Hi there,
I’m a first time sous vide user.
I just finished cooking a rib eye steak (I call it an entrecote steak). It was delicious, but what was strange was that the middle of the steak was cooked medium (how I wanted it), but the edges seemed to be cooked medium-rare. Any ideas how come? Is it realated to to the fat?
Thanks in advance,
Ezra
Ezra, how are you evaluating your steak’s doneness?
By temperature, the only consistently accurate method?
Or by appearance or texture which are subjective and can often vary with pieces of meat.
Share some details and we will try to clarify your experience.
Hi,
It was done by appearance.
The middle of the steak was lighter pink while the edges were a darker pink (I took a picture of the edges- see attached)
Thank you!
In theory, the entire steak should be cooked to the same doneness if cooked all the way through. How long did you leave it in for and what temp? It might not have had enough time to finish. You could also look at methods of getting a harder sear. I usually let a steak rest for awhile to get back down to room temp before putting it on a super hot cast iron pan.
Visual appearance is not a reliable indication of doneness. That can only be confirmed by taking the product’s internal temperature.
Meat cooked sous vide is inclined to display more redness than that cooked by normal means. I’m not certain of the reason, but this is particularly obvious in red meats. The colour will bloom quite noticeably and the colour increase when exposed to air. Cut and left to sit for a few minutes the colour will be quite a bit brighter than when it was originally cut.
I cooked it according to Anova’s suggestion, 1 hour at 59.7 degrees Celsius.
Thank you! Again, may there be a difference in areas close to the meat’s fat? It seemed to be a darker pink closer to the fat, and a lighter pink further away from the fat…
Yup. Plus they are different muscles, so one part may have more myoglobin in it than the other.
