Sir, I am going to buy your thermometer just so you keep making more videos. Your content is fucking badass, your presentation is amazing, your articulation and writing it top-notch professional without any cringe at all. Absolutely loving your videos. I have been cooking dinner 6 nights a week at home for 15 years, im no professional chef, but I consider myself an amazing home cook. I really love this level of high meta, science discussion based content. Bravo!
The one benefit of sous-vide for everyday cooking is that I also use the sous vide for defrosting. I pull the steak out of the freezer and season it frozen, and then lob it in the sous-vide for an 1-1.5hrs, and after that, it's ready to go. It's really very little work since all that time is totally unattended. I don't think I could do that with a reverse sear, or temperature oven. Great video and thanks for the triangle test... I like that.
Actually. There are TH-cam videos on reverse searing frozen steak and it comes out very good as well supposedly. I’ve never tried it myself but have seen multiple videos on it.
I reverse sear from frozen all the time. I get 4-5 steaks at a time, season them, vacuum seal, then store into the deep freezer. I bake at 275F until internal temp is 115F. Around 45 -60 min, the steak is thawed enough for insert a thermometer. Then it's just normal reverse sear from there. Works great. After watching this though, I might just go to sous vide again.
Everyone should watch this video twice, but on the second round, imagine Chris gently shaking an invisible baby every time he moves hands up and down while explaining.
Now watch the video a third round to envision said baby with Chris’ precision engineered wireless thermometer inserted so you know your offensive imaginary shaken baby is cooked throughout. Let’s not even get into searing.
I've done this blind test as well at home with 10 family members and friends. I didn't do the triangle test, but did get similar results. 2 steaks, 1 sous vide then seared over charcoal, and the other cooked over charcoal indirect and then seared. No one was able to tell the difference taste wise, 2 people thought the sous vide one was a very little bit more tender, and 4 people said the sous vide was a very little bit more juicy. The rest could detect zero difference and thought I had given them 2 of the same. All agreed both were about perfect, and the differences were so negligible, it didn't matter. For me, it comes down to which method of cooking I want to use. If I am busy with other things....sous vide. If I want to sit and enjoy my outdoor cooking area...it's the Weber kettle
Amazing video, I'm very impressed with this channel so far. == for commenters == I think everyone should at least try sous vide, and it's important to demystify the cost and complexity. The only specialty equipment you need is the temperature control stick thing (the sous vide device). You do not need a special tub, or vacuum sealer. A soup pot, and freezer plastic bag is perfect. The device does not need to be smart. No wifi, bluetooth, or phone app. $50 or less is great. Attach the sous vide to your pot, set the temp, put the food in the bag, close the bag almost all the way, and submerge the bag leaving the top in the air. The water will push out all the air, and you'll get a seal that is more than good enough. Seal the bag the rest of the way, clip it to the pot, use a mug to weigh down the food if needed. That's it! And you can make some really fun stuff with it. I make custard in my sous vide for creme brulee and it is literally perfect every time. Silky smooth, not a microgram of curdled egg.
Between reverse sear in oven and sous vide, I always choose the water bath. However, the reverse sear advantage comes when you use a charcoal grill. The smoke flavor imparted really makes the difference!
Exactly this. I reverse sear low and slow on the Kamado with wood chunks adding tons of smoke flavor while it cooks slowly at 225-250 F. Remove steaks at 115 F, then get the grill ripping hot for about 60-90 seconds per side. Perfection top to bottom PLUS smokey flavor. With sous vide you can definitely add other flavors during the slow cook too (herbs, butter, etc). I just prefer smoke to any other flavors you might want to add to the sous vide phase.
@@adauria75 I have been ADDICTED to doing this lately on my Kamado style grill. I've owned a sous vide and a Kamado grill for several years and a sous vide is fantastic however I've found myself only using the sous vide when I want to make a chuck steak taste like a ribeye. Other than that I'm team reverse sear on a smoker. *Chefs Kiss*
@@adauria75 I use this exact method and LOVE IT, except instead of heating up the Kamado for the sear, I use a charcoal filled chimney (based on a video testing various searing methods done by Adam Savage & J. Kenji Lopez Alt). Do you have a preferred wood? (I've used hickory or oak chunks and haven't noticed a difference, but have never done a side-by-side test.)
REALLY like the concept of the triangle test. I must admit I had never heard of such a thing, but what a great idea instead of just try steak A and then steak B. I've just started watching your videos and I will definitely continue to. Also the slo-mo of the sear was very excellent
Thank you. Triangle test is standard practice on sensory testing works because it eliminates order of tasting bias and, when repeated, has a stronger statistical ability to accept or refute a difference.
Another fantastic video. I do wish you'd weighed the steaks post-sear as well; I have a hunch that a lot of the "extra juices" retained by the sous vibe steak would get seared off anyway, since the oven-cooked steak would have had a lot of the outer moisture cooked out beforehand.
Also, if you ate the entire sous vide steak, I think you will able to tell that it is juicer than oven based. A small bite is not good enough. Or at least eat half the steak.
As a person who knows the basics of cooking but sometimes finds that my meat cooking can be hit and miss (dry chicken breasts for instance) on occasion. This tool is such a godsend as the results are so consistent.
The real benefit of sous vide cooking is being able to infuse flavors into the food you are cooking. The juices are essentially cooking the food, so if you put lots of seasonings in the bag with them, those seasonings will be better absorbed into the food. That, on top of the set it and forget it method, it's much easier to cook food without worrying about over-cooking them. I love sous vide cooking and it's really a game changer for the at-home "chef" who may not be that great at cooking.
I think a couple of people have tested it and found that adding any liquid to the bag leeches out the flavour instead of infusing it. Dry seasoning might be different, but I suspect one would be better off to age/marinate it before sous vide and perhaps while searing.
I think what is being suggested here is putting dry ingredients such as a twig of rosmary into the sous-vide bag. Once the meat starts to release juices during the sous-vide process, these juices dissolve the aromatics and they diffuse into the meat
Best comparison video I've seen on this topic. I prefer the reverse sear because I use my smoker instead of the oven. The added flavor is hard to beat.
I think I'll switch to reverse sear. Less plastic, and I'm a home cook so I'm only doing a few steaks at a time. As far as weight loss goes, I'm not sure losing water to evaporation is a disadvantage. Dry aged steaks lose a lot of weight to evaporation and that seems to intensify the flavour. It seems to me that losing fat during cooking is more likely to lead to a steak that seems dry. I'm (somewhat) patiently waiting for my thermometer.😁
Your triangle test explanation was excellent. One issue you should have mentioned at the end: Sous vide can cook less expensive cuts, like a Chuck roast, into something that tastes like prime rib. That’s because it can incubate it at the finished temperature for a very long time (like 36 hrs). That allows the collagen in that cheap roast to break down. Reverse sear can’t do anything in that circumstance.
One advantage for sous vide when cooking a big feast for a crowd is freeing up the oven. If I'm trying to reverse sear a big roast, then I'm dedicating my oven to cook at a low temperature for hours. If I use a sous vide, though, my oven is free for roasting vegetables or making a casserole, and the roast is only going in for 5-10 minutes at a really high temp at the very end to get it browned off. It can also make timing easier to have all the dishes ready at the same time. Normally a big roast has a really long cook time with a pretty huge variance if you are aiming for a specific internal temp. Sous vide not only makes it more consistent, but also really broadens the window for when it's ready.
