(NB: These steaks were cooked for slightly longer than we would normally cook them in order to exemplify the results.) When you're trying to minimise finishing time as much as possible - as you often are with sous vide - it might seem counterproductive to sear a steak both before and after you cook it sous vide. But as this video shows, quickly searing steak in a hot pan before cooking it sous vide can actually help to avoid overcooking in some cases - it can help to attain more even cooking. This is because the pre-searing is done while the steak is cold as opposed to hot. When the steak is hot through, there is more risk of the meat immediately under the surface overcooking. The pre-seared steak also needs less time in the pan when finishing. Owing, again, to the fact that you're searing while cold, less moisture seemed to leave the pre-seared steak in this experiment, which resulted in a more tender steak. In addition, there are benefits to the way the steak tastes. After pre-searing, the surface of the steak has more flavour, which releases further during sous vide cooking. There are definitely pros and cons of pre-searing and not pre-searing, but if done correctly, you can gain great results with pre-searing. The main benefits are: - Less overcooking near the surface of the meat (more even cooking) - More flavour
Christina Wylie
Christina Wylie is an award-winning writer, author, editor, food stylist, recipe creator, entrepreneur and radio host whose work has been featured in The Times & The Sunday Times, Time Out (Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong and Dubai), Traveler’s Digest, Fah Thai Magazine, Broadsheet, Wining & Dining and many other internationally renowned publications. In 2013, after almost a decade of working as an international journalist, Christina founded the online lifestyle magazine The GAB Magazine, for which she now leads a team of 60 writers based all across Australia. She then founded Samui Life Magazine in 2016. After working as a recipe creator for Anova Culinary for over a year, she signed a cookbook contract with the American-based, international publishing company Quarto. Her cookbook, titled The Sous Vide Kitchen: Techniques, Ideas, and More Than 100 Recipes to Cook at Home, was published worldwide in 2017. She wrote, styled, and photographed everything that you see within that book. In 2017 she opened her first restaurant, Bootlegger, in Koh Samui, Thailand. She is currently in the initial stages of launching Bootlegger 2 in Phuket in 2018, and is looking to open Bootlegger 3 in Bangkok in 2019. She is currently working towards stepping into the world of food and travel presenting. As an entrepreneur herself, Christina co-founded the charity initiative Project Gen Z in 2015 to teach orphaned Cambodian children entrepreneurial skills. A British expat born and raised in Hong Kong, Christina has worked across the globe, and has lived in Thailand, London, Hong Kong, Australia and South Africa over the years.