Sous-Vide Beef

Cooking beef sous-vide

With sous-vide cooking, you can precisely control the cooking temperature to within 0.2°C for an even cooking process. The water bath will gently cook your beef or steak to create perfect, restaurant quality food, exactly to your liking.

Perfectly juicy and tender, you can enjoy Michelin starred quality from your own kitchen. Sous-vide beef is amazing cooked with fresh or toasted herbs and spices, served with a rich onion or red wine gravy. It’s also a great pairing with creamy mash and crisp, seasonal vegetables, or try a sous-vide steak with chips and a peppercorn sauce.

How to cook beef sous-vide

Step-by-step instructions to cook sous vide steak to perfection.

Prepare the water bath

Set your water bath to the desired temperature, and set the timer. For a 170g piece of steak, we recommend cooking at 60°C for 45 minutes for medium finish, or experiment using the guidelines below.
The water bath or immersion circulator will beep when it has reached the set temperature. You’re now ready to cook!

Prepare the meat

Sous-vide cooking is ideal for any cut of beef, and the fresher the better. Different sizes and cuts of meat require different cooking times; check out the table below.
Pre-season beef cuts before vacuum sealing in a pouch to give a more intense flavour. Cooking several portions? Make sure to place in separate bags for evenness of cooking – you don’t want your steak portions to overlap!

To cook
Place the bag in the Clifton water bath. You can cook up to approx 8-10 steaks in the water cooker at the same time depending on size.
Be careful not to overfill the water bath and cover with the immersion grid to prevent the food rising to the top (lighter items and those not tightly vacuumed may tend to float).
Leave your sous vide beef to cook. The timer will beep when it’s time to remove the pouches.

Remove & finish
After the timer has beeped, remove the food pouches from the bath.
Finish by searing the meat in a pan to create a mouthwatering, aroma and appearance. Or if you feel brave, create a good crust using a blow torch.

Times and temperatures for beef sous vide

The idea of sous vide is to cook foods at a lower temperature for longer. Like with slow cooking, tougher meats break down over a longer period of time, achieving a softer texture – with none of that dry and chewy texture you sometimes get when cooking at high temperatures. Sous vide cooking creates meat that simply falls off the bone, and stews that melt in your mouth.

Done correctly, cooking sous vide is safe and worry-free. Make sure you follow food safety guidelines and familiarise yourself with our times and temperatures guide.

Sous vide beef cooking times

With beef, much depends on the size, thickness and cut of meat. As a rule, thinner and tender cuts require less cooking time than thick and tough cuts of meat. You can experiment with different cooking times and temperatures to achieve a range of different textures and finishes. The beauty of sous vide cooking is you can choose the right time and temperature to suit your liking.

Sous vide steaks

Tenderloin	Rare	50°C	1 hr 15 min
	Medium	60°C	1 hr 30 min
	Well Done	70°C	1 hr 45 min
T-Bone	Rare	54°C	2hr
	Medium	62°C	2 hr 30 min
	Well Done	70°C	2 hr 30 min
Rib-Eye	Medium	64°C	1hr 10min
	Well Done	70°C	2 hr
Sirloin/Rump Steak	Rare	50°C	45 min
	Medium	60°C	45 min
	Well Done	70°C	45 min
Fillet Steak	Rare	50°C	45 min
	Medium	60°C	45 min
	Well Done	70°C	45 min
Skirt/Flank Steak	Rare	55°C	8-24 hr
	Medium	60°C	8-24 hr
	Well Done	70°C	8-24 hr

 

Sous vide roasts & joints

Sirloin Beef Joint	Rare	58°C	6 hr
	Medium	60°C	6 hr
	Well Done	70°C	6 hr
Brisket		60°C	48 hr
Topside Beef		53°C	14 hr
Blade Top Roast		68°C	24 hr

 

Sous vide ribs & cheeks

Back Ribs		60°C	48 hr
Short Ribs		60°C	72 hr
		70°C	24 hr
Beef Cheeks		82°C	8 hr
		62°C	48 hr

 

Selecting the right cuts of beef

Steak is always the first dish customers tell us they cook in the Clifton water bath. Cooking sirloin, fillet, rib-eye, rump or T-bone sous-vide is almost impossible to get wrong, and produces great results, however you like your meat done.

You can spend a lifetime experimenting with times, temperatures and ingredients to create delicious steak dishes. However, the sous-vide method is ideal for cooking less expensive cuts of beef, like brisket, oxtail, ribs and skirt.

The ideal cooking temperature also depends on the cut of beef you’re using. Firm or fatty cuts like cheek or skirt are better suited to being cooked at a higher temperature, from 60°C and above. Fats begin to soften and coarser cuts become juicy and tender. For leaner cuts, we’d recommend keeping the temperature below 60°C to enjoy the juiciness of a steak cooked sous-vide.

Reheating beef with sous-vide

Pro tip: Keep beef in its pouch in the fridge, and reheat in the sous vide cooker when ready.

One of the benefits of sous-vide cooking is that you can leave the ingredients in the water bath for longer without overcooking, with little change in texture. If you need to, you can leave the beef in the bath for up to 30 minutes without spoiling or over cooking. Professional chefs use this method to cook up loads of portions of food, to reduce time during service – as well as helping to create amazing quality dishes! For home foodies, this is ideal for dinner parties and preparing meals for the week ahead. It also gives you great portion control!

Chilling food for storage

Chill down your beef portions quickly to make sure they’re still safe to reheat and eat. Use an ice water bath to bring down the temperature to under 3°C within 90 minutes. Dry off and store in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Reheating beef portions using a water bath

To serve beef dishes you’ve pre-cooked in a water bath, simply reheat in the sous vide water bath, at 5 degrees lower, for half the cook time. Remove from the pouch and finish by browning, or searing in a hot pan.

It’s advisable to reheat food cooked sous vide by using the water bath – cooking using other methods could lead to the food continuing the cooking process and overcooking.

For a steak cooked sous-vide for 45 minutes at 60°C, place back in the water cooker at 55°C for 25 minutes to reheat. Remove from the pouch and sear on hot for 30 seconds each side (and edges!) to create a beautifully brown crust.

To sear or not to sear...

The sous-vide method is ideal for creating the perfect texture and juiciness, but unless you have pre-seared the steak, it will come out of the pouch with no colour. Pan-searing will give the steak a mouthwatering appearance and aroma, just how we like it! Add the rest of the seasoning at this stage – perhaps some salt and pepper, crushed garlic and onions to taste.
Pro tip: Remember to save the juices from the pouch to create a delicious sauce or jus!
 
Enhance the natural ‘beefy’ flavour of steak by pre-searing in clarified butter before cooking sous-vide. To finish, sear and serve in a sauce made using the remaining juices from the vacuum sealed pouch.