# SV Frozen Ribeyes - Check my plan?



## illini40 (Dec 29, 2020)

Hello

As I try out a few more cooks with the Joule, hoping someone can confirm that this sounds appropriate. Seems crazy to cook a frozen steak this quickly, so just confirming.

- frozen ribeye
- 1” thick
- 1.5 hours at 133*

Targeting medium doneness.

I dug these out from the bottom of the freezer, and they’ve been in there a while so not sure on the actual quality that we are starting with....


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## sandyut (Dec 29, 2020)

133 should end up more like medium rare.  1.5 hours for a 1" steak sounds ok.  I have dove several NY's at 130 for 2 hours and they turned out great.


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## chopsaw (Dec 29, 2020)

illini40 said:


> - 1.5 hours at 133*


I would go 2 1/2 hours . Do you have the Chart by Baldwin ? 
1 inch is roughly 25 mm . 


			A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking


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## Inscrutable (Dec 29, 2020)

Did NY’s couple days ago ...  from frozen ... 1-1/4 to 1-1/2” ... 131.5*  for 120 min ... 30 second reverse sear ... perfect med rare.

The temp will control the doneness  ... think medium is probably north of 135, maybe high 130’s

Time window pretty wide ... minimum to achieve that level of doneness given thickness, maybe 45 min ... up to max time when texture may start to get mushy ... probably 3-4 hours.


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## tx smoker (Dec 29, 2020)

If the steaks are going into the SV pot frozen I'd suspect you'll need more than an hour and a half. Heck, 4,5, 6 hours is no travesty. With the SV you can't over cook them. Better to err on the side of caution IMHO and go longer.

Robert


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## illini40 (Dec 29, 2020)

Thanks for all of the quick responses. I was going off of the Joule app.

Im going to bump the temp to 137*, and try to go closer to two hours.

That sound better?

Thanks again!


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## mike243 (Dec 29, 2020)

I have 7 -1/2 " smoked ribeyes in the SV at the moment, set at 131, have cooked steaks for 6 hours before and never had 1 get mushy, and have ran at 160 due to the wife liking hers well done  , would like to get 1 to the almost mushy stage lol , sounds like fork tender


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## rbnice1 (Dec 29, 2020)

133 good for medium rare as stated.  I would go 3 - 4 hours for frozen steak.  Might be able to go less but more is not an issue.  I go 4 hours or more on fresh steaks.


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## xray (Dec 29, 2020)

illini40 said:


> Thanks for all of the quick responses. I was going off of the Joule app.
> 
> Im going to bump the temp to 137*, and try to go closer to two hours.
> 
> ...



Bumping up the temperature will change the doneness of the steak, it won’t cut down your cooking time if that’s what you’re after. 137F is on the higher end of medium doneness.


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## rbnice1 (Dec 29, 2020)

mike243 said:


> I have 7 -1/2 " smoked ribeyes in the SV at the moment, set at 131, have cooked steaks for 6 hours before and never had 1 get mushy, and have ran at 160 due to the wife liking hers well done  , would like to get 1 to the almost mushy stage lol , sounds like fork tender



It is fork tender but although it appears moist, it will actually taste dried out.  Its hard to describe.  It like sucks the moisture out of your mouth as you chew it.  That said I think youo would have to sous vide it for like 10 hours to get this at under 140f.


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## illini40 (Dec 29, 2020)

To circle back, they ended up going for about 3.5 hours at the 137*. Then I tried to pan sear in a CI skillet. They were close to what I would consider medium.

All in all, I would say that they were pretty good. They stakes were dug up from the bottom of the freezer, so my expectations were not too high...I could taste some freezer burn, but that is not the SV process’s fault. I’m still trying to figure out the sear.

Any suggestions on getting a good sear, without creating a smokey oily mess without overshooting the temp, in a skillet?


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## rbnice1 (Dec 29, 2020)

Honestly I tried different skillet attempts with different oils.  The smoker set to high/and low.  My grill on screaming hot.  My wood fired mini grill on high(https://www.velocitygrill.com/).  Nothing compares to searing it with a flame thrower(https://grillblazer.com/).


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## xray (Dec 30, 2020)

illini40 said:


> To circle back, they ended up going for about 3.5 hours at the 137*. Then I tried to pan sear in a CI skillet. They were close to what I would consider medium.
> 
> All in all, I would say that they were pretty good. They stakes were dug up from the bottom of the freezer, so my expectations were not too high...I could taste some freezer burn, but that is not the SV process’s fault. I’m still trying to figure out the sear.
> 
> Any suggestions on getting a good sear, without creating a smokey oily mess without overshooting the temp, in a skillet?



A couple of things: As long as your happy with what you eat, that’s all that matters.

For a good sear, having a dry surface is key. After you remove the steak from the bag, dry off the surface the best you can. Let it rest for a few minutes while you preheat your pan/grill etc. If you’re looking for that pretty pink center all throughout the steak, sticking it in the fridge or even the freezer for 10-15 minutes will help.

