Steaks: Reverse Sear vs Sous Vide

Cooked steaks both ways, they both come out good. There are pros and cons to both methods.

I’ve found that the difference can come in on the meat quality, when searing at the end in both cases, SV does a much better job with lower graded / tougher cuts than a slow oven/grill cook does.

There is also something to be said about the crust / bark and that’s while it isn’t bad by any means, the SV has less of it and it’s not as intense. In SV it’s formation is dependent on a few seconds worth of sear at the end to form all of it, and dry it with paper towels as much as you want prior to searing, it’s still a wet piece of meat. The oven / grill slow roast, you have drying and hardening of the outer layer going on the whole time, then you sear.

When you add in smoke woods or even just charcoal, there is an entire extra layer of flavors that are being added to the slow grill w/ reverse sear.

I’ve turned out more impressive steaks by putting them in my pellet grill at 165 w/ heavy smoke for a few hours, then searing them on the Santa Maria grill over mesquite. But it does take more work, attention and a bunch more equipment and it is not something that can not be done with thin steaks or super thick steaks though, it’s optimal around 1-1/4" thick. Too thick and you end up with a roast and not a steak, too thin and it just over cooks.