How to Sous Vide Beef and Red Meat (2024)

This article is a part of my free Exploring Sous Vide email course. If you want to discover how to consistently create amazing food using sous vide then my course is exactly what you're looking for. For a printed version of this course, you can purchase my Exploring Sous Vide cookbook.

In previous lessons we discussed How to Determine Sous Vide Temperatures and How Sous Vide Times Work, today we are going to tie it all together and discuss how to cook beef and other red meat. I'll cover some of the time and temperatures I recommend for certain kinds of meat and give you the reasoning behind them so you can make your own decisions.

My best-selling Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide also explores these items in much more detail.

What Do I Mean by Red Meat?

Before we get to the time and temperatures, lets discuss what exactly I mean by "Red Meat". Generally, red meat refers to the meat from mammals and it all behaves pretty similarly. The ones I am most familiar with are beef, lamb, venison, and veal but I have also discussed recipes with readers who cook moose, elk, bear, kangaroo, bison, and many others. Usually pork is treated differently than red meat and we will discuss it in a future lesson.

Most red meat behaves similarly but the type of animal, and how it was raised, can lead to a few differences. Just like field-raised grass-fed cows produce meat with different cooking requirements than grain-fed feedlot-raised cows, the amount of exercise the animals get and their diet will be reflected in their meat.

Knowing that the meat generally behaves the same, you can easily apply the following times and temperatures to most types of red meat. For instance, if you have a piece of meat you normally grill to medium rare like a deer tenderloin, you can use a time and temperature for a piece of beef sous vided to medium-rare, then adjust the times as needed.

The same goes for a tough cut of meat, say a moose shoulder, that you want to shred. Just follow the time and temperature for shredded beef and you should come close.

Warning: One concern is pathogens that might be present in wild game. If you are eating wild game, cooked traditionally or with sous vide, you should make yourself aware of the pathogens and what temperatures are needed to kill them as it may differ from beef.

Sous Vide Beef Videos

Pre-Sous Vide Preparation

There are lots of things you can do to beef and red meat before you sous vide them. The meat is often portioned out, fat and other tough parts are removed, and the meat is shaped. It's usually then salted or a spice rub is applied. Spices, herb, sauces, and other flavoring agents can also be added to the bag.

Note: I highly recommend looking back through the lesson on What to do Before You Sous Vide Your Food since it goes into more details.

Sous Vide Temperatures for Red Meat

When you are sous viding beef or other red meats there are two main directions you can go. The first is to create a steak-like texture, and the second is to end up with a more pull-apart, braise-like texture. Regardless of the type of meat, the texture you are aiming for will determine the temperature you will use.

Steak-Like Texture for Sous Vide Beef and Red Meat

Steak-like texture is what you think of when you think of a typical steak. It's usually filet, ribeye, sirloin, flank steak or another tender cut that is traditionally grilled or pan fried.

With sous vide, you can also cook tough cuts at a low temperature for an extended period of time, usually 1 to 2 days, and the result will be steak-like. This is often done with brisket, chuck roast, ribs, top round and other tough cuts.

The temperatures used for steak-like texture are the easiest to determine. Most cooks, or eaters, generally know how they like their steaks, either rare, medium rare, medium or (gulp) well done. Those donenesses correspond to specific ranges of temperature, so you can have an easy starting point.

• Rare: 120°F to 129°F (49°C to 53.8°C)
• Medium Rare: 130°F to 139°F (54.4°C to 59.4°C)
• Medium: 140°F to 145°F (60°C to 62.8°C)
• Well Done: Above 145°F (62.8°C)

Warning: Just a reminder that if you drop the temperature below 130°F (54.4°C) you are in the danger zone, not killing any pathogens, and shouldn't cook the steak for more than an hour or two.

If you are unsure of the specific temperature in the ranges above you like your meat cooked, I recommend starting with 125°F (51.6°C) for rare, 131°F (55°C) for medium rare and 140°F (60°C) for medium. You can then adjust the temperature up or down in future cooks to better match your preference.

If you are cooking for people who like their steaks cooked to different temperatures you have a few options. I go into them in more depth in our companion lesson on How to Sous Vide Steaks to Two Different Temperatures.

Traditional Braise-Like Texture for Sous Vide Beef and Red Meat

The second direction you can take red meat is in a more braise-like preparation. This is food that is similar to shredded beef, braised meats, and other "low and slow" preparations. The cuts used for this are tough and generally high in fat and connective tissue, such as chuck roast, shanks, brisket, and many roasts.

