Sous Vide vs. Reverse Sear...
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Joe Hell I know Im not the only who hates mash potatoes, there are DOZENs of us! (credit to whoever gets that reference) The texture is absolutely important, but what is wrong with the texture of a melon? I get it with bananas but melons? To be clear, I LOVE reverse searing a steak I just now prefer sous vide
I hate the term mouth feel and someone here once suggested Pallet Appeal and…I looked back and found the post and it was you!! Hahaha that’s too funny!
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Joe Hell I know Im not the only who hates mash potatoes, there are DOZENs of us! (credit to whoever gets that reference) The texture is absolutely important, but what is wrong with the texture of a melon? I get it with bananas but melons? To be clear, I LOVE reverse searing a steak I just now prefer sous vide
I hate the term mouth feel and someone here once suggested Pallet Appeal and…I looked back and found the post and it was you!! Hahaha that’s too funny!
Jonathon Watermelon for example seems grainy and strange. Cantelope is mushy/slimy…bananas fall into that category too. I love the flavor of all of them though. Eggplants are right in there as well. Just mentioning oysters makes me gag. I’m having trouble even typing about them. lol. None of the above appeals to my palate!
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Joe Hell I can understand the watermelon being grainy but it doesn’t bother me! Love oysters, I’ve never had something out of the ocean that I didn’t like!
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Joe Hell I can understand the watermelon being grainy but it doesn’t bother me! Love oysters, I’ve never had something out of the ocean that I didn’t like!
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@Joe Hell and PapaSop I am working on Meatgistics University Deli Meat 20(x) and Ive done chicken breast deli meat two different ways, both of them I have finished in the sous vide cooker and have been really happy with the results!
Jonathon Can’t wait to see it.
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My two cents worth… That first steak I ever did using Sous Vide was undoubtedly the most evenly cooked steak throughout that I’ve ever done. No over or under cooked spots. Also the most tender. Perhaps preferring the reverse sear just eliminates the extra time to do the Sous Vide. Not having one and heating water on the stove is just to worky for me. Extra planning you know. I’m going to try again with two steaks as Joe did. Hard to remember the texture between them. I do feel you get a better sear using the reverse because I’ll pull it at a lower temp and direct cook a bit longer.
As far as texture goes…Who the H… doesn’t like mashed potatoes! Actually one of my co-workers. He also hates pork so he don’t count. LOL
Personally, the texture of squash kills me…can’t do it!
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Joe Hell I know Im not the only who hates mash potatoes, there are DOZENs of us! (credit to whoever gets that reference) The texture is absolutely important, but what is wrong with the texture of a melon? I get it with bananas but melons? To be clear, I LOVE reverse searing a steak I just now prefer sous vide
I hate the term mouth feel and someone here once suggested Pallet Appeal and…I looked back and found the post and it was you!! Hahaha that’s too funny!
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Jonathon This is a great video that touches on several topics in this thread!
Joe Hell They should have smoked the ribs they sous vide for a few hours first to get the smoke flavor they were looking for. I’m also not sure the ribs they smoked would have been very tender only being cooked to 160. When I did my ribs I cooked them to 200 or so, and they were tender as all get out.
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Joe Hell They should have smoked the ribs they sous vide for a few hours first to get the smoke flavor they were looking for. I’m also not sure the ribs they smoked would have been very tender only being cooked to 160. When I did my ribs I cooked them to 200 or so, and they were tender as all get out.
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Joe Hell I’ve seen that video before, I enjoy the goofiness of it really, plus nice shots of meat!
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Very interesting thread, Joe Hell and PapaSop : I’m a bit surprised you have not liked the results of SV’ing your chicken steak or pork… You both appear to be quite adept with your SV skills, but I will mention anyway that you can vary the resulting texture of your meat by varying time (since for these products you want to hold temp. at a constant for “doneness”.
I go back and forth between buying (striploins or ribeyes) that are either low end prime / high end choice or others (much cheaper) that are low end choice /high end select)… I then dry age for between 40 45 days, then the higher quality meat I generally SV for about 1 hour per inch of thickness… The lower quality meat SV: about 8-10 hrs per inch thickness… I have been very happy with the texture of the meat coming from the SV…
On the other hand, we have a convection oven (it is not possible to turn off the convection feature) so when doing a reverse sear I have never been thrilled with the results…
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Very interesting thread, Joe Hell and PapaSop : I’m a bit surprised you have not liked the results of SV’ing your chicken steak or pork… You both appear to be quite adept with your SV skills, but I will mention anyway that you can vary the resulting texture of your meat by varying time (since for these products you want to hold temp. at a constant for “doneness”.
