Blue Gartr Meal Time: Bacon optional? Bacon required.

[Kirin]

Didn't have the best outcome with some NY strip steaks the wife bought earlier in the sous vide. Figured I would try again with a flank steak and make tacos.

Just some garlic salt, pepper, and dried cilantro on the steak and did 1.5 hours at 131. My main goal here is to recreate some amazing steak tacos from a small mexican place near my old apartment that is now a little too far to drive to on a regular basis. They don't do anything crazy, just red onion, steak, cilantro, and a touch of shredded lettuce.



I wish I had gotten pictures. Both halves of the flank were cooked PERFECTLY med rare after a proper 30 second sear. It was easy to cut (especially with a new knife one of my friend nabbed me for christmas), kept the juice in as best it could, was seasoned beautifully, and the tacos were honestly better than the ones I was trying to imitate.

[Kalmado]

What was wrong with the NY Strip? My local meat market is selling whole NY Strip at $3.39/lb so I plan on buying and sousing.

[Kirin]

It was cooked okay, maybe we just didnt sear it correctly. I want to try a thicker cut like that again to see what happened.

But god damn DAT FLANK DOH!

[Kalmado]

I've never done flank. I'll be requesting 3/4 inch steaks and 1/4 of the loin to be left whole. I'm really looking forward to it and if the weather stays mild like it has I'll be smoking the 1/4 loin.

So boss gave us all $50 Texas Roadhouse gift cards. Since I love cooking steak myself I have not ordered a steak in a restaurant in years. We'll be ordering the "cactus blossom" for an appetizer because my wife wants to try it. She'll order seafood and doesn't eat meat so my choice is all for me. My appetite has shrank in the last month and I'm really not sure what to get. I was originally thinking the 20 oz bone in ribeye but am not sure about leftover steak. It's also marked as being 14880 calories. I'm leery of ordering the 8 oz filet because if the cooks suck they'll cook the ordered medium rare very rare or torch the shit out of it and it will be overcooked. And it will probably take forever. It is only 360 calories. Below is the menu. What would you order BG?


https://forms.texasroadhouse.com/NMo...-C-WY-A1A).pdf

[Astylla]

That flank steak sounds amazing, I’ll have to look into that myself.

I tested my sous vide our last night and did some chicken for meal prep as my first endeavor. It was the best chicken I’ve ever made and so damn simple. Had some sautéed mushrooms with it and brought some for lunch today since I’m doing overtime. I’m hoping to try some steak maybe tonight or later this week.

[Eragon]

I've never done flank. I'll be requesting 3/4 inch steaks and 1/4 of the loin to be left whole. I'm really looking forward to it and if the weather stays mild like it has I'll be smoking the 1/4 loin.

So boss gave us all $50 Texas Roadhouse gift cards. Since I love cooking steak myself I have not ordered a steak in a restaurant in years. We'll be ordering the "cactus blossom" for an appetizer because my wife wants to try it. She'll order seafood and doesn't eat meat so my choice is all for me. My appetite has shrank in the last month and I'm really not sure what to get. I was originally thinking the 20 oz bone in ribeye but am not sure about leftover steak. It's also marked as being 14880 calories. I'm leery of ordering the 8 oz filet because if the cooks suck they'll cook the ordered medium rare very rare or torch the shit out of it and it will be overcooked. And it will probably take forever. It is only 360 calories. Below is the menu. What would you order BG?


https://forms.texasroadhouse.com/NMo...-C-WY-A1A).pdf

Texas roadhouse is my jam. Blooming onion is awesome but very filling. I always get the 8oz sirloin medium rare and it’s perfect. Their sides aren’t that amazing but you can get a side salad as one and the house Italian dressing is delish. All that and their free bread and I’m pretty satisfied. The quality of the steaks there are pretty amazing relative to how cheap it is, especially compared to other chain steak places like Outback, Longhorn etc. Since you have a giftcard you can probably splurge on a bigger cut or some cocktails and still not go over $50.

[Kalmado]

Texas roadhouse is my jam. Blooming onion is awesome but very filling. I always get the 8oz sirloin medium rare and it’s perfect. Their sides aren’t that amazing but you can get a side salad as one and the house Italian dressing is delish. All that and their free bread and I’m pretty satisfied. The quality of the steaks there are pretty amazing relative to how cheap it is, especially compared to other chain steak places like Outback, Longhorn etc. Since you have a giftcard you can probably splurge on a bigger cut or some cocktails and still not go over $50.

