Garlic Herb Butter Sous Vide Steak Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Should you put butter in sous vide steak? ›

Our preference is to place butter into the bag itself, rather than on top of the product. Butter added to the bag will help with air displacement, prevent things from sticking together and help to retain shape, and can also be used afterwards for a pan sauce. Butter also works really well for vegetable dishes.

Coarse sea salt + black pepper– you salt your steak before you place it in the sous vide. Be sure you use both coarse salt and pepper rather than finely ground. Fresh herbs- we used a combination of rosemary, thyme, and oregano for this recipe. You can use one or all of these herbs.

Sous vide cooking may seem like the ultimate "safe" way to not mess up a meal, but there are some things like raw garlic that defy that reputation. It may seem like an easy way to infuse your steak or vegetables with some garlic flavor, but it's actually best to cook your garlic before tossing it in the bag.

Seasonings – coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper is all that was used for this reverse-seared steak. Herbs – I used fresh thyme sprigs to enhance the flavor of the steak during the sous vide and searing process. Other herbs you could use are rosemary, sage, or oregano.

The main issue is that the meat doesn't actually absorb any flavor from the butter. In fact, the butter can actually pull some fat-soluable compounds out of the meat, reducing the flavor slightly.

Second, by the time your steak is ready the butter will have moved past browned and onto burnt, creating undesirable bitter flavors. Instead, start cooking your steak in the bare pan until it's about 20-30 degrees from your desired doneness, THEN add the butter.

Q: Can I add aromatics, like herbs or alliums, to the sous vide bag? Yes, you can. I like to add thyme or rosemary sprigs, along with sliced shallots or garlic cloves, to the bags with my steaks during cooking. Adding the same aromatics to the pan as you sear the steaks will bolster that flavor.

The short answer is that it's very tough to predict exactly how spices are going to react in a sous-vide bag. I've found that if I want spice flavor, it's better to rub the spices into the meat after the sous-vide cooking phase and before the final searing phase.

However, because sous vide requires the utmost precision, one wrong step and you can easily overcook your food, ending up with meat that has a rubbery consistency. The last thing any novice chef or food lover wants to do is splurge on a perfect cut of meat, only to have it come out lackluster — or worse, inedible.

Naturally occurring sulfur in the garlic interacts with those enzymes, occasionally turning it slightly green or blue. Sometimes the color change happens, sometimes it doesn't. Shifts in temperature, pH, and the age of the garlic can also come into play, so heating it or mixing it with acid might have some affect.

Why did my garlic turn green in sous vide? ›

Don't panic, this is normal and totally edible! This colour change is due to a chemical reaction between the garlic and the lactic acid in the fermentation. Find out more about lactic acid fermentation in our Guide to Lacto-Fermentation.

Kenji Lopez-Alt said that he doesn't suggest adding fat (butter or olive oil) to the bag when cooking steak sous vide. He theorized that the added fat was absorbing fat-soluble flavor compounds from the meat and then being poured down the drain with the bag juice/butter.

Another thing to note is that cooked meat doesn't absorb marinades, and the outside of meats cook in roughly 5 to 10 minutes sous vide, so you always want to marinate first before sous vide cooking — even if you leave the marinade in the bag.

Yes, they preferred the steak cooked with butter in the bag. Of the seven consistent rankings, six of them preferred butter and only one preferred no butter. Considering the above, I generally recommend that you should add butter to the bag when cooking steak sous vide.

Temps and Times for Sous Vide Tenderloin Steaks

I cook my tenderloin steaks at several degrees Fahrenheit lower than fattier cuts, like ribeye or strip. I like my tenderloin in the very-rare-to-rare range, between 120°F (49°C) and 128°F (53°C), for optimal tenderness and moistness.

Fresh rosemary – feel free to use any fresh herbs of your choice, thyme, parsley or bay leaves can also be used as aromatics to flavor the steak as it cooks in the sous vide. Butter – olive oil can also be used in place of the butter. You'll want one of these fats to add flavor when searing and finishing the steaks.

Butter has a rich, creamy taste that, when melted over the hot surface of a perfectly cooked steak, creates a symphony of flavors. This combination doesn't just add fat; it introduces depth and complexity, enhancing the natural savoriness of the meat.