There's nothing magical about the heat induction from sous vide and any cut it can tenderize, an oven can tenderize as well. It's just a matter of temperature and time. Protein doesn't know or care how it's applied.
I have become a fan of a reverse seared steak over the last several years. That's due to using a Weber kettle with the Slow n Sear. This allows me to add a chunk of Pecan wood to the coals and bring the steak temperature up slowly at about 220°F untill an internal temperature of about 120°F is reached. I also should mention that I dry brine the steak with Kosher salt several hours before placing it on the indirect side of the heat. This gives me a wood fired flavor to my steak.
In my experience, the only thing that a hole cook can do to take their steak up to the tippy top level is get charcoal involved. The added flavor and potential for a little extra crust can’t be replicated any other way outside a professional kitchen.
Best and fastest cooked steak I have ever had was following a recipe from Alton Brown and cooked completely in the oven. Steaks were between 1.5 - 2 inch thick ribeyes. Put cast iron pan in oven and pre-heat oven to 500 degrees with pan in the oven. While this is taking place, let steaks rest at room temp and season. When oven and pan hit 500 degrees, baste steak with an oil with a high flashpoint place in pan and cook for 2 min. Pull pan, flip and cook 2 min on other side. Steaks came out perfectly cooked med rare all the way through with a great crust. Didn't even need a knife to cut them. So much easier than all this other stuff.
Sous Vide really makes sense in a resto setting. High throughput when firing and the Sous Vide can be done during off hours and held in the frige until fired. But for a weekend meal, I prefer the variability I get with the edge vs center cooking time. I like to see a nice bit of sear AND a nice level of rare to almost medium rare at most. The bigger the cut, the more a multiplle read sensor makes sense. And the possibility of accomodating meat preference of multiple diners with one roast.
The material for the sous-vide water bath should be lexan plastic cambro bin. The reason for this is you want the cooking water temperature to be precise on the dot. A conducting material like metal will affect the precise temp setting on the immersion circulator.
I actually started cooking steaks using the sous vide method. At this point I moved on to use the reverse sear. As I use a pan to achieve the crust, I find that with a pan you achieve a faster crust with a reverse seared steak. I also got sick and tired of vacuum sealing and preparing an water bath after a while.
3.6% is of the total weight of the steak (which will vary depending on the size of steak), not the amount more/less juice that was retained/lost. Relative to each other, regardless of steak size (assuming equal results across bigger/smaller steaks) reverse sear loses 60% more juice than the sous vide. I think that's more notable than the total weight loss/retained indicates.
I like that with the Anova Precision Oven, the probe and program allow me to delta-T sous vide steaks without bags or the risk of overcooking since the oven will drop to a holding temp automatically once the desired internal temperature (set a little lower to allow for any carry-over and then searing) is reached. I've ordered your Double Barrel Bundle and am counting it arrives.
I struggled with over cooking my steak I prefer medium rare ,sous vide solves the problem each steak is perfectly done, but the real improvement is the tenderness that sous vide adds select becomes choice,choice becomes prime ,in tenderness from sous vide ,the texture is just as important as taste or juiciness,all three are influenced by sous vide ,if it’s not got a lot of bark sear it longer
Great videos, Chris! I recently discovered them and was an immediate subscriber after watching the first one. While I love the ease of preparing steaks sous vide and have the equipment to do it, I generally reverse sear because the fat seems to render into the meat much better than with sous vide--especially with a fattier cut like ribeye. Here's why I think that happens and would like to know your thoughts: Since beef fat renders at 130-140 degrees, if you have a sous vide set at a medium rare temp like 128, you never get to the rendering temp. Meanwhile, a reverse sear steak is reaching temp in a 225 degree oven, and since fat is superior conductor of heat, the fat parts of the steak are hitting rendering temp even though the steak, overall, isn't overcooking. Does this make sense?
Great video. Your are indeed very thorough. It would be very cool to see a similar video with triangle test on pre-seasoning, which I personally have experiences to do a great difference.
I may have missed it, but for the reverse seared steak did you use the Combustion thermometer and did you use it to control the surface temp (and what temp) in this example?
I did not do surface temperature control in this video, simply because it would have confused the comparison I was trying to make. I used 200F as the cooking temperature.
Another excellent cooking video! I've been doing sous vide for steaks for about 4 years now. Recently i saw your video on ripping hot pan vs flipping steaks. I gave flipping a try and my whole family of steak lovers preferred it over sous vide. So thank you. I hope you do a video on prime rib. Now, is th
I have psoriasis so I know a thing or two about Crusts! I’d go with the reverse sear just because smelling the roasting/searing beef is nice and gets the appetite going. Plus I’ll likely have the oven on already for something to go with it as a side.
Incredible video. I was fully expecting this video to all be a setup to say the Sous vide is better given the fact that he makes a sous vide cooker. Fantastic work all around
Made* He is no longer with ChefSteps. You can find his new product at Combustion Inc. Just finished devouring a pork loin cooked to perfection using the predictive thermometer and surface temperature cooking technique he has a video on
One great advantage of sous vide (that has time on its side) is that you can cook straight from frozen really easily. I, personally, don’t really notice a difference in quality, but admittedly I’ve never tested it. Could be another cool triangle taste test experiment idea for a video! I’ve never heard of that strategy before, I really like it.
Yes, it would be nice to see what he thinks. Here are two others that did it with conflicting results. th-cam.com/video/fLPXhCVUEQo/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/7UDFO-ifqC8/w-d-xo.html
There’s no scientific reason why it would make a difference to cook directly from frozen in sous vide or not. When you thaw frozen food in air, you’re warming it by transferring heat from a fluid… the air. Then you transfer it to the water bath and you’re… transferring heat from a fluid. The only difference is the rate of heat transfer!
Great video covering too cooking methods I love. One thing to consider with flavour on the sous vide front is that you can add flavours to the bag, ie the chefsteps holiday oil
Agree. And, of course, you can add rubs or marinades with reverse sear too. But I was keen to know if I could really pick up a difference with just the meat.
Great vid. Thank you. Would love to see you do a comp of reverse sear Vs. cold sear. Advantages of latter being a lot less smoke and oil splatter which makes it more condo friendly.
Brilliant video. Very informative and will have better idea how to cook my steaks. Just couple of things missed though. Would have suggested measuring weights after searing as reverse sear would likely lose less whilst searing as it's surface is already dryer. Additionally, would expect that for the same reason sous vide stake to taste better grilled as it likely will have more juices dripping and creating additional flavors. Cooking them together over the coals likely helped reverse sear steak.
I would really appreciate it if you could do an analysis and review of the Joule sous vide and the Joule Turbo sous vide. Your videos are excellent. The objective analysis and control of variables are top notch. Keep them coming.
Have you tried a steam oven with reverse sear? It offers two additional cooking options conventional ovens do not: 1) retain the moisture in the oven released by the meat or 2) add steam during cooking. Each option likely results in more moisture retention than either sous vide or reverse sear in a conventional oven. I like your thermometer...temperature control with reverse sear is key. Nice presentation.
I love the scientific approach of your videos, best in youtube! One question. When I see your steaks, they are very homogeneous on the inside, I usually look for an uniform gradient. Of course it's a matter of taste, but should I aim for an uniform inside, or a gradient from crust to the center? I guess to get the gradient, just reverse sear for less time?
