So fairly new to the anova, and so far I am 6/6 on steak cuts that turn out like the attached photos to start I have had the temp moved from 134 down to 128 and with no change in the cook it comes out looking well done, they were all left in for about an hour 20 to hour 30 sealed… seared for 30 seconds on each side, same no pink no red, just grey/brown. strip and sirloin. Purchased meats at different grocery stores. I am at a loss. Thoughts or suggestions?
Those cuts look pretty thin, maybe 3/4"? 1:30:00 is kind of long, try reducing the cook time to about 45 minutes, maybe even 35.
You could also try thicker cuts, and cook for about 45 to 1 hour.
Oh? I thought as long as it’s the same temperature using anova it wouldn’t matter how long you left it in the cook will be the same?
Verify that it’s set to fahrenheit rather than Celsius? Verify the temperature of the water with a separate thermometer?
@Justin Foster said:
Oh? I thought as long as it’s the same temperature using anova it wouldn’t matter how long you left it in the cook will be the same?To a point, yes, but you can still overcook at low temp. You can experience this more easily with something like boneless chicken, fish or shrimp than steak, but having been down this road before myself with thin steaks, I’ve ended with a few well done steaks that were only cooked at 130F. Fixing it was a combination of bath time, sear time and thicker steaks. Reducing the bath time fixed the texture issues, the lack of any kind of rare center was the sear, and while only 30 seconds per side, it was too long.If you want to run through the same experiments I did to see the differences, get a closely matched pair of steaks that are representative of the cuts you’ve used in the past, and get two that are double the thickness. Throw them all in the bath at the same time, pull one each thin and thick at 45 minutes, let the other two cook for 1.5 hrs. Before you sear each one, cut into it, see what it looks like and cut a piece off to try so you can get the texture of how the time changes things with these thin cuts. Then sear them. You can also try cast iron for searing and getting it blazing hot to the point of smoking. It will develop a crust in only a few seconds, but you need a good exhaust hood or sear it outside. That helped a lot, but ultimately the biggest change came from buying thicker cuts. It might mean going to a butcher that costs a bit more, but in the end it was worth it. After all, I didn’t buy this machine to get a mediocre road side diner quality over cooked cardboard thin steak, I could do that anytime already.
Time should affect texture but not how done it is. Temperature is all that should effect how done it is, as far as I know. Definitely check the temperature of the water because maybe the Anova is broke or needs calibration. If it needs calibration then you need a much more accurate thermometer than you will find at a grocery store.
I have done perfect 1/2 inch steaks rare but max time 2 hours although I did refreeze and redo once so overall 3 hours. I was happy.
I’m gonna say for the thickness of those steaks you are doing them too long. Drop temp to 126-128 and do them for 30-45 mins, I never do steaks longer than 45…even up to 1.5" thick.