Dry sous vide steak

Question

How do I stop my sous vide steak drying out? I have tried various temperatures and times from 55°C to 60°C and from 40 minutes to 4 hours. The colour and texture changes but the meat is always too dry to enjoy.

My mother eats steak well done conventionally and it is much more moist than this sous vide medium rare. The meat is still very red, so it's not over cooked.

I am using sirloin, about 20mm thick. It's 28 day aged, according to the packet. When cooked in a pan it is very nice, as it should be at £22/kg. I have tried presearing plus postsearing and postsearing only. Sealed in Sous Vide Supreme vacuum pouches. They then go into a 30l water bath heated by a Vac-Star Sous Vide Chef 2. The temperature is totally accurate according to my certified thermapen and does not vary at all.

I also tried cooking chicken breast with garlic butter potatoes and carrots, as per Douglas Baldwin's book. Carrots were delicious. Potatoes were hard and bland. Chicken was downright weird. Very unpleasant texture and very dry. I invited a couple of friends who are keen to try sous vide over during the whole process. All 4 of us agreed. The machine is going back.

Answer 1

The machine

I invited a couple of friends who are keen to try sous vide over during the whole process. All 4 of us agreed. The machine is going back.

My immediate first thought was that you had a bad machine. The Vac-Star Sous Vide Chef has excellent reviews on Vac-Star's website and it looks like you are using it within proper specifications. That would be my first hunch, as nothing else seems particularly out of place. If you are able to come back, since this was over a year ago, it would be curious to see if a different machine solved your problems.

_{On a side note, I looked up reviews for Sous Vide Supreme vacuum pouches and they seem good, too.}

Other things

I looked up for reviews of the I noticed the Beyond Salmon blogger had posted a follow-up experiment with sous-vide steaks that I found had useful data. This summarized it well:

What most sous-vide books and websites tell you is that you can't overcook using the sous-vide method. It all depends on how you define "overcook." The steak will not go above the desired temperature no matter how long you hold it in the water bath (well, dah!), but the longer you hold it, the more juice you lose.

I have noticed this from your post:

I have tried various temperatures and times from 55°C to 60°C and from 40 minutes to 4 hours.

Per her experiment, steak A, B and C turned out the best. They also had the lowest temperatures and cooking times:

Steak A: 121°F (49.5°C) water bath for 50 minutes

Steak B: 126°F (52.2°C) water bath for 50 minutes

Steak C: 131°F (55°C) water bath for 100 minutes

It likely would be a good idea to try lower temperatures, and stick to the lower-end of the time scale. Also from the article:

But if you are using an immersion circulator, you might be tempted to put meat in the water bath whenever it's convenient (in the morning before going to work, during kids' nap, etc.) and then have it ready for dinner. It will surely be very tender, but you'd better have a lot of demi-glace handy because it will be dry.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Like any kitchen tool and technique, a low temperature water bath, has to be used correctly and with the proper technique to get good results. It also takes some practice to achieve the results you like. Before you take your equipment back, try this:

Pre-heat water bath to desired temperature (I use 58.5 for slightly more than medium rare).

DO NOT season your steak (this may be the beginning of your problem as seasoning at this point will draw out moisture).

Get a cast iron pan very hot, then pre-sear each side of the steak for 25 - 30 seconds.

Place in bag (does not need to be a vacuum bag, I find a Ziplock is easier)

Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to bag, zip most of the way, slowly submerge in preheated water bath, forcing the air out of the bag. Just as you get to the top of the bag, seal the ziplock.

Let the steak cook for at least for an hour, maybe two, but not much more.

Remove steak from bag. Blot dry on paper towel.

Get that cast iron pan hot again.

NOW season with salt, pepper and/or other seasonings.

Sear hard in hot pan for 30 - 45 sec per side, perhaps even baste with butter.

Enjoy!