I've been using the reverse sear to solid results (with sear in a stovetop pan). I do have to fuss with it to take it in and out a few times to use an instant read thermometer. I should probably look into a leave in probe to save some hassle on that end.
Dude I really appreciate your channel! Discovered it yesterday and now I am addicted watching your videos. I love how you put sciece into cooking and that way making it more based on numbers and physics instead of human perception. Especially the triangle test. Love it how you bring scientifical methods into cooking.
Best thing about sous vide: you get this flawless, best possible home cooked steak every single time. You can buy the most expensive possible steak at the grocery store and have absolute confidence you won’t make a little mistake that’ll make it a waste. It’s perfect every time. My favorite little added technique: rest it for a while after it comes out of the sous vide, as long as like 15 minutes. Not only will that help dry out the surface a bit, it’ll cool the core down a decent bit. Means you can hammer the surface with a little extra impunity and get the best crust possible without risking any overcook more than a millimeter in. Works great!
I've used both methods and your right there is no real winner there both excellent. I think it's about time. Do you have time to do the sous vide method? Cause it takes so much longer so if you don't have the time, the oven method is much better for your particular needs that day.
For me the biggest difference is that the vacuum seal for sous vide allows the seasoning to penetrate the internal fibers of the steak more than it does with reverse searing.
Great video. I have used both methods cooking steaks. However, I use my charcoal grill to reverse sear rather than the oven, and I have to give the edge to that method over sous vide. The lump charcoal gives the steaks a bit of smokiness that tastes fantastic.
Certainly smoking the meat, or adding seasonings will change the outcome. And personally I do love a bit of smoke on the meat. My goal in this video was to see if I could pick up a difference with just the meat itself with these two techniques?
Same. I use a pellet smoker at about 240 degrees to heat the steak for the reverse sear, then either turn the grill way up or use a cast iron pan to finish the steak. Consistency is great and flavor is great. In a home setting I have struggled to get the flavor from the crust in a sous vide steak.
Chris, great video again! Have you tried doing a Sous Vide steak using the Anova Precision Oven? This machine allows you not to use a plastic bag, which works great with meat cuts with pointy bones such as tomahawk steaks and ribs, which can puncture the bag. Another question how about searing the steaks after Sous Vide using a hot cast iron pan or a plumber's butane torch? Saves time heating a gas grill or lighting charcoal and could be more precise.
This is what I do with my annova oven. Finish with a torch gives more control and no oil splattering everywhere like in cast iron. Though a reverse seared steak on the smoker is also another great experience.
Great video Chris! When reverse searing have you experimented with convection fan on vs off, and different temp/time combinations? My gut says that lower oven temp + convection fan could reduce the overcooked zone. But these things are often unintuitive!
What about additional flavors, such as herbs (like rosemary or thyme)? Wouldn't sous vide lend itself to better perfuse the steak if you throw some herbs into the bag before sealing it? Or is it better practice to infuse those flavors with some butter and garlic after the searing process?
Love your videos. I am curious to hear your thoughts on moisture loss as it relates to a more positive eating experience. I was head over heels in love with Sous Vide for about a decade, and while I still admire the precision, I don't choose to cook large pieces of meat under pressure. In my experience, the reverse sear leads to a more concentrated flavor of beef that isn't watery like the sous vide piece would be. You're welcome to correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the juiciness of a steak typically land on fat and not water content? Sous Vide steaks are watery, but it isn't the type of moisture I am looking for in my meat
Chris, I have a question regarding fat render. Over the years I’ve started to favor reverse sear more and more because I usually cook more marbled cuts like ribeyes and I think that reverse sear tends to give me a nicer more rendered texture to the fat. Sous vide is great for consistency but I feel like there is always a bit of chewiness left to the fat. What are your thoughts?
So I think the primary difference is that when reverse searing, it's typical that the surface of the meat gets quite a bit hotter than sous vide. Since the fat tissue contains a lot of collagen, this higher temperature helps to soften the fatty tissue so that its more tender and less fatty. The fat cap, in particular, will be much hotter than the rest of the meat when reverse searing because there is less evaporative cooling going on with the fatty tissue. So, yes, I agree that a major benefit of the reverse sear for high-fat cuts is that it makes it easier to tenderize the fatty tissue. It's a good point and worth a video just for this.
In the sous vide community many recommend that for fattier cuts like ribeye that you cook it at a higher temperature. 137°F is the common temp. This is a little bit more than medium rare, but the benefit is the fat renders beautifully and adds way more flavor and mouth feel. You need to be at 131°F to have anything render
How can I control surface temperature of the meat during the reverse sear method? If the surface temperature starts getting too hot should I just make the oven temperature lower? But it can increase the humidity in the oven so meat surface temperature may not cool down as I wanted, am I right? I assume that just open the oven will help both reduce temperature and decrease humidity so surface temperature can also decrease. What do you think?
I have decided for myselfcSteak tastes better when it has enough time to develop crust. SousVide cooks it to close to doneness to be able to develop crust. Grill / Charcoal does great job, and u can put it on top of some bush in between for extra layer of flavor
Chuck roast cut into steaks bagged in portions sous vide over night and frozen for when I wanna enjoy them cannot be achieved with reverse searing method so I'll stick with sous vide, would be interesting also to find out which one is more energy efficient. Also would anovo precision oven be considered sous vide or reverse sear? 🤔
Thanks for these videos, I love your technique and precision with all the testing. Seems I'm also a fan of everything you did before, love fat duck, modernist cuisine, although I must admit I'm still using an anova rather than a joule. Have ordered my predictive thermometer though! Hope you carry on making these videos even with the success of your products.
Thank you for the triangle test as well. My steaks would definitely stand out. First, I use Costco steaks, which, if you didn't know, are "knife tenderized". Says so on each package. I reverse sear in my Ninja smoker oven using only half a cup of pellets , which smokes better than my pellet grill or offset smoker. I monitor the temp with my Bluetooth thermometer. After reverse searing, I take the steak out and let it rest for over an hour, so the temp comes back down. This allows me more time on my infrared grill to get the perfect crust. Everyone who tastes my steaks says they are better than the most expensive steak houses.
Well done vid! I am new to your channel and was surprised to see you only have 5k+ subscribers. I bet you’ll have 100k if you keep producing content like this on a fairly regular basis.
I intentionally did not use salt in this experiment. Salt would definitely have increased the water retention a bit. But unless you full brine the steak, it will be a modest effect.
I've largely given up on SV. Reverse sear is quicker and I can't tell a difference in tenderness. Less hassle too since you don't have to deal with getting the vac sealer and water bath out. Plus if you do the initial cook in a smoker, you get an extra flavor profile. The only downside is it's easier to overcook if you get distracted - which I suppose is where a continuous temp monitor comes into play.
I wish you would have touched on the ability of Sous Vide to tenderize slightly tougher steaks like NY strips, Top Sirloin, etc that reverse sear cannot do..
That’s a different video, but worth doing. It opens up the question of what happens over long periods of holding time, which is another huge science topic. And, it certainly is possible to do it with reverse sear with adequate temperature control. My old boss Heston and I did this with the 24hr steak for the first season of BBC’s In Search of Perfection.
I mostly use reverse sear for the reasons Chris gave in his summary. The 2 exceptions are if I'm cooking a piece of meat that could benefit from more time at temperature to break down some tougher bits, or to freeze after to sous vide for a quick search and serve another evening.
