FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - How do you like your steak? Doneness? How prepared? Etc.
Old Sep 1, 2011, 7:59 pm
  #323  
Ancien Maestro
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Originally Posted by uk1
Not certain I understand but I'll try.

As you know SV cooks to a temperature and holds. The combination of time and temperature renders the meat safe through pasteurisation. Once that time has elapsed the meat is cooked to exactly the same degree of doneness all the way through so if the center is rare - so is the surface. But it is an unatractive piece of meat at this stage!

In a restaurant you'd hold the steaks at a base temperature. You could in theory leave it in the bath for as long as you want but I'd have thought a practical limit of 24 hours. The only difference between a steak held for say 12 hours and say 24 is a softening and some would say improvement in texture - particularly cheaper steak cuts with less marbling.

Basically you'd store the steaks at a base temperature - say 115. You'd then take it to doneness from there and finish completely on the grill/skillet. This would still be miles better than cooking from scratch on the grill/skillet.
Thanks.. sounds like operative procedure lol!

I guess that's why mediocre steaks cost so much in a restaurant.. using one step of a similar process would just end up in some meat to waste, doing a part of the process plain wrong.. or the meat might just go bad without beind sold and cooked..
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