Bit of a humble brag. My boss got the staff a gift box for Xmas.
Two hefty ribeyes, a Sous Vide kit (cooker and vaccum sealer), Caviar, some miniature pickles made by one of our customers, cheddar made by yet another one of our customers, salsa made by (you might have guessed) a 3rd one of our customers, a wheel of Brie and a bottle of wine made by people we don't work with. (The box in the pic was for someone who doesn't drink. The rest of us got a bottle of Portuguese Tinto Red.) And a coupon for ice cream from the place that made the cheese.
So I decided to try the steaks Sous Vide.
Sea salt, cracked black pepper, a smashed up clove of garlic and fresh basil.
Let it cook at 178 degrees for two hours, then gave it a quick sear in a pan.
The results:
It was perfectly rare.
Was it the best steak I have ever eaten? I'm not sure.
But I know it's the only steak where I finished every single last piece. Everything was so tender, there was little difference between fat and flesh texturally, no gristle or tough connective tissue. I know a lot of that is the cut, but still. I normally avoid the fat on cuts of steak like this, but it almost did melt in the mouth. The garlic and basil also really permeated the whole thing in terms of aromatics but not necessarily flavor. I could have let it go for longer (as much as two hours longer) and it would have gotten even more tender. But I like my steaks rare and 2.5 hours is about the most you can get away with.
Pretty cool! About my only complaint is I don't like cooking in plastic, even "food safe" plastic. Other than that it was frigging delicious and I have one more to cook up. But I stuck it in the freezer after vaccumm sealing it. Honestly while the Sous Vide was great, I'm almost equally excited about the sealer.
Kinda wondering what seafood would be like Sous Video. I bet lobster tail is amazing.