Hi Chris, really like your videos. Do you ever use "texas crutch" technique in an actual cousin? Does it compite with this two? Isn't kinda like a mix of both? Regards!
Hey Chris! I find that the best sear by far is the "forward sear" i.e. the raw meat goes straight to the cast iron skillet, then finish in low heat in the oven. But then the interior doneness has all the familiar problems. I can precisely nail the doneness with sous vide, or the Anova Precision Oven BUT I have NEVER achieved a reverse sear or SV & sear as good as the forward sear. It feels like I can have one or the other perfect (interior or exterior) but not both. Usually I just assume the wet surface of the sous vide steak can never be completely dry and this greatly hinders making that awesome crust that I love so much. Maybe my skillet isn't thermonuclear enough, but it's hot enough to be smoking and forward sear well so I'm not sure what else to do to make the SV sear meet my goals. Thoughts? Oh, and when are the pre-ordered CI thermometers shipping?
It means you are searing it wrong or at too low temp. For folks like you - I recommend: do sous vide beforehand (hours to 1d) and let it cool down in the fridge. Then you can get away with longer sear on a weaker source. And it come out great.
Two thoughts: (1) I agree with Alex, let it cool for a while. Both steaks ended up cooking for ~20 min before they were seated in this video (simply because we had to move cameras around). (2) Make sure to blot off excess water and brush on a generous amount of oil to help conduct heat.
Have you tried the flamethrower method? There are unnecessarily expensive "searing guns" out there, but a $30 weed burner seems to do the trick for me.
@@banksta3 Yes, I have one of the commercial ones meant for searing sous vide meat. Very unimpressive result. I'll next try the suggestion to cool in the fridge or freezer before searing.
For those who sous vide steak, do you normally let the steak cool down after taking it out of sous vide? If so, for how long? I fear that going from sous vide into a sear would overcook the internal. But sometimes, if I let it cool down to 80-90F internal, the center is colder than it could be when serving after a sear. What are your typical processes here?
I’ll be talking about this a bit in my next video. But I often let my sous vide or reverse-seared steaks cool down for 30min or more, usually I’ll throw them in the fridge. The searing will quickly bring the temp back up, and the core can’t cool any faster than it heated in the first place.
Great video and great detail as well. Just stumbled across your site due to the ninja cremini. Signed up. I have followed heston since working at Cliveden House just down the road from the fat duck. Also followed Nathan at Modernost cuisine and chef steps. So looks like I have been following you as well. One experiment I would like tried actually comes from Hestons at home cook book for toffee popcorn. Is it possible to make without burning the popcorn. I have not been able to and lots of people online have not either.
I’ve slowly found myself switching from sous vide to reverse sear. I think both do great for the meat itself, but I think sous vide is a little more limiting when it comes to what I put on the meat. Some things just don’t hold up in a moist cooking bag, whether it’s spices, garlic, or something more marinade like (citrus does poorly in sous vide, for example)
I enjoyed your cooking physics presentation and have tried both of these techniques without so much attention to the details. You made the remark about an absolute difference in moisture loss as being insignificant however, this raises two questions: --what is the detectable absolute difference and secondly , is absolute difference the right way to compare two amounts of juiciness? Prior work on sensory physiology suggests that sensory comparisons be made by ratios or logs of ratios . . I would be interested is comparing reverse sear samples to check for ability to detect juiciness. I did like your triangle test - were you aware that Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame used that method to show that a number of wine snobs in the Harvard Graduate student dinner were unable to detect the differences between high and low rated and priced wines?
I done the reverse sear by crank up the heat to 450 a few minute and put in the steak, and decrease temp gradually every few minute until it around 200 and leave there for 5 minutes. Quick and easy
Best video about sous Vide, how did you get your sous vide to loose only 6%, it seems my steaks loose more? do you drop it with the water temp cold or preheated first?
Terrific and fair assessment I'd say. I'm still lazier than either though and just heat my grill to 450, sear both sides for 30 seconds and then let it sit on the top shelf and smoke in the delicious charcoal aroma. ;)
Honestly from experience you can get the perfect sear with both methods. The reverse sear with a probe thermometer you can’t overcook it if it’s low heat and you pull it when it hits temperature. I’m struggling to pick the better method unless maybe if I did a side by side. Typically I prefer to sous vide steaks, but with the geometry of the tomahawk I usually just reverse sear it.
We are a family of 6 so when we make meat it is a lot and so sous-vide is really convenient. The only downside is that searing is done at the end and so I cannot make a sauce from that searing process but a cafe de paris butter works fine.
"proto-sear" a nice term for what I go for. I really don't care so much about "juiciness." if I want some juice I'll serve some OJ with the meal. what I want is a "better" or "best" steak. so you can't tell the difference in taste? great, that's a good to know. I can definitely tell the difference in appearance. appearance is huge as to the pleasure of eating even though technically the taste is the same. the reverse sear is the easy winner here. no special equipment (just timing and temperature care) and better appearance makes that technique a no-brainer for me. great vid, I'm really tempted to try that thermometer 👨🍳😋
Hello Chris ! Thanks for the informative videos from you. I would have a question. What do you think of the new mini ovens from Chefsteps or Anova? From Anova I hope that it works like a small Rational combi oven. Am I wrong?
I love that you've done a triangle test which so few food channels or food blogs even seem to know, touch on, or understand.
Sir, I am going to buy your thermometer just so you keep making more videos. Your content is fucking badass, your presentation is amazing, your articulation and writing it top-notch professional without any cringe at all. Absolutely loving your videos. I have been cooking dinner 6 nights a week at home for 15 years, im no professional chef, but I consider myself an amazing home cook. I really love this level of high meta, science discussion based content. Bravo!
How is the thermometer.
Meta 😂😂
@@andrewdevita629amazing
The one benefit of sous-vide for everyday cooking is that I also use the sous vide for defrosting. I pull the steak out of the freezer and season it frozen, and then lob it in the sous-vide for an 1-1.5hrs, and after that, it's ready to go. It's really very little work since all that time is totally unattended. I don't think I could do that with a reverse sear, or temperature oven. Great video and thanks for the triangle test... I like that.
Actually. There are TH-cam videos on reverse searing frozen steak and it comes out very good as well supposedly. I’ve never tried it myself but have seen multiple videos on it.
I season then freeze.. That way in the future I can throw it in the sous vide whenever with almost zero prep
I reverse sear from frozen all the time. I get 4-5 steaks at a time, season them, vacuum seal, then store into the deep freezer. I bake at 275F until internal temp is 115F. Around 45 -60 min, the steak is thawed enough for insert a thermometer. Then it's just normal reverse sear from there. Works great. After watching this though, I might just go to sous vide again.
Everyone should watch this video twice, but on the second round, imagine Chris gently shaking an invisible baby every time he moves hands up and down while explaining.
That’s exactly what I imagine while I’m talking.
Do not do this unless both you and your invisible baby are wearing helmets.
Now watch the video a third round to envision said baby with Chris’ precision engineered wireless thermometer inserted so you know your offensive imaginary shaken baby is cooked throughout. Let’s not even get into searing.
