Change to recipe times please @Anova

Anova Precision® Cooker
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@anovaculinary
Cooked wife a rib eye 30 day matured steak last night (baked potato for me) whereby thickness is often based on american slab cuts, which are not often representative of a steak bought in a typical european supermarket.

For instance the 1 hr cook time which only if you read onward notes 40 mins for a thin (regular cut euro steak) which yes, resulted in pink, non grey edge hue meat, but the primary focus is on the time (eg from app) that is 1 hour, result & difference / ruination of the meat in direct contrast to the advertised delivery…

Is it too much to put a thickness grading time one above one below? (we often have an option for “doneness” as you put it …which is grating to british speakers as it feels so damn wrong) …for a lot of folk this would be logical & helpful, (meat is not the cheap commodity that it is in the US with serving size differing greatly)
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Timings are all given for steaks one-and-a-half to two inches thick. For steaks one inch or less, initial cooking time can be shortened to 40 minutes

Whilst this info is HANDY it is also HIDDEN, & doesn’t exactly proliferate across the wesite recipes, so a box / slab adjustment would be handy for the majority.

…the site does not reflect this difference.

You cannot rely on everyone to read the Baldwin book & drill it into their brains, especially in light of “app is easy” designed to be easy, simple to follow & consistent results at the touch of a button …well that means the app could be blamed for several years of soft but grey meat, I do not say this without reason, but from experience that essentially needs a fix via a step change in programming across the board.

(a cook can often be an elongated check the app then scroll the internet for timing corrections, which makes an app… well, useless)

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To show the difference, that is pretty misleading unless you navigate the site REALLY thoroughly…

I bought the same steak for the wife this week (Aldi rib eye 227g matured 21+ days) this is the sort of thing we deem more of a rarity to the normal weeknight supper here generally.

I also bought to try an Aldi “essentials range” nameless steak (227g) also apparantly 21 days aged, though it did not have the scent of matured meat whatsoever) which to my untrained eye reminded me of SKIRT / ONGLET the thickness was inconsistent as a cut (many steaks are though) which matches in with when we have bought kg’s of it at the wholesaler.

(Suffice to say, both skirt & onglet are popular in France, where I eat them regularly as a stop off down the mountain n the valley hypermarche restaurant (if you ever travel to france you will see "culinary excellence even in supermarkets, perfect for travel on a budget)

As i’d had other things to do I stuffed them both in pre-heated for 45 minutes, because I was “iffy” as to the wife’s steak thickness, 54.5c

I could have got another Anova stick out & done them at different temps / times but in reality that is not the normal households ownership, time was against me…

Result 45 minutes resulted in an edge to edge rare for the wife, (the rarest she’s ever eaten as i’m slowly bringing her down from heavier cooked) …so hers was on the edge of time that could have done better at 1 hour, but the previous cook was great, came out & finished as intended, this time “borderline” …more my daughter & I’s appreciation veering vaguely towards the blue which we both enjoy (she’s been eating them in france since about 12 years old) …they are still essentially banned over here since BSE hit decades ago, a remnant of a different age of stupidly feeding cows offal based feed!

My steak also done following the guide parameters of 129°F / 54°C to 134°F / 57°C for a medium rare? was cooked at 54.5c for 40 mins, it could have done with less, but it came out beautifully nonetheless (I do wonder how the average pan frier at home comes out with anything good that means they would downgrade (technically) to this for a tasty steak alternative / fantastically overloaded steak baguette, the steak was too much for me (reduced meat intake) & there was enough to go into a container of rice, peas, corn for today, but I decided to treat the hounds with a bit of steak instead.

I really do think we need to scrutinise on the site having a “switch” thickness quick look, rather than it being as buried as it is, but seeing as the software devs & anova staff rarely (if at all) read these boards then nothing will ever change, & a large degree of european buyers relying on “app” will screw up countless steaks before sussing it out.

We are a lot more sparing in our meat consumption here & more used to making good of cheaper cuts that others only resort to when the latest financial crash is upon us screwing it up & resorting to the same old same old because they try & fail more often than not.

But yes, the Aldi no cut definition “essential steak” was more than acceptable cooked s/vide, having tried it with a mix of decent roasting mix salt just prior to immersion, tasty & satisfying, would have no hesitation in making a bunch in the morning to feed a party of sofa surfing & floor crashing overnighters who were needing sustenance for a weekends drinking & DIY, just as I’d cook it as a regular nights simple steak meal with an eye on budgetary constraint.

Here is a link to ald’s steak as it currently stands (Oct 2023) for some context, note my steak was not much less than rump.

https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/Search?keywords=steak