Sous viding frozen steak may look easy to you. But the moment you’ll say ‘Yuck’ while eating the steak, you’ll know something’s wrong.
As easy as it seems, Sous Viding a frozen steak is something you need to be an expert on. You need to make sure you know the duration of the process. Otherwise, you may end up preparing a tasteless steak.
So, how long to sous vide frozen steak? If you want a critical answer or a very accurate answer, it depends on the cut of steak you have at hand. But let me tell you the techniques you can perform.
How Long to Sous Vide Frozen Steak?
As I said before, the number of minutes you should sous vide any steak depends on its cut. Also, do you want the steak to be rare, medium-rare, or well done? That is also a matter of concern which dictates the number of minutes you should sous vide a frozen steak.
For your ease of understanding, let me break this down into steps.
Find Out the Cut
Find out the cut of your steak piece at hand. Is it sirloin, tenderloin, skirt, flank, or any other type of steak? There is also the superior meat kind which is the wagyu steak. It is not very common to have wagyu beef frozen, but if you do have it, that’s something you should take into consideration as well.
If the cuts have too much fat or have a loose texture, depending on your doneness preference, cook it for an hour to 4 hours. Yep! It varies that much.
Find Out the Thickness
It is recommended to sous vide a piece of steak which is somewhere between 2 or half inches. Well, if you want to enjoy a scrumptious bite, then that is what you should go for.
And again, depending on your preferred doneness, cook it for an hour for 4 hours. Let’s say you want a medium-rare steak, then your cook time should be 2 hours or so.
A General Rule of Thumb
Let’s say you are not quite sure about any of the above variables. Don’t worry. Just read what type of steak you have on the packaging. Got it? Great! Now, look up the recommended fresh cook time for it over the internet.
Got that too? Amazing! Now you should cook your frozen steak for it to be cooked fresh plus half the amount of it. Now! I shall warn you that it is not the optimum way to achieve every type of doneness, but it gets the job done.
How to Use Sous Vide Without Vacuum Sealer?
the basic rule of sous vide is to vacuum seal your meal or, in this case, steak. If you don’t do that, you might not end up with your desired results. However, let’s suppose you don’t have a vacuum sealer. Are you not allowed to enjoy sous vide steak? Of course, you are!
Bag your steak in a zip lock bag first. Now, get a straw. At first, get the air out as much as you can with your hands. After you are done doing so, insert the straw into the bag and suck all the air out.
While doing so, remember to hold the straw flush to the bag; otherwise, air can escape. And Voila! You have successfully vacuum sealed a steak without a vacuum.
How to Use Annova Sous Vide?
Using this piece of magic is simple. Just attach your sous vide to a deep pot. Yes, it has to be a deep pot because this technique requires the food to be submerged in the water. So, that is quite a lot of water, and it might overflow if a deep pot is not used.
You can use a Dutch oven if you have one; if not, it’s no issue. After you are done attaching the sous vide, pour water into the pot to fill one-third of it. Now, get your vacuum-sealed frozen steak and set the timer to your desired cook time. And wait for the magic to happen.
How to Set Temperature on Annova Sous Vide?
To set the temperature in your Annova sous vide, gently press the play/pause button for about 3 seconds. You would see that the units will slide between Celsius and Fahrenheit. Now, let go of the button when you see your desired unit of temperature.
And to set the temperature, press the dedicated target temp button. After pressing that, use the + or the – buttons to up or lower the temperature to your desire.
How to Clean Sous Vide?
It is recommended to use a vinegar bath to clean your sous vide. To prepare the bath, make a solution using equal parts of water and vinegar. Just like when you were to cook food, attach the sous vide to a deep-set pot and dunk the solution in.
Now, set the temperature to 60 degrees C or 140 degrees Fahrenheit and let it run for about 15 to 25 minutes.
And that completes the cleaning procedure. Use mild dishwashing soap and a sponge to clean the exterior sometimes, but don’t let any water enter inside the sous vide. And not also near the buttons.
Sous Vide Frozen Chicken
There are not a lot of things that you can’t sous vide. Frozen chicken is not one of those. So, how do you sous vide frozen chicken? It’s a little different for chicken. First, you have to preheat the water bath at 149°F or 65°C.
Bag your chicken in a vacuum-sealed bag or use the ziplock method I told you about. Drop that bad boy in and let it cook for about an hour and a half. And, that is how you sous vide frozen chicken.
Sous Vide Frozen Steak Seasoning
How should you season your frozen steak? Well, seasoning does come down to salt and pepper for any steak. But if you want, you can add some butter and garlic to your piece.
Keep in mind that a very salty marinate can dry out your steak. So, can any acidic ones. I recommend you to not marinate your meat with extreme ingredients.
Sous Vide Steak Recipe
Now that you know a lot about the sous vide, I think it’s high time you try a recipe as well. To sous vide steak, there are tons of recipes out there. Some use very high-end techniques, and some do it very simply. I will give you simple sous vide recipe to follow.
Just turn on your sous vide as you would. Get your vacuum-sealed frozen steak and submerge it into the water. Let that bad boy cook for at least 2 hours or more. And take out the bag and let the steak rest. Why should you let it rest? So that it can retain some juice back inside the meat.
After waiting, get your non-stick pan or your cast iron skillet, whichever you prefer. Add some butter, thyme, and garlic into the pan and sear your steak for 1 minute on each side. Don’t forget to set the temperature high while searing. Infuse the butter by using a spoon or spatula.
When you are done searing, let the steak rest again. Now, cut and enjoy a delicious steak meal. You are welcome.
Verdict
That was everything on how long to sous vide frozen steak has been answered throughout the article. Now, I tried to give you a common solution to your problem.
But as I said, you may have to try a few different things when it comes to the size of the cut on the steak. However, everything I said over here will pretty much take care of almost the whole work.
