Last Sunday I cooked a sirloin steak for our dinner. Originally we were going to have a late lunch around 2 PM so I put the vacuum sealed bags of steak in a 135°F bath a little after 12 PM. They were not overly thick maybe 1.5 inches or a little less. Well things changed and dinner actually occurred closer to 6 PM. I would say the steaks easily had 5 and a half hours in the bath. The first thing I noted was that there was considerable juice in the bags and the meat was a little darker than I recall other steaks being. After drying the meat was seasoned with salt and pepper and seared for about a minute on each side.
Cutting into the steak it was a perfect medium rare as I have come to expect. It was also tender and cut easily. The steak, however, was a bit dry. Much dryer than I would have expected a sirloin to be. While the steak was cooked perfectly and it definitely was not mushy I think that cooking too long does have some negative consequences. I want to try sirloin again but decrease the cooking time to no more than 90 minutes and compare the results. As luck would have it the wine was very good and I think it tempered the comments. Next time if there is going to be a long delay I think I will remove them and after a quick cooling refrigerate the steaks and reheat just before dinner in the water.
Hi @john.jcb, a 6 hour leeway is OK for a 24 hour chuck steak but I’ve never cooked a cut like sirloin or porterhouse for more than 90 minutes. I’m surprised they were even edible after that long. Your plan of a quick plunge in an ice bath and reheat when ready is definitely the way to go.
Top sirloin is usually tender (it is next to the NY strip on the cow I think) Sirloin tip is usually tough as an old boot. Likewise with round in my experience.
Well, I agree about the top sirloin being a bit more tender than most cuts.
My first-ever sous vide attempt was last night (9 May 2016)… the recipe I found indicated 6 oz steaks at 2 hours… I thought it a bit long, so cut the time to 90 minutes with our 12 oz cuts… (sigh) tough and juicy… to me, about medium-well… forgot to take pictures… (argh)… I tried again today… 45 minutes with another 12 oz top sirloin steak… better. . . but certainly NOT rare… It dawns on me I’m trying to get a cool-pink center on a piece of meat by putting it into hot water for a long time… (grin) I might never get it as rare as I like it… (sigh)
I see two alternatives… Shorten the time again by half… maybe 25-30 minutes and/or lower the temperature… OR use a frozen steak right out of the freezer… into 130F bath … for 30 minutes… I think the only way to get a cool-pink center is to put it in the bath cold to start… (wink)
Any recommendations…?
Then again… for rare steaks… I could just by-pass the sous vide entirely… and throw a steak in a hot pan for 90 seconds on each side and call it a meal… …which is actually a third alternative…
You must set the temperature for your desired doneness with the white wheel which it seems you have done. Looks kind of MR to me. (actually looks lovely) but shouldn’t be that cooked at 130. Contact support is my advice.
A cool pink center might be considered a bleu steak. Rarer than rare. You might try 115-125°F for 45 minutes (semi-thawed steak) then a very very hot sear of about 15 seconds a side. If we could only find a searing station at about 1500°F. Cool and pink are relative, especially the cool part. For me, cool would be about 80°F. Everyone’s cool is different!