I go back and forth between buying (striploins or ribeyes) that are either low end prime / high end choice or others (much cheaper) that are low end choice /high end select)… I then dry age for between 40 45 days, then the higher quality meat I generally SV for about 1 hour per inch of thickness… The lower quality meat SV: about 8-10 hrs per inch thickness… I have been very happy with the texture of the meat coming from the SV…
On the other hand, we have a convection oven (it is not possible to turn off the convection feature) so when doing a reverse sear I have never been thrilled with the results…
raider2119 The steak I was fine with but seemed to prefer the other methods just slightly more. The pork was ok but not my favorite. The chicken was just not right. lol. I cook and consume chicken several nights a week and consider myself somewhat of a chicken ‘ninja’. I rarely if ever screw it up. There is nothing worse IMO than getting a mouthful of raw chicken. That’s the only way I could describe the end texture despite a fully cooked temperature.
Dry aging is one of my next projects for sure. I’ve got a rib roast waiting in the wings!
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Very interesting thread, Joe Hell and PapaSop : I’m a bit surprised you have not liked the results of SV’ing your chicken steak or pork… You both appear to be quite adept with your SV skills, but I will mention anyway that you can vary the resulting texture of your meat by varying time (since for these products you want to hold temp. at a constant for “doneness”.
I go back and forth between buying (striploins or ribeyes) that are either low end prime / high end choice or others (much cheaper) that are low end choice /high end select)… I then dry age for between 40 45 days, then the higher quality meat I generally SV for about 1 hour per inch of thickness… The lower quality meat SV: about 8-10 hrs per inch thickness… I have been very happy with the texture of the meat coming from the SV…
On the other hand, we have a convection oven (it is not possible to turn off the convection feature) so when doing a reverse sear I have never been thrilled with the results…
raider2119
Looking back at this, the one NY strip I did was excellent after the SV. The rib-eye not so much. Perhaps not actually having a Sous Vide cooker and doing this on the stove was just to worky. The other thing is planning ahead. An 8-10 hr SV cook is something I just can’t wrap my head around. If I end up buying one of those cookers I’ll give it another go. The whole concept makes total sense but kinda like teaching an old dog a new trick. That’s why I like this site. All kinds of new tricks and ideas. -
PapaSop I’ve eaten but never purchased Wagyu prior to day because it is normally prohibitively expensive. They have a couple different grades of Wagyu on the website that range in price from $32-$40/lb… I’m not sure what grade I have but at $11.99/lb. it was too good a deal to pass up.
I picked up an Eye of Round the other day from the new meat shop in town ‘Butcher Butcher Walla Walla’. The meat is from a Corriente Cattle ranch in Enterprise Oregon called ‘6 Ranch’.
Normally I would use Eye for jerky but this cut was far too special for that…although I’m sure it would make superb jerky!
This was prepared with a paste consisting of salt, pepper, garlic, thyme and 4 kinds of fresh rosemary. Vacuum sealed overnight the cooked Sous Vide at 125 for approx 10 hours and finished on the Pit Boss. Perfection!

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I picked up an Eye of Round the other day from the new meat shop in town ‘Butcher Butcher Walla Walla’. The meat is from a Corriente Cattle ranch in Enterprise Oregon called ‘6 Ranch’.
Normally I would use Eye for jerky but this cut was far too special for that…although I’m sure it would make superb jerky!
This was prepared with a paste consisting of salt, pepper, garlic, thyme and 4 kinds of fresh rosemary. Vacuum sealed overnight the cooked Sous Vide at 125 for approx 10 hours and finished on the Pit Boss. Perfection!

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I’ve been using sous vide since 1997. a few tips, never salt meat before cooking, it’s best to cook and chill then retherm at a lower temp then originally cooked at. Always make sure the meat is totally dried. The pan needs to be very hot but don’t smoke the oil. Get a good Maillard crust on it using a cast iron should take 1 min on each side add hard herbs and baste as you finish it. Sous vide beats reverse sear by miles. And last tip learn how to slice meat against the grain. also google sous vide cooking times and temps for the meat for desired doneness. NY Strips can only take 20 mins depending if you plan on Pasteurization of the meat
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I’ve been using sous vide since 1997. a few tips, never salt meat before cooking, it’s best to cook and chill then retherm at a lower temp then originally cooked at. Always make sure the meat is totally dried. The pan needs to be very hot but don’t smoke the oil. Get a good Maillard crust on it using a cast iron should take 1 min on each side add hard herbs and baste as you finish it. Sous vide beats reverse sear by miles. And last tip learn how to slice meat against the grain. also google sous vide cooking times and temps for the meat for desired doneness. NY Strips can only take 20 mins depending if you plan on Pasteurization of the meat
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Learning about using aromatics and refraining from using salt were 2 of the most important lessons I’ve learned about using SV…
I tend to go with significantly longer cooking times, first because I cut my steaks at least an inch thick and it requires at least an hour of soak time… usually a bit more than that… and also because I tend to find deals on tasty but inexpensive meats that tends to require long long hours of soak to make it tender enough to be edible…
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