# Ribeye SV n00b - looking for advice



## indianaman79 (Sep 5, 2022)

hi - i've read a few of the history posts about ribeyes and i've been reading a lot of 2.5 -4 hr cook times @ 130 temp (unfrozen).  all of the picture from this type of cook look like its a medium rare finished product. I'm a medium - medium well type of person so would cooking at 3.5 hours at 135 accomplish this?  any help would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## mcokevin (Sep 5, 2022)

Best advice (and this goes for any cut) is to cook to temperature and not time.  It's good to have a time budget, but you should be targeting a finished temp and not a time.  Medium, I think, is 145 and mid well is 150.  You should check that though as I'm going from memory.  If I go past 135 I've gone too far


----------



## indianaman79 (Sep 5, 2022)

mcokevin said:


> Best advice (and this goes for any cut) is to cook to temperature and not time.  It's good to have a time budget, but you should be targeting a finished temp and not a time.  Medium, I think, is 145 and mid well is 150.  You should check that though as I'm going from memory.  If I go past 135 I've gone too far


i was going to reverse sear to about 145 - forgot to mention that


----------



## Carbon1960 (Sep 5, 2022)

Are you talking about steaks or a roast? That's a lot of time. when you say "3.5 hours at 135" do you mean TO 135 or AT 135?


----------



## Winterrider (Sep 5, 2022)

It would but depending how thick the ribeyes are, a quick sear would easily take that up to  the 145° temp.


----------



## chopsaw (Sep 5, 2022)

indianaman79 said:


> medium well type of person so would cooking at 3.5 hours at 135 accomplish this?


Yes . 4 hours will be the max time in the bath . Longer than that the meat starts to break down . If you have a cast iron skillet , that's a great way to char it up .


----------



## DougE (Sep 5, 2022)

140° for a couple hours will get you med to med well. I generally cook ribeyes in the 3/4 to 1 inch thickness range and they come out still pink inside. I'd actually dial the temp down some, but my wife has an aversion to beef that hasn't been incinerated, so this way, I get a steak that's still pink inside, and her steak gets seared until it's no longer pink.


----------



## dr k (Sep 6, 2022)

mcokevin said:


> Best advice (and this goes for any cut) is to cook to temperature and not time.  It's good to have a time budget, but you should be targeting a finished temp and not a time.  Medium, I think, is 145 and mid well is 150.  You should check that though as I'm going from memory.  If I go past 135 I've gone too far


I agree with temp vs time with cooking in air but with following one of the two heating tables for beef, lamb and pork (frozen to water bath temp or fridge to water bath temp,) or the fridge to water bath temp pasteurization table you can rely with 100% confidence on the duration given. The math has been done for us when following a table on thickness of meat in millimeters at a certain bath temp gives us a 100% accurate duration with water being 800 Xs denser than air and 28 Xs more thermal conductive than air so checking your bath water with an accurate instant read will guarantee results of the duration given. Instead of a general post like, I do steaks at 130 for 4 hours, knowing which of the three tables they used and giving us the thickness and temp of water from the table and then the time from the table is key. When you follow a SV table and give us the three variables from the table you know it's done right the first time and never will you need to reseal a steak and continue. I always follow the pasteurization table  because the longer duration vs heating tables has the FDA or FSIS pasteurization  time add to just the heating time for beef, lamb, and pork to reduce 3.1 million Sslmonella to 1, 1 million Listeria to 1 and 1000,000 E Cioli to 1 and the fouth SV table for pasteurizing poultry reducing 10 million Salmonella to 1. If following a pasteurization table you can quickly cool the vac sealed bag in ice water in the fridge and can be refrigerated below 38° less than 31 days and  below 36.5° less than 90 days. Follow tables and let us know which of the four tables used and the three variables from that table. Otherwise I will take the thread starter's recipe and compare to the correct table and follow the table here:



			A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking


----------



## rbnice1 (Sep 8, 2022)

I have found for normal thickness ribeyes(1" - 1.5"ish)  135 then seared with my grill gun im at medium.  128 then seared is medium rare.  Im guessing it would be different for everyone depending on the amount of sear and how you sear.


----------