As the food cooks at a higher temperature, the connective tissue breaks down, making the meat flaky and shreddable. The higher the temperature you use, and the longer you cook it, will cause the meat to break down more and more.

Most braise-like temperatures range from around 150°F up to 185°F (65.6°C to 85°C). The temperatures I recommend starting with are:

• 156°F (68.8°C) for a shreddable, but still firm texture
• 165°F (73.9°C) for a more fall apart texture
• 176°F (80.0°C) for a really fall apart texture

Note: For more information you can read about the effects of sous vide temperature on meat.

Once you've cooked meat to those temperatures you will have a better feel for the texture that results from each one. Then you can tweak the temperature and the time it is cooked to meet your standards.

Sous Vide Times for Red Meat

When you start to determine how long to cook a piece of red meat for, you first need to determine what type it is. There are broadly 2 types of red meat: tender cuts and tough cuts.

Tender Cuts of Beef and Red Meat

Tender cuts are those pieces of meat that just need to be heated through, and maybe pasteurized, before you eat them. This is usually most types of steak, tenderloins, and other cuts you would usually enjoy grilling or pan frying.

In general a piece of meat will be heated through at the following rate:

• 1/2" (13mm) thick in 35 minutes
• 1" (25mm) thick in 70 minutes
• 1.5" (38mm) thick in 2.5 hours
• 2" (50mm) thick in 3.5 hours

You can follow the charts on the Sous Vide Cooking Times page for the specific amount of time. Most red meat heats closely enough to each other for the charts to work well across most animals.

Tough Cuts of Beef and Red Meat

Tough cuts of meat require extended cooking times to break down and tenderize the meat. The amount of time will depend greatly on the cut. These times will usually range from 18 hours to 2 days. I have extensive time recommendations in my Sous Vide Time and Temperatures article.

If you are cooking a type of meat that is not covered, like elk or kangaroo, you can generally find a similar cut of beef or lamb and then start with the time recommended for it.

In-Between Cuts of Beef and Red Meat

Some cuts do not fall directly into the tough or tender categories. A good example of this is flank steak or sirloin. Both cuts can be just heated through and served, but extended cooking can tenderize them slightly more, resulting in a much more tender steak. Most of these cuts can benefit from a 5 to 10 hour time in the sous vide bath.

How to Finish Red Meat

To finish red meat I will usually dry it really well, salt it and then sear it. This gives it a much more appealing look and adds a lot of great flavor to it. To sear red meat I usually pan fry it or grill it.

I also often will use a torch. If I'm deep frying something else I'll often use the oil to deep fry the meat as well.

Whatever method you use, you will want to sear it very quickly to prevent it from overcooking any more than is necessary. You can read more about How to Sear After Sous Vide.

Some people also smoke their meat after it has been sous vided, especially for brisket and other barbecued meats.

Sample Sous Vide Recipes for Red Meat

Here are a few of my favorite sous vide recipes for different types of red meat. My best-selling Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide also has many more recipes for you to explore.

Tender Cuts of Beef

• Sous Vide Hanger Steak with Peach Salsa
• Sous Vide Filet Mignon Recipe with Blue Cheese Mousse
• Sous Vide Ribeye Recipes with Asian Glaze

Tough Cuts of Beef

• Sous Vide Brisket Recipe with Cranberry BBQ Sauce
• Sous Vide Chuck Pot Roast with Roasted Vegetables
• Sous Vide French Dip Sandwiches Recipe

In-Between Cuts of Beef

• Flank Steak with Chimichurri Recipe
• Sous Vide Sirloin Steak Recipe with Roasted Root Vegetables

Sous Vide Steak Guide

Welcome to the ultimate guide to sous vide steak. We'll take you through the general process of cooking sous vide steaks as well as the safety behind it.

This information, as well as over 100 recipes, is available in my best selling Sous Vide Cookbook which you can get at Amazon.com.

Benefits of Sous Vide Steak

There are two main benefits to cooking steaks and other tender cuts of beef with sous vide. The first benefit is that sous vide allows you to cook a perfectly done steak every time. The other benefit is the ability to turn tougher, but more flavorful, steaks such as flank steak into very tender steaks through longer cooking times.

This is accomplished because cooking tough cuts of beef with sous vide allows you to break down and tenderize the meat without cooking it above medium-rare and drying it out.