Oh damn you. Now I can focus on anything else
I read this during the advert, so now I've been robbed of my first watch
I've done this blind test as well at home with 10 family members and friends. I didn't do the triangle test, but did get similar results. 2 steaks, 1 sous vide then seared over charcoal, and the other cooked over charcoal indirect and then seared. No one was able to tell the difference taste wise, 2 people thought the sous vide one was a very little bit more tender, and 4 people said the sous vide was a very little bit more juicy. The rest could detect zero difference and thought I had given them 2 of the same. All agreed both were about perfect, and the differences were so negligible, it didn't matter. For me, it comes down to which method of cooking I want to use. If I am busy with other things....sous vide. If I want to sit and enjoy my outdoor cooking area...it's the Weber kettle
Amazing video, I'm very impressed with this channel so far.
== for commenters ==
I think everyone should at least try sous vide, and it's important to demystify the cost and complexity.
The only specialty equipment you need is the temperature control stick thing (the sous vide device). You do not need a special tub, or vacuum sealer. A soup pot, and freezer plastic bag is perfect. The device does not need to be smart. No wifi, bluetooth, or phone app. $50 or less is great.
Attach the sous vide to your pot, set the temp, put the food in the bag, close the bag almost all the way, and submerge the bag leaving the top in the air. The water will push out all the air, and you'll get a seal that is more than good enough. Seal the bag the rest of the way, clip it to the pot, use a mug to weigh down the food if needed.
That's it! And you can make some really fun stuff with it. I make custard in my sous vide for creme brulee and it is literally perfect every time. Silky smooth, not a microgram of curdled egg.
Between reverse sear in oven and sous vide, I always choose the water bath. However, the reverse sear advantage comes when you use a charcoal grill. The smoke flavor imparted really makes the difference!
I do reverse sear on a Pellet Grill. I did some flank steak this week wich isn't normal but, turned out great!
Exactly this. I reverse sear low and slow on the Kamado with wood chunks adding tons of smoke flavor while it cooks slowly at 225-250 F. Remove steaks at 115 F, then get the grill ripping hot for about 60-90 seconds per side. Perfection top to bottom PLUS smokey flavor.
With sous vide you can definitely add other flavors during the slow cook too (herbs, butter, etc). I just prefer smoke to any other flavors you might want to add to the sous vide phase.
@@adauria75 I have been ADDICTED to doing this lately on my Kamado style grill.
I've owned a sous vide and a Kamado grill for several years and a sous vide is fantastic however I've found myself only using the sous vide when I want to make a chuck steak taste like a ribeye. Other than that I'm team reverse sear on a smoker. *Chefs Kiss*
@@adauria75 I use this exact method and LOVE IT, except instead of heating up the Kamado for the sear, I use a charcoal filled chimney (based on a video testing various searing methods done by Adam Savage & J. Kenji Lopez Alt).
Do you have a preferred wood? (I've used hickory or oak chunks and haven't noticed a difference, but have never done a side-by-side test.)
@@martinmaier5641 Hickory and/or oak is what I use as well. Wood is wood, mostly :) That searing method sounds pretty good - I'll check it ou!
REALLY like the concept of the triangle test. I must admit I had never heard of such a thing, but what a great idea instead of just try steak A and then steak B. I've just started watching your videos and I will definitely continue to. Also the slo-mo of the sear was very excellent
Thank you. Triangle test is standard practice on sensory testing works because it eliminates order of tasting bias and, when repeated, has a stronger statistical ability to accept or refute a difference.
In audio they do a similar test for lossy compression schemes, usually calling it an "ABX Test."
That slow mo.. Whoever's idea it was to have the steaks bouncing on the rack haha. Maybe it was just a happy accident.
Another fantastic video. I do wish you'd weighed the steaks post-sear as well; I have a hunch that a lot of the "extra juices" retained by the sous vibe steak would get seared off anyway, since the oven-cooked steak would have had a lot of the outer moisture cooked out beforehand.
Also, if you ate the entire sous vide steak, I think you will able to tell that it is juicer than oven based. A small bite is not good enough. Or at least eat half the steak.
So great to see you on TH-cam again and producing great products.
This dude is going to have a million subs in no time. Incredible content. Every video a winner.
As a person who knows the basics of cooking but sometimes finds that my meat cooking can be hit and miss (dry chicken breasts for instance) on occasion. This tool is such a godsend as the results are so consistent.
The real benefit of sous vide cooking is being able to infuse flavors into the food you are cooking. The juices are essentially cooking the food, so if you put lots of seasonings in the bag with them, those seasonings will be better absorbed into the food. That, on top of the set it and forget it method, it's much easier to cook food without worrying about over-cooking them. I love sous vide cooking and it's really a game changer for the at-home "chef" who may not be that great at cooking.
I'm also team sous-vide, but I have to say, marinating food doesn't make the flavor penetrate the meat, unless you are stabbing it inside the meat.
I think a couple of people have tested it and found that adding any liquid to the bag leeches out the flavour instead of infusing it.
Dry seasoning might be different, but I suspect one would be better off to age/marinate it before sous vide and perhaps while searing.
I think what is being suggested here is putting dry ingredients such as a twig of rosmary into the sous-vide bag.
Once the meat starts to release juices during the sous-vide process, these juices dissolve the aromatics and they diffuse into the meat
Best comparison video I've seen on this topic. I prefer the reverse sear because I use my smoker instead of the oven. The added flavor is hard to beat.
Same. This is the way. Salt, pepper, hickory, perfection.
I think I'll switch to reverse sear. Less plastic, and I'm a home cook so I'm only doing a few steaks at a time. As far as weight loss goes, I'm not sure losing water to evaporation is a disadvantage. Dry aged steaks lose a lot of weight to evaporation and that seems to intensify the flavour. It seems to me that losing fat during cooking is more likely to lead to a steak that seems dry. I'm (somewhat) patiently waiting for my thermometer.😁
I agree. Really expensive dry aged steaks would beg to differ on water being important!
Your triangle test explanation was excellent. One issue you should have mentioned at the end: Sous vide can cook less expensive cuts, like a Chuck roast, into something that tastes like prime rib. That’s because it can incubate it at the finished temperature for a very long time (like 36 hrs). That allows the collagen in that cheap roast to break down. Reverse sear can’t do anything in that circumstance.
One advantage for sous vide when cooking a big feast for a crowd is freeing up the oven.
If I'm trying to reverse sear a big roast, then I'm dedicating my oven to cook at a low temperature for hours. If I use a sous vide, though, my oven is free for roasting vegetables or making a casserole, and the roast is only going in for 5-10 minutes at a really high temp at the very end to get it browned off.
It can also make timing easier to have all the dishes ready at the same time. Normally a big roast has a really long cook time with a pretty huge variance if you are aiming for a specific internal temp. Sous vide not only makes it more consistent, but also really broadens the window for when it's ready.
I totally agree, Sous vide is all about the setting you use it in. Also for tough cuts sous vide will tender just about any cut if you give it time.
There's nothing magical about the heat induction from sous vide and any cut it can tenderize, an oven can tenderize as well. It's just a matter of temperature and time. Protein doesn't know or care how it's applied.
I usually reverse sear (mild smoking wood) on my grill that imparts additional flavor. I do enjoy the sous vide for set and forget. Great video.
I have become a fan of a reverse seared steak over the last several years. That's due to using a Weber kettle with the Slow n Sear. This allows me to add a chunk of Pecan wood to the coals and bring the steak temperature up slowly at about 220°F untill an internal temperature of about 120°F is reached. I also should mention that I dry brine the steak with Kosher salt several hours before placing it on the indirect side of the heat. This gives me a wood fired flavor to my steak.
