How do I prepare the perfect steak?

Many hobby chefs find it difficult to prepare a steak perfectly. The solution is to cook the steak sous vide . This blog contains the most important parts to perfectly prepare 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 an even pink color. Add a matching red wine for the perfect combination.

Everyone has tried at least once to prepare a tender steak sous vide. They probably came in all sorts of variations: too raw, cold, bloody or even chewy. Stress can arise during preparation. The steak must be removed from the oven or pan in time. With a traditional preparation, this is a matter of 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. It is therefore 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?

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

We can’t wait for you to try sous vide. So I suggest you learn all about sous vide here, then come back and we’ll make the most flavorful and stunning steak together. 🙂

Ingredients

• Beef steak
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Olive oil
• Fresh herbs such as: thyme, rosemary or bay leaf
• Butter

Preparation method of sous vide steak

1. Bring the steak up 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, so that the sous vide process comes into its own.
2. Have 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 up.
3. Give it taste Season the steak with salt and pepper. Put 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 correctly. The correct time is shown in the table at the bottom of this article. The correct temperature can be seen 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. Frying Heat a pan with oil and fry the steak briefly and over high heat until light brown. Finally, add a knob of butter.
6. To serve 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 cleaner ? You can easily do this you can read here . Remove the steak when you are ready to enjoy. Forget about time pressure and stress while preparing a steak. Don’t forget to check every minute that the steak is already cooked through. From now on you can leave the steak in the sous vide container or pan until you are ready to eat it.

All that remains to be done is fry the outside of the steak until golden brown. You can briefly fry the steak in a hot pan until golden brown. Grilling on the barbecue is also an option. Sous vide is the easiest way to cook a steak, 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’s tasting.

cooking temperature

When cooking sous vide, the correct preparation temperature of the product is very important. A few degrees higher or lower already provides a different result. In the image below it is easy to see on the basis of 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.

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 explanation. This mainly concerns the following types of beef:

• beef tenderloin

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

• (Ball) 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 a part of the topside and the muscle (the ball) of the beef. The tenderness of the steak is determined by a number of factors, including the breed, age and sex of the animal. Maturation also plays an important role in the quality of the meat.

• sirloin steak

  The sirloin steak comes from the thin loin and is recognizable by the shape and the edge of fat. This fat edge is attached to the meat and gives off flavor when baking. So let this sit! The sirloin steak is slightly firmer than the tournedos and has just a little more flavour.

• Ribeye

  The rib-eye comes from the same cut 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 rim in the meat resembles an eye. A large piece of entrecote 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 sits 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 sirloin.

  

• succade

  For a long time, the idea circulated that citron was only stew. Nothing is less true. Sucade is cut from the shoulder. There is a large tendon running through the flesh. 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 beef stew sous vide 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 . It is a piece of working meat on the underside of the beef. The structure is coarser but has a lot of taste. Bavette is also called a finches 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 tail piece . The piece is recognizable by its triangular shape and the clear creamy white fat layer. The meat is on the back of the back above the tail, hence the name rump .

• jewish hare
  

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

• long tenderloin
  

  The tenderloin owes its name to the fact that the muscle ensures that the lungs move. The tenderloin runs along the midriff of the cow. This piece of meat is also becoming more famous in the Netherlands, while it has been on the menu at French bistros for years. The tenderloin is also called the onglet .

Maillard reaction

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

The solution for this is simple: after the sous vide preparation, fry briefly over high heat. This creates that pleasant recognizable baking taste ! This reaction occurs when something is heated for a crispy crust or roasted taste. The three key 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 the pan or searing the meat.

There are several ways to give the steak that crispy golden brown exterior. Depending on which way you choose, it can be determined whether you can season the steak with salt and pepper beforehand or afterwards. When this must be done beforehand or afterwards, you can see in the next paragraph. Some ways to give the steak that reaction are:

1. Bakken
2. roast
3. Grill
4. frying

1. Baking steak in the pan
   

   The most common way to cook a steak is in the 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 make sure 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. Roasting in the oven
   

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

3. Grill
   

   Grilling can be done, for example, in a grill pan or on a barbecue. Make sure the grill is piping hot as 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 big advantage of the charcoal from the barbecue are the beautiful grill stripes and the smoky taste. Remove from the grill and place on a warm plate or serve immediately.
   

4. frying
   

   Yes seriously, 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 it has been put on it beforehand. Set the deep fryer to 200 °C. Pat the steak dry before going into the fryer and then lower it into the oil. The steak needs about 1 to 2 minutes in the fryer. Remove it from the fryer and place on a warm plate. Season the steak and serve immediately.

Pre- or post-salting?

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

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

Preparation time of 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 tape measure and measure the meat. This table mainly concerns the minimum time that a steak must be in the water bath.

When 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 much. As the thickness of the meat increases, it takes exponentially more time to reach and heat the core of the meat. An inch thick steak is ready after 60 minutes, but can be left in the water bath for another hour without further cooking . 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. See the table below for all thickness guidelines.

Sous vide steak recipes

You will need a sous vide machine for the recipes below. View our range of the best sous vide appliances in a row here . Or check out one of the sous vide steak recipes below:

• Diamond tenderloin recipe
• Ribeye recipe
• Rum steak recipe
• Veal sukade recipe
• Sirloin steak recipe
• Bavette recipe