Ribeye steak

As Dinah Washington famously didn't say, what a difference a year makes. That's how long I've had my water bath and it's only now I find out it runs a little bit cooler than the display suggests. What this means is that for all the previous posts, you should drop the temperature by 0.5 unless by some outrageous good fortune yours runs a bit cool too. For this post going forward I'll measure the water temperature to make sure I'm not plucking random numbers out of a hat. Sorted.


Now none of this would've been a problem if I hadn't received a new water bath for my birthday 'cause I'd be none the wiser but I cooked this ribeye in the new one which is bombproof accurate (see the upcoming review), but also means I cooked it with the water 0.5 degrees higher than the old one would've done. If there's one thing sous vide does, it's turning every day into a school day. Not literally. I'm 47, that'd be a bit weird.

So for the summary, it didn't turn out as I wanted, plus I recommend buying an accurate thermometer to test your equipment before using other peoples temperatures ; it's the only way you can guarantee transferability.

Vital statistics : 56.5 for 1.5 hours (for a steak this thickness)

See update at the bottom for more temperature info

In the background you'll see the new Anova. I won't go into detail in this post but it's a bit different to the SousVide Supreme I normally use. In the bottom of the container is some venison I was cooking to go with it. What can I say, we hadn't planned this meal well.

One thing to note in the next picture. It looks like I've got a griffin-like claw for a hand, a griffin-like claw that sprinkles dessicated coconut over meat. I haven't, and it's salt. Be a bit heavy on the salt because most of it comes off in the oil. Those of you with hypertension might want to seek medical advice on that point.

Now I know this is nothing to do with water bathing, but if you try to do triple cooked chips in 2 hours they taste like baked potatoes. If you've ever wondered if the 'sticking them in the fridge in between frys' thing makes a difference, it does.

Now I know I set this one up as a massive fail in the intro, but it was pretty good as you can see.

I just can't help thinking it could've been better, that's all. I'd read that ribeye likes a lower temperature than other steaks so cooking it at the perfect temperature for rump probably wasn't the best start, then the temperature difference between the two baths just added to the problem. It was juicy, loads juicy ; I don't know, maybe I like to make things hard for myself but I think it could be better.

Another time, another temperature. Watch this space.

Update

As promised we've tried ribeye again but a tiny bit lower this time at 56.0 degrees. The pictures don't show it but they were juicier that I was expecting for such a small temperature change so I'd recommend this rather than the initial temperature. I'm going to go a bit saucy next time and drop it down by another 0.5 and see how that goes but this was lovely as it was.