In my experience, the only thing that a hole cook can do to take their steak up to the tippy top level is get charcoal involved. The added flavor and potential for a little extra crust can’t be replicated any other way outside a professional kitchen.
Best and fastest cooked steak I have ever had was following a recipe from Alton Brown and cooked completely in the oven. Steaks were between 1.5 - 2 inch thick ribeyes. Put cast iron pan in oven and pre-heat oven to 500 degrees with pan in the oven. While this is taking place, let steaks rest at room temp and season. When oven and pan hit 500 degrees, baste steak with an oil with a high flashpoint place in pan and cook for 2 min. Pull pan, flip and cook 2 min on other side. Steaks came out perfectly cooked med rare all the way through with a great crust. Didn't even need a knife to cut them. So much easier than all this other stuff.
as an executive chef i have tried this and works very well...
Chris - you are awesome. Glad you’re making these videos and glad you’re creating new cooking devices!
Sous Vide really makes sense in a resto setting. High throughput when firing and the Sous Vide can be done during off hours and held in the frige until fired. But for a weekend meal, I prefer the variability I get with the edge vs center cooking time. I like to see a nice bit of sear AND a nice level of rare to almost medium rare at most. The bigger the cut, the more a multiplle read sensor makes sense. And the possibility of accomodating meat preference of multiple diners with one roast.
The material for the sous-vide water bath should be lexan plastic cambro bin. The reason for this is you want the cooking water temperature to be precise on the dot. A conducting material like metal will affect the precise temp setting on the immersion circulator.
I actually started cooking steaks using the sous vide method. At this point I moved on to use the reverse sear. As I use a pan to achieve the crust, I find that with a pan you achieve a faster crust with a reverse seared steak. I also got sick and tired of vacuum sealing and preparing an water bath after a while.
3.6% is of the total weight of the steak (which will vary depending on the size of steak), not the amount more/less juice that was retained/lost. Relative to each other, regardless of steak size (assuming equal results across bigger/smaller steaks) reverse sear loses 60% more juice than the sous vide. I think that's more notable than the total weight loss/retained indicates.
60% more of a small amount is still a small amount.
I like that with the Anova Precision Oven, the probe and program allow me to delta-T sous vide steaks without bags or the risk of overcooking since the oven will drop to a holding temp automatically once the desired internal temperature (set a little lower to allow for any carry-over and then searing) is reached.
I've ordered your Double Barrel Bundle and am counting it arrives.
I struggled with over cooking my steak I prefer medium rare ,sous vide solves the problem each steak is perfectly done, but the real improvement is the tenderness that sous vide adds select becomes choice,choice becomes prime ,in tenderness from sous vide ,the texture is just as important as taste or juiciness,all three are influenced by sous vide ,if it’s not got a lot of bark sear it longer
Great videos, Chris! I recently discovered them and was an immediate subscriber after watching the first one. While I love the ease of preparing steaks sous vide and have the equipment to do it, I generally reverse sear because the fat seems to render into the meat much better than with sous vide--especially with a fattier cut like ribeye. Here's why I think that happens and would like to know your thoughts: Since beef fat renders at 130-140 degrees, if you have a sous vide set at a medium rare temp like 128, you never get to the rendering temp. Meanwhile, a reverse sear steak is reaching temp in a 225 degree oven, and since fat is superior conductor of heat, the fat parts of the steak are hitting rendering temp even though the steak, overall, isn't overcooking. Does this make sense?
Interesting Idea🤔
Great video. Your are indeed very thorough. It would be very cool to see a similar video with triangle test on pre-seasoning, which I personally have experiences to do a great difference.
I may have missed it, but for the reverse seared steak did you use the Combustion thermometer and did you use it to control the surface temp (and what temp) in this example?
I did not do surface temperature control in this video, simply because it would have confused the comparison I was trying to make. I used 200F as the cooking temperature.
Another excellent cooking video! I've been doing sous vide for steaks for about 4 years now. Recently i saw your video on ripping hot pan vs flipping steaks. I gave flipping a try and my whole family of steak lovers preferred it over sous vide. So thank you.
I hope you do a video on prime rib.
Now, is th
I have psoriasis so I know a thing or two about Crusts!
I’d go with the reverse sear just because smelling the roasting/searing beef is nice and gets the appetite going. Plus I’ll likely have the oven on already for something to go with it as a side.
Incredible video. I was fully expecting this video to all be a setup to say the Sous vide is better given the fact that he makes a sous vide cooker. Fantastic work all around
Made* He is no longer with ChefSteps. You can find his new product at Combustion Inc. Just finished devouring a pork loin cooked to perfection using the predictive thermometer and surface temperature cooking technique he has a video on
One great advantage of sous vide (that has time on its side) is that you can cook straight from frozen really easily. I, personally, don’t really notice a difference in quality, but admittedly I’ve never tested it. Could be another cool triangle taste test experiment idea for a video! I’ve never heard of that strategy before, I really like it.
Yes, it would be nice to see what he thinks. Here are two others that did it with conflicting results.
th-cam.com/video/fLPXhCVUEQo/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/7UDFO-ifqC8/w-d-xo.html
There’s no scientific reason why it would make a difference to cook directly from frozen in sous vide or not. When you thaw frozen food in air, you’re warming it by transferring heat from a fluid… the air. Then you transfer it to the water bath and you’re… transferring heat from a fluid. The only difference is the rate of heat transfer!
Great video covering too cooking methods I love. One thing to consider with flavour on the sous vide front is that you can add flavours to the bag, ie the chefsteps holiday oil
Agree. And, of course, you can add rubs or marinades with reverse sear too. But I was keen to know if I could really pick up a difference with just the meat.
This channel will blow up at some point. Mark my words.
Great vid. Thank you. Would love to see you do a comp of reverse sear Vs. cold sear. Advantages of latter being a lot less smoke and oil splatter which makes it more condo friendly.
Cold sear is better
I can watch every second with attention! The explanation is impeccable.
This channel is gold.
Wish your termometer was a bit more budget friendly, though (with shipping to my native Denmark it's 274 USD).
Brilliant video. Very informative and will have better idea how to cook my steaks. Just couple of things missed though. Would have suggested measuring weights after searing as reverse sear would likely lose less whilst searing as it's surface is already dryer. Additionally, would expect that for the same reason sous vide stake to taste better grilled as it likely will have more juices dripping and creating additional flavors. Cooking them together over the coals likely helped reverse sear steak.
I would really appreciate it if you could do an analysis and review of the Joule sous vide and the Joule Turbo sous vide.
Your videos are excellent. The objective analysis and control of variables are top notch. Keep them coming.
Have you tried a steam oven with reverse sear? It offers two additional cooking options conventional ovens do not: 1) retain the moisture in the oven released by the meat or 2) add steam during cooking. Each option likely results in more moisture retention than either sous vide or reverse sear in a conventional oven. I like your thermometer...temperature control with reverse sear is key. Nice presentation.
Great video. One correction: @7:07 the difference between the two is nearly 60%. The RS lost 59% more juice than the SV , no?
Super high quality content. Thank you, Chris!!
I love the scientific approach of your videos, best in youtube! One question. When I see your steaks, they are very homogeneous on the inside, I usually look for an uniform gradient. Of course it's a matter of taste, but should I aim for an uniform inside, or a gradient from crust to the center? I guess to get the gradient, just reverse sear for less time?
