Quote:
Originally Posted by haertig
I wanted to try sous vide. I have looked at the equipment required many times. But I always talked myself out of it. Normally I cook my steaks on the Traeger pellet grill, but sometimes I pan fry them in a cast iron skillet. I have found that fattier cuts like ribeyes come out every bit as good in the cast iron as they do on the grill. And by the time I have the desired sear on the steak, it is cooked to my liking. So what would be the benefit of sous vide if just searing the steak cooks it plenty? I can see if you had a really thick cut of steak sous vide might help, but I like ribeyes, and those typically come fairly thin (except from Costco, where every steak must be 2 inches thick - Costco has some of the best meat around BTW, they even Prime grade).
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If pan searing works out great for you, then sous vide may be of no real benefit. Where it really helps is for those really thick cuts of steak. There is also a bit of extra tenderizing that naturally happens with 2 hour cook times. But as I mentioned above, the real benefit for me is the time that sous vide buys me. It's no longer the steak that the rest of the meal has to be prepared around so that everything comes together at that extremely short "magic" moment when the steak is perfect. That "magic moment" is now an hours long window. Sides and veggies not quite ready? No big deal. Let the steak go, it's not going to get any done-er.
I was already very happy with my own ability to prepare steaks the way I liked as well. And was leery of trying sous vide. I still bought one when it was deeply discounted and couldn't be happier. For me it's the prep and the cooking process itself that the sous vide makes much, much easier/more convenient.
Then there's the the chicken, the salmon, and the pork. Never burnt, never dry, never rubbery. Never an emergency.
