“I hate reality but it’s still the best place to get a good steak.”
— Woody Allen
“A good steak sauce should enhance the flavor of the meat and not disguise it.”
Ever wonder how the pros nail their rare and medium-rare steak every time? Would you like to enjoy that high-end restaurant-quality steak at home? Well, you stumbled on the right place because we figured out how to do it and aren’t good at keeping our secrets. This is how it all works.
(I realize that sounded like a garden hose commercial by Richard Karn from Home Improvement, but we ARE about to improve your kitchen.)
The key to cooking meat that retains its juices, tenderness, and all the right flavors is Sous Vide, a cooking method where your beloved fancy meat, which cost most of your day’s wages, is vacuum-sealed in a bag and cooked in a water bath. The steak comes out tender bursting with flavorful buttery juices every single time and the results are impossible to replicate any other way. This modern French culinary trick does not have the romanticism of traditional cooking but it is immensely practical, efficient, free of anxiety, and will knock it out of the park by cooking your steak rare or medium-rare, depending on your preference, all over the entire steak and not just in the center. So if, like us, you prefer a flawless steak, invest in a rather very inexpensive sous vide apparatus. That’s our primary piece of advice to give to anyone.
Today, over at The Taste of Montana headquarters (aka kitchen) we undercooked our New York strip with Sous vide, covered it in Mayonnaise, then seared it. Hold on to that gasp because Mayo is an ideal emulsifier, adheres to the surface of meat without imparting noticeable flavors, and its proteins and sugars help advance the Maillard reaction responsible for creating the much-coveted muy excelente brown crust we all love.
Try it and be prepared to impress and outdo yourself.