Another great chef, subscribed and liked. Thanks for videos this helps in improving my day to day cooking skills
I've been using the reverse sear to solid results (with sear in a stovetop pan). I do have to fuss with it to take it in and out a few times to use an instant read thermometer.
I should probably look into a leave in probe to save some hassle on that end.
Chef Young sells an amazing one ;)
Dude I really appreciate your channel! Discovered it yesterday and now I am addicted watching your videos. I love how you put sciece into cooking and that way making it more based on numbers and physics instead of human perception. Especially the triangle test. Love it how you bring scientifical methods into cooking.
Awesome video, thank you very much! I love the style of it, the clarity and how understandable it is. Top content, Sir.
Best thing about sous vide: you get this flawless, best possible home cooked steak every single time. You can buy the most expensive possible steak at the grocery store and have absolute confidence you won’t make a little mistake that’ll make it a waste. It’s perfect every time.
My favorite little added technique: rest it for a while after it comes out of the sous vide, as long as like 15 minutes. Not only will that help dry out the surface a bit, it’ll cool the core down a decent bit. Means you can hammer the surface with a little extra impunity and get the best crust possible without risking any overcook more than a millimeter in. Works great!
I've used both methods and your right there
is no real winner there both excellent. I think it's about time. Do you have time to do the sous vide method? Cause it takes so much longer so if you don't have the time, the oven method is much better for your particular needs that day.
For me the biggest difference is that the vacuum seal for sous vide allows the seasoning to penetrate the internal fibers of the steak more than it does with reverse searing.
Great video. I have used both methods cooking steaks. However, I use my charcoal grill to reverse sear rather than the oven, and I have to give the edge to that method over sous vide. The lump charcoal gives the steaks a bit of smokiness that tastes fantastic.
Certainly smoking the meat, or adding seasonings will change the outcome. And personally I do love a bit of smoke on the meat.
My goal in this video was to see if I could pick up a difference with just the meat itself with these two techniques?
Same. I use a pellet smoker at about 240 degrees to heat the steak for the reverse sear, then either turn the grill way up or use a cast iron pan to finish the steak. Consistency is great and flavor is great. In a home setting I have struggled to get the flavor from the crust in a sous vide steak.
Chris, great video again! Have you tried doing a Sous Vide steak using the Anova Precision Oven? This machine allows you not to use a plastic bag, which works great with meat cuts with pointy bones such as tomahawk steaks and ribs, which can puncture the bag. Another question how about searing the steaks after Sous Vide using a hot cast iron pan or a plumber's butane torch? Saves time heating a gas grill or lighting charcoal and could be more precise.
This is what I do with my annova oven. Finish with a torch gives more control and no oil splattering everywhere like in cast iron. Though a reverse seared steak on the smoker is also another great experience.
Great video Chris!
When reverse searing have you experimented with convection fan on vs off, and different temp/time combinations? My gut says that lower oven temp + convection fan could reduce the overcooked zone. But these things are often unintuitive!
What about additional flavors, such as herbs (like rosemary or thyme)? Wouldn't sous vide lend itself to better perfuse the steak if you throw some herbs into the bag before sealing it? Or is it better practice to infuse those flavors with some butter and garlic after the searing process?
as an executive chef, both work well for adding flavor.
Love your videos. I am curious to hear your thoughts on moisture loss as it relates to a more positive eating experience. I was head over heels in love with Sous Vide for about a decade, and while I still admire the precision, I don't choose to cook large pieces of meat under pressure. In my experience, the reverse sear leads to a more concentrated flavor of beef that isn't watery like the sous vide piece would be. You're welcome to correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the juiciness of a steak typically land on fat and not water content? Sous Vide steaks are watery, but it isn't the type of moisture I am looking for in my meat
Chris, I have a question regarding fat render. Over the years I’ve started to favor reverse sear more and more because I usually cook more marbled cuts like ribeyes and I think that reverse sear tends to give me a nicer more rendered texture to the fat. Sous vide is great for consistency but I feel like there is always a bit of chewiness left to the fat. What are your thoughts?
So I think the primary difference is that when reverse searing, it's typical that the surface of the meat gets quite a bit hotter than sous vide. Since the fat tissue contains a lot of collagen, this higher temperature helps to soften the fatty tissue so that its more tender and less fatty. The fat cap, in particular, will be much hotter than the rest of the meat when reverse searing because there is less evaporative cooling going on with the fatty tissue. So, yes, I agree that a major benefit of the reverse sear for high-fat cuts is that it makes it easier to tenderize the fatty tissue. It's a good point and worth a video just for this.
In the sous vide community many recommend that for fattier cuts like ribeye that you cook it at a higher temperature. 137°F is the common temp. This is a little bit more than medium rare, but the benefit is the fat renders beautifully and adds way more flavor and mouth feel. You need to be at 131°F to have anything render
How can I control surface temperature of the meat during the reverse sear method? If the surface temperature starts getting too hot should I just make the oven temperature lower? But it can increase the humidity in the oven so meat surface temperature may not cool down as I wanted, am I right? I assume that just open the oven will help both reduce temperature and decrease humidity so surface temperature can also decrease. What do you think?
I have decided for myselfcSteak tastes better when it has enough time to develop crust. SousVide cooks it to close to doneness to be able to develop crust. Grill / Charcoal does great job, and u can put it on top of some bush in between for extra layer of flavor
Chuck roast cut into steaks bagged in portions sous vide over night and frozen for when I wanna enjoy them cannot be achieved with reverse searing method so I'll stick with sous vide, would be interesting also to find out which one is more energy efficient. Also would anovo precision oven be considered sous vide or reverse sear? 🤔
Thanks for these videos, I love your technique and precision with all the testing. Seems I'm also a fan of everything you did before, love fat duck, modernist cuisine, although I must admit I'm still using an anova rather than a joule. Have ordered my predictive thermometer though! Hope you carry on making these videos even with the success of your products.
Brilliant! 👍🏻 this clears up so much, thank you.
Can I ask what temperature oven you used for the reverse sear?
generally the lower the better but somewhere between 200f and 250f should work fine
I used 200F.
Thank you for the triangle test as well. My steaks would definitely stand out. First, I use Costco steaks, which, if you didn't know, are "knife tenderized". Says so on each package. I reverse sear in my Ninja smoker oven using only half a cup of pellets , which smokes better than my pellet grill or offset smoker. I monitor the temp with my Bluetooth thermometer. After reverse searing, I take the steak out and let it rest for over an hour, so the temp comes back down. This allows me more time on my infrared grill to get the perfect crust. Everyone who tastes my steaks says they are better than the most expensive steak houses.
it'll be cool if you could do a comparison on which slow cooking method gets the best yield for meat when either sous vide or braised.
Well done vid! I am new to your channel and was surprised to see you only have 5k+ subscribers. I bet you’ll have 100k if you keep producing content like this on a fairly regular basis.
🙏
Did you add any salt to the steaks before weighing and cooking? Was wondering if a dry brine would change the moisture loss numbers.
I intentionally did not use salt in this experiment. Salt would definitely have increased the water retention a bit. But unless you full brine the steak, it will be a modest effect.
I've largely given up on SV. Reverse sear is quicker and I can't tell a difference in tenderness. Less hassle too since you don't have to deal with getting the vac sealer and water bath out. Plus if you do the initial cook in a smoker, you get an extra flavor profile. The only downside is it's easier to overcook if you get distracted - which I suppose is where a continuous temp monitor comes into play.