The torch method RB mentioned is a good one, but if one is not available to you a pan sear is good too because you can add flavors; butter, garlic, fresh thyme and spoon it over your steak after you flipped it the first time.

Another good method of searing is placing a grate over a lit charcoal chimney. It produces great results but it’s time consuming while the coals get up to temp. If you wanna go that route and speed it up, you could invert the chimney upside down so it will use less coals. Heats faster and less waste.

If you’re using a hot pan and butter/oil you’re going to get some smokiness indoors, you can’t avoid that. I do my searing in a cast iron pan outside on the grill, that way I don’t have to worry about stinking up the house and cleaning splatters off the stove.

Another thing to consider is to set your SV temp lower on account of carry over temperature from searing. If you like your steaks at 137F, set it to say like 130-133F and sear with what works best for you, that will bring you close to your target temperature, instead of setting too high of a temperature and then overshooting your preferred doneness during the sear.

It just takes a little experimenting to figure out what you like. Once you got your method down, you can get repeatable results every time.


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## illini40 (Dec 30, 2020)

I’ve been reading through Baldwin’s information and trying to understand more about SV.

Just to confirm I am interpreting and understanding his information:

- for a fresh 1.5” steak
- it would take 2 hours at 140* to reach pasteurization
- this means that it is not only edible (roughly medium doneness), but it is also “safe” by being pasteurized 

Am I following everything correctly? Appreciate the help.


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## rbnice1 (Dec 30, 2020)

I think your reading to much into it.  I would never cook my steaks that hot.

And I don't think pasteurization means much with meat.  I knwo it does with milk or you can use a sous vide for pasteurized eggs.


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## chopsaw (Dec 31, 2020)

illini40 said:


> I’ve been reading through Baldwin’s information and trying to understand more about SV.
> 
> Just to confirm I am interpreting and understanding his information:
> 
> ...


Yes , that's the idea . If you like your steaks at 140 , by all means use that temp . You won't go wrong using that info from him . Thats why I posted the link .


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## pineywoods (Dec 31, 2020)

If you take it to 140 then sear after that your going to over shoot medium I think. I normally do t-bones but have done ribeyes  at 130 for 2 hours but that is thawed meat with frozen I'd go like 2.5 hours at 130 to 135 then sear in cast iron with some butter in it. That way you can use the sear to get to the desired medium. It would be the same for a hot grill I think. We do them both ways if I'm doing it normally it's in the cast iron if the wife cooks them it's onto the hot propane grill for the sear.
We always pat the steak with a paper towel to dry it as much as possible without taking a lot of time up for the steak to cool.
Wife likes them still mooing so I set the temp at 129 or 130then throw hers in the cast iron for a quick sear and I leave mine in the skillet longer to get it past the blood colored juices to more of clear juices and pink inside.


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## illini40 (Dec 31, 2020)

chopsaw said:


> Yes , that's the idea . If you like your steaks at 140 , by all means use that temp . You won't go wrong using that info from him . Thats why I posted the link .



Thank you, 

 chopsaw
. This is very helpful and what I was looking for. I’m interested in the how/why SV works.

So for pasteurization and Baldwin’s table in this example (1.5” thick at 140* for two hours), it is not that the meat needs to reach 140* and stay at 140* for two hours, correct? It is simply that they need to cook at 140* for two hours to reach pasteurization (and he has done the math/research to determine this time/temp)?

I ask because his table for thawed meat shows that a 1.5” slab like piece would take almost 2.5 hours to reach the IT of 140* (assuming the circulator is set to 140*). Thus about 30 minutes longer than the pasteurization guidance for 1.5” at 140*.

Thank you!


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## chopsaw (Dec 31, 2020)

illini40 said:


> It is simply that they need to cook at 140* for two hours to reach pasteurization (and he has done the math/research to determine this time/temp)?


Yes . I normally add time to that . Maybe 30 minutes . 
I pretty much just use table 5.1 for doing sausage . So I have not looked threw all of his info .
The rest of the time , say doing chuck roast or eye round is such a long cook I don't use the charts .


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## illini40 (Dec 31, 2020)

chopsaw said:


> Yes . I normally add time to that . Maybe 30 minutes .
> I pretty much just use table 5.1 for doing sausage . So I have not looked threw all of his info .
> The rest of the time , say doing chuck roast or eye round is such a long cook I don't use the charts .



Thank you! Very helpful.

Im intrigued by using SV for sausage, and you have sparked my interest. I’ll save those questions for another day/thread. :)


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## chopsaw (Dec 31, 2020)

illini40 said:


> Thank you! Very helpful.
> 
> Im intrigued by using SV for sausage, and you have sparked my interest. I’ll save those questions for another day/thread. :)


Well , I learned it here , so plenty of help .


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