Hello, trying the nano for the first time today. Ribeye steaks about 1.5 - 2 Inch thick. I’ve already seasoned them and vacuumed sealed them. There in the fridge. Going to bring up to Temp of 130 and cook for 2 hours. Then take out and pan sear them at a very high temp for 30 secs each side. I did alot of research on here before writing this but I just want to make sure I’m good to go. Any help, suggestions or a good to go would be much appreciated!!!
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Plan sounds good. When searing use a high smoke point oil like avocado, rice bran or a nut oil. These will give you better chance of getting a good sear with less smoke.
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I planned on using a sear pan with avocado oil drizzled over the surface before searing. I appreciate your help!!
Are you supposed to pat the steak dry before searing?
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YES! Get the surface of the steak as dry as possible before it hits the pan. It’s of vital importance. If you don’t, the surface moisture has to evaporate before searing can commence.
Heat your pan dry. When the pan is up to temperature wipe it with oil, use a wad of kitchen paper to do so. This will ensure you don’t get too much oil. The smoke that everyone complains about is caused by burning oil, not burning meat.
Alternatively, brush the meat with a light coating of oil before you season it. This will mean that there is no excess oil on the pan where it is not in contact with the steak and it will help your seasonings stay in place.
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Definitely pat the steaks dry after taking from the water bath. Otherwise you’ll get a layer of steam that prevents the sear. The suggestion to use some oil is spot on. Apply the oil to the steak instead of the pan and you’ll get less smoke. You plan on using a searing pan which I assume is a stainless steel number. While it should work OK, use a cast iron pan if you have one and heat it up for at least 5-10 minutes. It holds heat better and you’ll get a better sear. Bon Appétit!
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Thanks for all the information!!! Yes I’ll be using a cast iron sear pan on my induction cooktop.
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Guess I should have asked before, I’m doing two steaks at once. Is everything said above still good to go??
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Of course, you’re good to go.
Dry, then season your two steaks and sear without crowding/touching.
Insufficient preheating leading to lengthy sear times appears to cause much unhappy SV outcomes. You want hot and quick as in 45 seconds per side. If there’s a fat cap on the steaks, hold them cap-down with tongs and sear the fat first and then sear in the pool of beefy melted fat.
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Greg, when you are doing more than one steak make sure that you do not stack them on top of each other. This will essentially double the thickness and cooking time. Side by side the time for one is the time for both.
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Depending on how rare you and your wife like your beef, 130F may be a bit too rare. My wife likes her steak and rib roast at ~135F and it’s still plenty red/pink.
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Funny Doc (and Greg), I was thinking just the opposite. I like rare-medium rare, so I was thinking you should pull at 120-125 then sear. 130 seem high to me. But you’ll know what’s best for you by cooking! Enjoy.
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For one thing, according to Baldwin, it’s important to cook meats at least at 125F in order to achieve the pasteurization that is an essential element of sous vide cooking. Although Baldwin calls 125F “rare” beef is still pretty red at that temperature, more so than I enjoy. He calls 130F “medium rare” but I, personally, would use that term for what results from cooking at 135F.
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Steak doesn’t require pasteurisation.
Ther will always be debate on things that require judgement like what constitutes medium rare. 130F is the accepted standard.
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Pasteurization can occur at lower temps. At 125 F, it takes about 5.25 hours to pasteurize. At 120 degrees, it takes around seven hours. But I can’t find a minimum temp where pasteurization occurs. But I doubt it can be much lower than 120 F.
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For most people it doesn’t. But, for anyone with a compromised immune system, I would suggest it. All meats have tiny amounts of bacteria which might not harm you and me, but could make someone with an Imminity issue sick. My fiancé has lupus, so things like this are very important to me.
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Extracted from Baldwin (the go to guy for sous vide science):
Most food pathogens grow fastest a few degrees below the temperature that they start to die. Most food pathogens stop growing by 122°F (50°C), but the common food pathogen Clostridium perfringens can grow at up to 126.1°F (52.3°C). So in sous vide cooking, you usually cook at 130°F (54.4°C) or higher. (You could cook your food at slightly lower temperatures, but it would take you a lot longer to kill the food pathogens.)
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Well, seven hours at 120 degrees IS a lot longer. So that is apparently confirming what I said. The lower the temp, the longer the time that is required, and vice versa. I do not mind adding a few hours to cook time. I tried three cuts of beef at 130, and for me, they were over cooked. So, i had to do a lot of research to find how long I needed to SV at various temps.
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Hi @Tarheelneil
Sounds like you might want to stick with cooking at 128 F or greater even if you’re doing a many hours long cook. Since Clostridium perfringens can grow at up to 126.1 F you should probably play it safe (for your fiances sake) and bump up the temp those extra couple degrees. My wife suffers from numerous food related limitations and I find being a little over cautious seems to work well for me! 
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I recently cooked a 1.25 inch thick pork chop to 140 per the new USDA guidelines. I enclosed the meat in 2 ziplock bags and threaded the probe of a Taylor remote reading thermometer/time through the opened corners of the two bags. I’d inserted the probe into the middle of the chop, preheated the water bath to 140, and set the temperature alert on the Taylor to 140. I used a big clip to fasten the bags just clear of the water. Total heating time was about 1.5 hours, the meat was seared on a HOT cast iron skillet. The result was excellent!
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