so we made 3 steaks and planned on eating one later but it turns out eating the first two steaks was enough for me. I dont want to eat the whole steak and i’d like to save it for tommmorow or something, but its been in the machine for around 2 hours at this point, and its rather high quality, so i’m wondering what i can do to salvage the steak and have it as quality for tommroow.
should i fridge it? put it back in the machine tommroow or just sear it? im not sure what.
thanks for the help <3
Welcome Zack,
Your steak is perfectly cooked and can be stored in the fridge till tomorrow.
It can be reheated in any way you prefer. If you are using sous vide, warm the steak at the same temperature you cooked them.
Sear before service in the normal way.
I am sure some people just sear a steak but my wife likes it warmer in the middle!
More knowledgeable people will be able to give you a better reply if needed, I am sure.
I do exactly as @miksnave states.No need to leave it for the full time but just long enough to warm it.
When I want to rewarm and then sear a steak I will sometimes just let it sit in my hottest tap water with no outside heat source.
All, it was the words “or something” - presumably a longer stay in the fridge - that alarmed me; can anyone with food hygiene expertise weigh in, I think it’s an important question; for how long after being cooked with sous vide can food saved in the refrigerator? if at all? my understanding is that taking food through the “danger zone” multiple times can be seriously problematic. Thanks!
RP, i agree with you. Precision cooking requires planning and attention to details while observing food safety standards.
For Tree: If you’re not certain your meat is safely cooked, it should be discarded after 72 hours if held under continuous refrigeration. It would be helpful to be less economical in disclosing facts that matter, like thickness.
And how long is “around”? Enough to safely Pasteurize the steaks?
Were the steaks individually packaged, or bundled together?
These are all critical details.
If the steak attained the time and temperature required for Pasteurization, it’s safe. For storage of a steak in it’s unopened cooking package the best practice is to completely chill it in a 50% ice bath for approximately the cooking time. It can then be either frozen or refrigerated for future service.
We always want to minimize the time food spends in the Food Danger Zone which is why we use sufficient ice bath chilling. I practice limiting the cumulative time food spends in the FDZ to a maximum of 4 hours. That adheres to most Public Health agencies’ standards that i’ve encountered.
Planning reduces the need for food to be in the FDZ repeatedly.
Heck, I SV my breakfast steaks 4 at a time, then pull them out to be seared and eaten 1 at a time, for 4 days. Never problem ,
I’ve stored SV’d steaks in the unopened cooking bag, unseared, in the fridge for a day or two. Back in the SV for an hour or so when I’m ready to eat.
I had to turn off the sacrilege filter to post this part:
If I’m in a hurry, I’ll put it in the microwave on defrost to gently take the chill off of it - check it every two minutes or so to check for hot spots. Open the bag and sear it as normal. It’s virtually indistinguishable from the original.
Good use of a microwave!
It is but a heat source, with a bad reputation…
Indeed! The bad reputation comes from the fact that 99% of us don’t know how to use a microwave properly. 100% power as the default setting is a huge part of the reason. There’s a lot more untapped nuance to a microwave than you might think.
That said, one of the beautiful things about sous vide is the fact that it doesn’t need constant attention during the cooking process, while, with a microwave, you’re there for the duration. Kind of misses the point of why we’re in this forum.