Sous Vide and frozen meat

In the Modernist Recipes Forum
I typically buy large vacu-sealed boneless Rib Roasts (Choice) from Costco and cut them into steaks approximately 5/8 of an inch thick. I then vacuum seal them, 2 to a package using a food saver system. When preparing them, I go directly from the freezer to a 135f water bath (using an Anova circulator) for about 2 hours. I then take them out, season them with salt and pepper and finish them on a hot grill for about 1 minute per side.
The result is quite disappointing. The bag after sous vide cooking has more juices than I would have expected. The meat has reasonably good flavor but is dry and not all that tender.
Can anyone give me an idea as to what I am doing wrong - is it the fact that I am using frozen meat? The same meat cooked on my grill without using sous vide is much better.


5 Replies So Far

Hmm, your process sounds like it would work ok. Have you double checked the temperature of the water bath using a different thermometer?
Yes I have. I checked it with a digital thermometer and it was within 1/2 degree F of my setting
I was wondering if I would be better of to defrost the meat the meat first in the fridge, dry and season the meat then give it a quick sear before resealing it in a vacuum bag to finish cooking in the water bath.
I was also wondering if it would be better to use a zip lock bag without vacuum but evacuated of all air vs. a food saver with vacuum. In other words does the vacuum process draw juices out of the meat.
I've had great results with the following:

Season the meat before vac sealing

Sous vide at125f

Cook at least three hours

Sear briefly (45 seconds per side)

Let rest 3-4 minutes thereafter
Interesting, I cook straight from the freezer a lot. I know there was a post on Reddit talking about steak that was too dry / overcooked. Reading through the comments there might give you some options.
http://www.reddit.com/r/sousvide/comments/2w3pxd/everything_sucks_what_gives_upate/
Thank you Jason
I will check out the reddit website


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