How do I prepare the perfect steak?

Many hobby chefs find it difficult to prepare a steak perfectly. The solution is to prepare the steak sous vide . This blog contains the most important components for perfectly preparing a steak sous vide.

Anyone can prepare sous vide steak

The best way to cook a steak is to prepare it sous vide . The outside of the meat has a crispy golden brown crust. The inside of the meat is juicy, full of flavor and has an even pink color. Add a matching red wine for the perfect combination.

Everyone has tried to prepare a tender steak sous vide at least once. They probably came out in all kinds of variations: too raw, cold, bloody or even tough. Stress can arise during preparation. The steak must be removed from the oven or pan on time. With traditional preparation, this takes seconds.

In addition, many people think that the perfect steak can only be obtained in a restaurant. This is not true. At least not anymore recently. The reason for this is that everyone can now cook sous vide at home. This makes it possible to prepare the perfect steak at home , exactly how you prefer your steak. From dummy to star chef, everyone can now prepare steak perfectly with sous vide.

What do I need for the perfect steak?

To cook a steak sous vide, you obviously need a sous vide device . The bags used in this blog are special sous vide bags . If you want to have everything you need at home to cook sous vide, we have put together an all-in-one package for you. You can start this immediately.

We can't wait for you to try sous vide. So I suggest you learn all about sous vide here, then come back and let's create the most flavorful and stunning steak together . 🙂

Ingredients

• Steak
• Salty
• Black pepper
• Olive oil
• Fresh herbs such as: thyme, rosemary or bay leaf
• Butter

Preparation method of sous vide steak

1. Bring the steak to temperature
   Remove the steak from the refrigerator about 30 minutes in advance. The reason for this is that the core temperature of the meat rises, which makes the sous vide process more effective.
2. Get everything ready. Take a pan or sous vide container and fill it with warm water. Set the sous vide device to the desired temperature (see table below) and let the water heat.
3. Season the steak with salt and pepper. Place the steak together with olive oil, thyme or bay leaf in the Souvy sous vide bags .
4. Cooking Place the sous vide bag in the water bath and set the timer properly. The correct time is in the table at the bottom of this article. You can see the correct temperature in the table in the next paragraph. When the timer has gone off, remove the steak from the sous vide bag and pat it dry with a cloth or paper towel.
5. Baking Heat a pan with oil and fry the steak briefly over high heat until light brown. Finally, add a knob of butter.
6. Serving Serve immediately and enjoy the steak.

Go to the butcher for a nice steak. The better the quality of the steak, the better the result! Lower the airtight steak into a preheated water container. Don't have a vacuum sealer ? You can easily do this here . Remove the steak when you are ready to enjoy. Forget time pressure and stress while preparing a steak. Don't forget to check every minute to see if the steak is done yet. From now on you can leave the steak in the sous vide container or pan until you are ready to eat it.

The only thing left to do is fry the outside of the steak until golden brown. You can briefly fry the steak in a very hot pan until golden brown. Grilling on the barbecue is also an option. Sous vide is the easiest way to prepare a steak, and yet the taste is fascinating. It is a way to prepare a steak that is tasty, tender, juicy and with an even color. There is only one way to be convinced; that is tasting.

Preparation temperature

When cooking sous vide, the correct preparation temperature of the product is very important. A few degrees higher or lower already produces a different result. In the image below you can clearly see from a steak what exactly this difference makes in terms of color. To give a good example, we prepared steak sous vide at three temperatures. Namely at 51 degrees, 55 degrees and 61 degrees. The type of steak is also important.

Below the image you can read which types can be prepared sous vide based on these cooking times and temperatures.

Doneness	Celsius °C	Fahrenheit ºF
Weird	50 – 52 °C	122 – 125°F
Medium rare	53 – 58 °C	127 – 136°F
Medium	59 – 63 °C	138 – 145°F
Medium well	64 – 67 °C	147 – 152°F
Well done	68°C +	154°F +

Different types of steak

Each type of steak has its own specific taste and tenderness. To make it clear which types of meat are being discussed, examples are described below with explanations. This mainly concerns the following types of beef:

• Tenderloin

  Beef tenderloin is considered the softest and most tender piece of beef. This part runs along the back and loin. If the tenderloin is attached to the vertebra together with the loin, it is also called a T-bone . The reason for this is that the vertebra is shaped like a 'T'.

• (Bullet) steak

  Steak is the general name for tender and lean muscle meat. The name comes from the English name ' beefsteak ' and comes in many variations. But if you order it from the butcher, it is mainly cut from the thick parts of the topside. The round steak is cut from part of the top buttock and the muscle piece (the round) of the beef. The tenderness of the steak is determined by a number of factors, including the breed, age and gender of the animal. Furthermore, maturation plays an important role in the quality of the meat.

• Sirloin steak

  The sirloin steak comes from the thin loin and is recognizable by its shape and the edge of fat. This fat edge is attached to the meat and releases flavor when frying. So leave this alone! The sirloin steak is slightly firmer than the tournedos and has slightly more flavor.

• Rib eye

  The rib-eye comes from the same part as the sirloin steak. With the ribeye, the fat edge runs through the meat. The name ribeye comes from the fact that, with a little imagination, the fat edge in the meat resembles an eye. A large piece of sirloin steak or ribeye is also called a Côte de Boeuf . Discover the ribeye sous vide recipe here.

• T-bone

  The so-called t-bone is the piece of meat that is between the ribs, like a sirloin steak, but with bone. As a result, there is still a piece of meat on it, namely the tenderloin. It is an ideal piece of meat for the real meat lover because it contains two different steaks: tenderloin and entrecote.

