MVT's Modernist Experimentation: The Steak

Last night I took a 8oz fillet mignon and vacuum sealed it, put it in a water bath, and then in an 170F oven for three hours.

Before bed I took it out of the oven and water bath and put it in the fridge. This morning I took it from the fridge and let it warm to room temperature.

As you can see it is still pink but some blood has leeched out. But the meat is cooked, it is not raw.

I now wanted to heat it to eating temperature so I put it in a pan with water heated to about 130F to 133F which is the temperature for medium rare beef.

I left it in the water bath for about 30 minutes. Then I opened the bag and poured out the juice. There was 2 tbsp which seemed like quite a lot but the meat was still very soft.

The piece of meat on the right has some fine pepper on it which was the only seasoning I put on it before it was vacuum packed. I oiled both sides of the steak and salted and peppered them both.

I put a non-stick pan on the hob and got it hot (at about a setting of 7, maximum 9).

I could have used a griddle pan and gone for the nice seared markings giving it an authentic steak house or barbeque grill look, in fact I should have probably used a really hot barbeque grill and got some charcoal flavour on it. But I didn't because it is raining outside (second time in over six weeks) and the griddle pan is cast iron and I was feeling too lazy to clean it for one experimental steak that I would be eating alone. I didn't think anyone would know but now I have to come clean and admit my laziness. I cooked the steak for about 30 seconds on each side, and also on the edges. I held the steak on its edge with tongues to do this when it wouldn't balance.

Below it is balanced on its edge...it only needed a few seconds like that, to get some colour.

When it was properly coloured all over I took it out and rested it for a couple of minutes. I don't know if it really needed resting as the slow cooking sets the liquids in the meat, and it hasn't had the cold steak hot pan shock and contraction. But I did it just in case, figuring it wouldn't do any harm.

Finally it was time to plate and cut. It was evenly pink throughout without the few millimeters of outside well cooked meat that is normal even with a rare steak. The blood did not run out onto the plate which stayed blood-free through for the full course.