Dry Steak

oclemon
Mon, 10 Nov 2014 02:30:31 +0000
Anova Precision® Cooker

So I eagerly tested out my new Anova cooker with some basic 1" thick shoulder steaks. Using conventional methods (quick sear, then finish in the oven at low heat, then rest), I get a very tender, juicy steak. It requires quite a bit of attention to get right. I cook steaks pretty frequently, and I think I’m pretty good at getting them right, although occasionally I get distracted and overcook them by a bit.

I sealed and cooked a few at 136F for about 2 hours, removed from plastic, then seared in a very hot pan. The results were unexpected.

The steaks were cooked perfectly to temperature - they were exactly how I expected them to look - perfectly pink throughout, with a very thin seared crust. However, while the steaks were just as tender (and delicious) as I expected, they were a lot dryer than usual. To be sure, no one being served this cut blind would think “wow, this is a dry steak.” However, as someone who has prepared this exact cut from the same purveyor a great number of times, I could definitely tell that the meat was dryer than usual. I also noticed that there was quite a bit more juice left in the bags than I had expected.

Has anybody else experienced this when cooking steak? Is it a cut issue? A time/temp issue? Again, the steaks were very good, and they were not dry as in “overcooked.” They were just somewhat short of the final product I get when I cook them via conventional means and get them just right. Any thoughts?

12 posts - 7 participants