  

• Succade

  For a long time there was the idea that brisket was only stew meat. Nothing is less true. Tenderloin is cut from the shoulder. There is a large tendon running through the meat. This type of meat has a characteristic taste and structure. This makes this steak definitely worth preparing! Curious about sous vide prepared stew? Then take a look at the sous vide stew recipe.

• Bavette

  An increasingly popular cut of beef is the bavette. This piece comes from the so-called catch and is also called the catch flap . It is a piece of working meat on the underside of the beef. The structure is coarser but has a lot of flavor. Bavette is also called a finch steak and flank steak . A piece of meat with many names!

• Tailpiece

  A relatively unknown piece of meat in the Netherlands is the Picanha. This is also called tailpiece . The piece is recognizable by its triangular shape and the clearly creamy white fat layer. The meat is on the back of the back above the tail, hence the name tailpiece .

• Jew bunny
  

  Diamond tenderloin , shoulder tenderloin or Jew tenderloin , is the piece of meat that is located between the shoulders of the beef. The Jew's tenderloin owes its name because Jews are not allowed to eat meat from the hind leg due to dietary laws. The Jew tenderloin is at the front of the beef and so the Jew tenderloin can be eaten. View the sous vide jew tenderloin recipe here.

• Long tenderloin
  

  The lung hare owes its name to the fact that the muscle ensures that the lungs move. The lung tenderloin runs along the diaphragm of the beef. This piece of meat is also becoming better known in the Netherlands, while it has been on the menu at French bistros for years. The lung hare is also called the onglet .

Maillaired response

With meat, finishing is also required after sous vide preparation. Because the meat is cooked slowly, so to speak, it partly lacks the well-known Maillard reaction that occurs when frying meat. Because the lower the cooking temperature, the slower the reaction. In short: the Maillard reaction does occur at a lower temperature, but to a lesser extent.

The solution to this is simple: fry briefly on high heat after the sous vide preparation. This creates that pleasant, recognizable baking taste ! This reaction occurs when something is heated for a crispy crust or roasted flavor. The three important elements for this response are:

1. Sugars
2. Amino acids
3. Heating

How exactly does it work?

In a Maillard reaction, the sugars in the meat give roasted meat that specific smell and taste experience. There are various ways to create this reaction, for example briefly frying in a pan or searing the meat.

There are several ways to give the steak that crispy golden brown exterior. Depending on which method you choose, you can determine whether you can season the steak with salt and pepper beforehand or afterwards. When this needs to be done before or after, you will see in the next paragraph. A number of ways to give the steak that reaction are:

1. Baking
2. Braden
3. Grilling
4. Frying

1. Fry steak in the pan
   

   The most common way to cook a steak is in a pan. This can be done before or after the meat has been cooked sous vide. Season the steak generously with salt and pepper beforehand. Then preheat the pan with oil, for example sunflower oil, peanut oil or olive oil. Fry the steak briefly in the pan and ensure that the steak gets its golden brown crust. This takes less than a minute per side. Remove from the pan, place the steak on a warm plate and serve immediately.
   

2. Roast in the oven
   

   Preheat the oven to 250°C. Season the steak generously with salt and pepper. Place this on a rack in the oven for about three to four minutes. Then take it out, let the meat rest for a while and then serve immediately.

3. Grilling
   

   You can grill, for example, in a grill pan or on a barbecue. Make sure the grill is piping hot because you only want to give the steak that golden brown crust and not cook it. Grill the steak for about 1 minute and then turn it over. A major advantage of barbecue charcoal is the beautiful grill marks and the smoky taste. Remove from the grill and place on a warm plate or serve immediately.
   

4. Frying
   

   Yes seriously, deep frying. When frying, it is important that the steak is only seasoned afterwards. Because the fryer is very hot, the pepper will burn immediately if this is done in advance. Set the fryer to 200 °C. Pat the steak dry before it goes into the fryer and then lower it into the oil. The steak needs to be deep-fried for about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove it from the fryer and place on a warm plate. Season the steak and serve immediately.

Salt before or after?

There are many stories about whether meat should be seasoned with salt before or after cooking. Chefs or cooks often have different opinions about it. It is a fact that salt can change the structure of the meat. This is a matter of time, because the longer the meat comes into contact with salt, the more the structure of the meat changes.

When cooking a steak sous vide , it does not matter whether the meat is salted before or afterwards. So you can choose to do this before or afterwards. It works perfectly both ways.

Preparation time for a steak sous vide

To find out how long to cook a steak sous vide, you need to know the thickness of the meat. Grab a ruler or measuring tape and measure the meat. This table mainly concerns the minimum time that a steak must be in the water bath.

If a steak is twice as thick as a certain thickness in the table below, this does not mean that the minimum cooking time is also twice as long. As the thickness of the meat increases, it takes exponentially more time to reach and heat the core of the meat. A steak of 2.5 centimeters thick is ready after 60 minutes, but can be left in the water bath for an hour longer without cooking further . That's the beauty of sous vide cooking . While cooking the steak sous vide , you have the option to prepare the rest of the dish. View the table below for all thickness guidelines.

Thickness in centimeters	Thickness in inches	Duration in minutes
0.60	0.25	23
1.25	0.5	31
2.5	1	60
5	2	173
7.5	3	354

Sous vide steak recipes

For the recipes below you will definitely need a sous vide device. View our range with the best sous vide devices at a glance here . Or check out one of the sous vide steak recipes below:

• Diamond tenderloin recipe
• Ribeye recipe
• Rump steak recipe
• Veal scallop recipe
• Entrecote recipe
• Bavette recipe