Once temperatures in beef go above 156°F (68°C) the meat begins to dry out and become more bland, however, they also start to tenderize more quickly which is why tough roasts and braises are done for hours at high temperatures. Using sous vide, you can hold the meat below 156°F (68°C) for a long enough time for the tenderizing process to run its course.

I often use sous vide cooked steak as a basis for many normal steak dishes, such as fajitas or steak salad. You can also just add a nice salsa or sauce to the top and eat it plain. You can also use it in any of your favorite recipes, simply replace the cooking step in the recipe with the already cooked sous vide steak and then continue the rest of the recipe.

Sous Vide Steak Safety

The FDA states that beef is safe when it is held at 130°F for over 112 minutes, or 140°F for over 12 minutes. This is very easy to do with sous vide and the main reason we recommend cooking most beef cuts medium-rare since beef is most tender at that temperature.

Additionally, the center of "whole" muscles are sterile but due to some mechanical tenderization that some meat packagers use the muscles can be compromised so unless you trust your supplier it is advisable to cook beef to 130°F throughout and then pasteurize it with sous vide.

Medium-rare steak is cooked between 130°F to 139°F, we recommend cooking it at 131°F to give yourself a few degrees of temperature variation above the bottom of the safe zone but feel free to experiment with any temperatures in that range. Depending on the toughness of the cut of beef, it may need to be cooked anywhere from 2 hours up to 1 or 2 days.

For each sous vide steak we also give directions for medium, these are normally cooked between 140°F and 149°F, though we recommend not going above 140°F because the beef begins drying out quickly and with sous vide there is no gain in food safety above 131°F.

Most steaks can be cooked sous vide for 2 to 4 hours and will result in a more tender version of how that steak traditionally tastes. However, for some tougher steaks longer cooking times can result in steak with tenderness rivaling tenderloin, with no loss of the full, beefy flavor these cuts are known for.

It is also good to keep in mind that different quality of meat cooks at different speeds, for instance most grass fed beef cooks faster and needs less time to tenderize.

Sous Vide Steak General Process

The normal method of cooking steak with sous vide is very simple.

First, preheat your sous vide machine to the temperature desired, we recommend 131°F to 140°F for most cuts.

Take the meat and sprinkle it with salt and pepper and seal it into a sous vide pouch. You can also season the meat before sealing it with any normal seasoning such as:

• Fresh or dried thyme or rosemary
• Any spice powders such as onion, garlic, paprika, coriander, or cumin
• Chili powders like ancho, chipotle, cayenne
• Marinades (though you don't need much)
• Sauces like A1 steak, worcester sauce, BBQ sauce, etc.

If adding a sauce or marinade make sure your vacuum sealer does not suck it out, you can normally seal it before all the air is out to prevent this just fine. Also, be sure to be careful with sous vide garlic, onions, or ginger, as they can have odd flavors.

After sealing the pouch place it into the water bath for the indicated cooking time.

Once it's fully cooked remove it from the pouch and pat dry. At this point you can sear the meat in a hot skillet or grill it over high heat to add a nice crust to it.

Once the sous vide steak is done cooking you can use it as you would any steak including cutting it up for salad, slicing it for fajitas or just eating it plain. You can also make a nice gravy or pan sauce from the liquid leftover in the sous vide pouch.

Another very convenient use of sous vide is to use it to defrost and cook steaks that come straight from the freezer. As long as the steak is vacuum sealed in a suitable bag you can take it directly from the freezer and put it in a pre-heated water bath. Just add 30 to 60 minutes to the cooking time and it should come out perfectly.

Sous Vide Steak Recipes

Do you have any great tips and tricks you've discovered for cooking red meat? Have any follow up questions you need answered? Let me know in the comments or on the Exploring Sous Vide Facebook group.

This article is a part of my free Exploring Sous Vide email course. If you want to discover how to consistently create amazing food using sous vide then my course is exactly what you're looking for. For a printed version of this course, you can purchase my Exploring Sous Vide cookbook.

This article is by me, Jason Logsdon. I'm an adventurous home cook and professional blogger who loves to try new things, especially when it comes to cooking. I've explored everything from sous vide and whipping siphons to pressure cookers and blow torches; created foams, gels and spheres; made barrel aged co*cktails and brewed beer. I have also written 10 cookbooks on modernist cooking and sous vide and I run the AmazingFoodMadeEasy.com website.

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