but honestly feel like it's another language at time. However, I'm completely open to being invited anywhere to eat sous vide or butter poached steaks.

Paul, Amy, Tim, thanks for the tips. I guess I thought the searing would bring up the temp some (and I do like it closer to rare than medium-rare).

I don't want to waste (waist?) that much butter so I guess it's also ghetto poaching I'm doing then too. Which is fine.

Now, if I were to leave the steaks in longer than the minimum time to get it up to temp, is there any benefit/drawback? I.e., would more butter flavor "infuse" into the meat? From what I understand you can "hold" the meat at the temp as long as you desire* without any textural issues.

Thanks again. I'll be stopping @ Byerly's for some prime steaks this weekend!

*food safety issues aside, that is.

Darcie,

One (okay, two) of the beautiful things about cooking sous vide is the window of "doneness" is a lot longer. You can hold something in the bath for a period of time without any degradation of quality or flavor, but, it's not infinite. If left too long in the bath, texture will suffer. It's different with every kind of food you're cooking, but just know it isn't nearly as precise as traditional cooking methods. With a steak (depending on what cut it is), you've probably got in the neighborhood of an hour's window.

What we do at the restaurant is pre-cook everything. We then mark each bag as to what temp they are cooked to, and then throw them back in the bath for service. As long as the bath is no higher than the temp you originally cooked them to, they come out exactly as if you had just cooked them. We then de-bag and sear.

Amy

Edited to add: If you do pre-cook, you absolutely should shock when it comes out of the bath for safety reasons.

5 lbs. of butter in the great White North is $15. You're doing this at home. You ain't paying restaurant retail for the food, the wine, or the service fee. The butter doesn't go bad from being cooked in. Help me please, where does the 'waste' come in or the hesitation? Go big or go home, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, etc. Ya wanna finish this life slidin' into home plate with a grin - doncha?!

Hi,

This sounds like a sham, specifically an ALTO SHAM!

Tim