Hello all -- first time poster and I'm still waiting for my inaugural sous vide (my unit is on order). I am most excited to try steak and had a question about seasoning. I'll definitely apply many of the basic steak spices (dry) to my food saver bag when I package the meat, but I'd like to know if anyone has ever experienced with Worcestershire sauce within the food saver bag? I love the taste of it and would like to use just a little bit of it on my steak. At this point I've not decided what steak I'll cook first but I'm curious if anyone has experience using the sauce. Most interested in if the sauce causes any adverse reactions to the meat when sealed in it (I assume not but want to know).
I also like the flavor especially on hamburgers. I have not tried it myself. One thing that I have tried when experimenting is to try a small bag seasoned with whatever I want to try out. That way I am not investing a whole meals worth of steak. Since you would not be using that much of it I don’t see any reason why it would not be good. You have to watch out when seasoning vegetables and longer cooking items as the salt can sometimes be overpowering if put in the bag. With Worcestershire you are not using that much so it should be OK.
Thanks for the feedback!
Worcestershire sauce will not hurt your steak. It won't make a big difference unless you marinate it in it a bit before cooking. Many people freeze the steaks ahead with Worcestershire or fish sauce or a combination.
The best steak I have cooked was with the fast (imitation) dry aged. You put 1 TBSP fish sauce in a bag with the steak and marinate it 3 days in the fridge, turning it once a day. You are also supposed to wrap it in cheese cloth and leave it in the fridge 3 more days to dry. I did not get that far but the 3 days marinade made this steak far more flavourful, not fishy, but more beefy somehow. As good or better than the Porterhouse I found on sale.
This was a NY steak cut from a long strip. I cut 16 steaks from this strip and have cooked 10. The dry aged were the best by far but they were all good.
The second best was twice cooked. My dinner guests were unavoidably delayed a week so I put the sous vided steaks back in the freezer and reheated them sous vide a week later.
I have done several marinades and all were great. Once I got crazy and put chipotle hot sauce in there with some olive oil. I was expecting spicy, but it was more smokey flavoured.
I would recommend you put a nude steak in the bag the first time. Then you have a baseline to compare with and I am sure you will be impressed.
I am sure it is possible to ruin a sous vide steak, whether with seasoning or overcooking etc. but it would require effort.
I’ve been pre-freezing individual portions of liquid marinades in ziploc bags to make it easier to vacuum seal them with meat without gunking up the vacuum sealer. Also, if you want the marinade to penetrate the meat before cooking, make a marinade paste instead of liquid in the vacuum bag and then refrigerating at least overnight before cooking. Works great with garlic and ginger for chicken breast.
Plus, for anyone who doesn’t know, it’s pronounced “wooster-sheer”. You should butcher the meat, not the sauce 