Ended up going with the bone in ribeye medium rare. The outer edges where a deep medium but was medium rare the rest of the way. Was very good. Should've got the sweet potato but w/e. Wife had salmon which was very good as well. She had the house salad with honey mustard and was very tasty. Overall, great meal and great time. I think we were there for probably 20-35 minutes longer than when we go elsewhere and it wasn't because of cook times or any issues. We just enjoyed ourselves.

[Melena]

Decided to do my first attempt at cooking something other than grilling a piece of chicken or a frozen pizza for dinner. Picked up some sirloin that was on sale, seasoned it with sea salt and black pepper and cooked using the sous vide I got astylla. Baked a potato and everything came out almost perfect. Potato in the oven could have used maybe three more minutes and used a bit too much pepper on the steak but other than that, not bad for a first try.

[Zetanio]

Pro-tip: 3 minutes doesn't make a difference with whole potatoes. Leave em for like 2 hours. GJ on the steak. We need some pictures.

[Kalmado]

Pro-tip: 3 minutes doesn't make a difference with whole potatoes. Leave em for like 2 hours. GJ on the steak. We need some pictures.

I'm not taking pics of my current steak inventory. Like an idiot I asked for 3/4" steaks and they are more like, 1/4" after cooked. Gonna ask for 1 1/2" next time. I do have a large sirloin roast in the freeze. Debating asking wife to make the incredible kaldereta or do a big steak in my new 12 quart container with sous vide!

[Salodin]

1 1/2 is too big imo unless you're making a gigantic, itis inducing meal. 1 inch is fine, 1 1/4 if you really need a thicker cut. They shrink a little, but they're not losing 25% of their size on the skillet.

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[Melena]

Pro-tip: 3 minutes doesn't make a difference with whole potatoes. Leave em for like 2 hours. GJ on the steak. We need some pictures.

I snapped a couple of pictures, but shitty iphone camera + our apartment has like no light once the sun goes down, the pictures didn't come out too good.

[Kalmado]

1 1/2 is too big imo unless you're making a gigantic, itis inducing meal. 1 inch is fine, 1 1/4 if you really need a thicker cut. They shrink a little, but they're not losing 25% of their size on the skillet.

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I agree with you. I'm more so thinking that maybe this shop just doesn't cut the loins very good?? I made two last night and one of them pre-sous looked like it was maybe a hair over 1/4 when I requested 3/4. I can't recall but I swear on some sous vide site 1 1/2 was recommended. I'll try 1 1/4 next time. While I thoroughly enjoyed the shoulder round cut I did at 28 hours, that was "manager special" at $3.49 lb from my grocer. This meat market does NY Strip at $3.39 lb.

[Zetanio]

1" - 1 1/4" steaks are best steaks.

[Salodin]

The more likely scenario is the butcher just cut it to the wrong size.

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[Kirin]

This may be an odd question.

What do yall do with the water after a sous vide cook? Do you just let it sit in the container w/ a lid or dump it out + refill every time?

Bought a nice 12 qt container, but realized it may be way too big for some recipes and was going to pick up like a 4qt one as well. The 12 qt container is just so wide for water volume when all I was cooking was 2 chicken thighs.

[Zetanio]

I dump it out and clean the container every time.

[Salodin]

Clean it every time. Little juices splash in and itll get funky if you leave it there too long. It also sits in that sweet range of temperature for growing microorganisms in the time you turn off the machine and leave gallons of like warm water sitting there with little broth splashes for nutrition.

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[Zetanio]

Clean it every time. Little juices splash in and itll get funky if you leave it there too long. It also sits in that sweet range of temperature for growing microorganisms in the time you turn off the machine and leave gallons of like warm water sitting there with little broth splashes for nutrition.

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Yeah, it's a real petri dish.

[dasva]

why you getting food stuff in it though?

I will usually reuse if it's within a couple of days. More than that and just the dust/lint in that stagnant water starts being gross (and get caught up in the unit). Also you gunna water mark the fuck out of the unit itself