Cooking Steak in an Ice Chest

Sous-vide is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath or in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times—72 hours in some cases—at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 131°F to 140°F for meats and higher for vegetables. The intention is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and retain moisture.  {from wikipedia}

You can buy sous-vide cooking tools - this one from William-Sonoma will run you about $500.  You can also buy what is essentially a water heater and use your own container - this one will empty your wallet by $1,000.  Or you can be cheap and use an ice chest like we did!

This video is super simple and explains how you can cook a steak in an ice chest.  We practiced the day before with a thermometer to watch how the temperature fluctuates and added hot water as necessary.  I was really skeptical about whether this would work but I trusted the process and the husband.  This truly was the best steak I have ever had and we have spent over $900 for a luxury steak house experience at Wolfgang Puck's Cut in Las Vegas (which was also pretty awesome).

STEP 1.  Buy your steak (duh).  You do not have to use expensive steaks because this cooking process is low and slow.  We splurged on HEB 31 day dry aged ribeyes since it was Labor Day weekend.  Before you are ready to cook the steaks, get them as close to room temperature as possible.  You want room temperature because when you submerge them in the water, you want to maintain the water temperature and the initial drop off is the fastest.

STEP 2.  Our target temperature for the steaks was 134*F which meant our water needed to be around 138*F.  Boil your water, pour it in the cooler and check the temperature.  Make sure it is a few degrees warmer than you want to account for thermal loss.  When it is at your desired temperature, seal each steak into a ziplock with the air squeezed out or a vacuum sealed bag (if you have that).  Do not season the meat.

STEP 3.  Water temperature management.  Once you drop your steaks in, close the lid and set the timer for 5 minutes.  Check the water temperature and add water if necessary - we had to add two cups of boiling water.  Repeat at 10 or 15 minute intervals until you reach the desired time and level of doneness to the meat.  We cooked our steaks for 45 minutes at a target meat temp of 134*.  The water temperature inside the cooler dictates the temperature that your meat will hit - it won't go over that temperature so you can't overcook your meat with this method.

STEP 4.  Remove the steaks from the cooler.  Discard the plastic bags and pat the steaks dry.  The meat will look sad and not appetizing at all so you will want to sear the outsides and season the meat. Get your grill/cast iron skillet screaming hot.  We put butter on our griddle and seasoned the meat with salt/garlic powder/pepper.  Sear on each side of the steak for about a minute per side - a little longer if you like it crispier.  Remove once you are done searing.

gimme all the steaks!!!!!!

STEP 5.  Enjoy!  The meat is so tender and it has a different mouth feel to it - it is so moist that we thought it tasted super juicy and almost like the consistency of ahi tuna.  I will always like grilled steaks or cast iron skillet steaks but cooking a steak with a sous-vide method has totally changed my outlook on how an awesome steak tastes.  The only comment was the husband thought his was a teensy bit rare so we might go up a few degrees next time.