I wish you would have touched on the ability of Sous Vide to tenderize slightly tougher steaks like NY strips, Top Sirloin, etc that reverse sear cannot do..
That’s a different video, but worth doing. It opens up the question of what happens over long periods of holding time, which is another huge science topic.
And, it certainly is possible to do it with reverse sear with adequate temperature control. My old boss Heston and I did this with the 24hr steak for the first season of BBC’s In Search of Perfection.
I wonder if there would be a notable difference in sear or searability with another more common searing method for a home cook: on a stove in a pan.
Testing this now, and the early data says maybe
I mostly use reverse sear for the reasons Chris gave in his summary. The 2 exceptions are if I'm cooking a piece of meat that could benefit from more time at temperature to break down some tougher bits, or to freeze after to sous vide for a quick search and serve another evening.
Hi Chris, really like your videos. Do you ever use "texas crutch" technique in an actual cousin? Does it compite with this two? Isn't kinda like a mix of both? Regards!
My BBQ barely gets over 250 degrees centigrade. How long do I sear my Sous vide cooked staked?
Hey Chris! I find that the best sear by far is the "forward sear" i.e. the raw meat goes straight to the cast iron skillet, then finish in low heat in the oven. But then the interior doneness has all the familiar problems. I can precisely nail the doneness with sous vide, or the Anova Precision Oven BUT I have NEVER achieved a reverse sear or SV & sear as good as the forward sear. It feels like I can have one or the other perfect (interior or exterior) but not both. Usually I just assume the wet surface of the sous vide steak can never be completely dry and this greatly hinders making that awesome crust that I love so much. Maybe my skillet isn't thermonuclear enough, but it's hot enough to be smoking and forward sear well so I'm not sure what else to do to make the SV sear meet my goals. Thoughts? Oh, and when are the pre-ordered CI thermometers shipping?
It means you are searing it wrong or at too low temp. For folks like you - I recommend: do sous vide beforehand (hours to 1d) and let it cool down in the fridge. Then you can get away with longer sear on a weaker source. And it come out great.
Two thoughts:
(1) I agree with Alex, let it cool for a while. Both steaks ended up cooking for ~20 min before they were seated in this video (simply because we had to move cameras around).
(2) Make sure to blot off excess water and brush on a generous amount of oil to help conduct heat.
@@ChrisYoungCooks thanks!
Have you tried the flamethrower method? There are unnecessarily expensive "searing guns" out there, but a $30 weed burner seems to do the trick for me.
@@banksta3 Yes, I have one of the commercial ones meant for searing sous vide meat. Very unimpressive result. I'll next try the suggestion to cool in the fridge or freezer before searing.
For those who sous vide steak, do you normally let the steak cool down after taking it out of sous vide? If so, for how long? I fear that going from sous vide into a sear would overcook the internal. But sometimes, if I let it cool down to 80-90F internal, the center is colder than it could be when serving after a sear. What are your typical processes here?
I’ll be talking about this a bit in my next video. But I often let my sous vide or reverse-seared steaks cool down for 30min or more, usually I’ll throw them in the fridge. The searing will quickly bring the temp back up, and the core can’t cool any faster than it heated in the first place.
Awesome, thank you so much for the reply and keep up the amazing work! Really looking forward to more content :)
Did you cool down the steaks before searing them?
Great video and great detail as well. Just stumbled across your site due to the ninja cremini. Signed up. I have followed heston since working at Cliveden House just down the road from the fat duck. Also followed Nathan at Modernost cuisine and chef steps. So looks like I have been following you as well. One experiment I would like tried actually comes from Hestons at home cook book for toffee popcorn. Is it possible to make without burning the popcorn. I have not been able to and lots of people online have not either.
I’ve slowly found myself switching from sous vide to reverse sear. I think both do great for the meat itself, but I think sous vide is a little more limiting when it comes to what I put on the meat. Some things just don’t hold up in a moist cooking bag, whether it’s spices, garlic, or something more marinade like (citrus does poorly in sous vide, for example)
When (and how) do you salt the steaks?
What temp should you set the oven to for a reverse sear?? Reading online there are a bunch of different opinions
I enjoyed your cooking physics presentation and have tried both of these techniques without so much attention to the details.
You made the remark about an absolute difference in moisture loss as being insignificant however, this raises two questions: --what is the detectable absolute difference and secondly , is absolute difference the right way to compare two amounts of juiciness? Prior work on sensory physiology suggests that sensory comparisons be made by ratios or logs of ratios . . I would be interested is comparing reverse sear samples to check for ability to detect juiciness.
I did like your triangle test - were you aware that Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame used that method to show that a number of wine snobs in the Harvard Graduate student dinner were unable to detect the differences between high and low rated and priced wines?
You should watch this video I made:
th-cam.com/video/Acv7WrrpkKI/w-d-xo.html
Your channel, besides being informative, is rather soothing :)
I done the reverse sear by crank up the heat to 450 a few minute and put in the steak, and decrease temp gradually every few minute until it around 200 and leave there for 5 minutes. Quick and easy
Best video about sous Vide, how did you get your sous vide to loose only 6%, it seems my steaks loose more? do you drop it with the water temp cold or preheated first?
Back here watching this again to add to your latest vid. Thx for doing this and sharing. 👍👍👍👍👍
Please continue your TH-cam career, It will take off. Your scientific background brings a great perspective to the online community!
Keep them coming Chris. Absolute legend.
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How would you adjust this process given that you've found that resting leads to overcooked steaks?
Terrific and fair assessment I'd say. I'm still lazier than either though and just heat my grill to 450, sear both sides for 30 seconds and then let it sit on the top shelf and smoke in the delicious charcoal aroma. ;)
You didn't mention which temp. of the oven you use ? you use thermo fan ?
If you sous vide a tougher cut on a low temperature could you Get away with a Roast kinda cut cooked medium like a steak ?
Honestly from experience you can get the perfect sear with both methods. The reverse sear with a probe thermometer you can’t overcook it if it’s low heat and you pull it when it hits temperature. I’m struggling to pick the better method unless maybe if I did a side by side. Typically I prefer to sous vide steaks, but with the geometry of the tomahawk I usually just reverse sear it.
This was amazing analysis. This channel is single handedly elevating the art of cooking.
We are a family of 6 so when we make meat it is a lot and so sous-vide is really convenient. The only downside is that searing is done at the end and so I cannot make a sauce from that searing process but a cafe de paris butter works fine.
Brilliant video! Very informative. It would be good to add in brackets the temps in celcius :)
"proto-sear" a nice term for what I go for. I really don't care so much about "juiciness." if I want some juice I'll serve some OJ with the meal. what I want is a "better" or "best" steak. so you can't tell the difference in taste? great, that's a good to know. I can definitely tell the difference in appearance. appearance is huge as to the pleasure of eating even though technically the taste is the same. the reverse sear is the easy winner here. no special equipment (just timing and temperature care) and better appearance makes that technique a no-brainer for me. great vid, I'm really tempted to try that thermometer 👨🍳😋
As a scientifically oriented carnivore diet adherent, this channel feels like it was made for me. Thank you!
Hello Chris !
Thanks for the informative videos from you. I would have a question. What do you think of the new mini ovens from Chefsteps or Anova? From Anova I hope that it works like a small Rational combi oven. Am I wrong?
It does indeed work like a small Rationale. I'll be doing a review of this oven soon.
How does the probe measure surface temperature?