Theres nothing wrong with having a preference, and a rare steak can be a beautiful thing.
(Take it from me, a lazy person generally unwilling to expend extra effort without proper justification.
Why dry brine?
(Wet meat steams; dry meat browns.)
Why sous vide?
True ribeye fans love the cut for its marbling.
That doesnt happen until 130F, howeverthe temp commonly referred to as medium-rare.
After that, youre ready to chill.
Why chill?
The chilling is where this method almost lost me.
But there are a few reasons to chill out.
The first is smoking.
Throwing a hot-from-the-bath ribeye into a smoker or low-temp grill will overcook it.
(Well, some people might, but I dont approve.)
There also may be other benefits to chilling.
Both were incredible juicy.
(And the crust builds quickly, thanks to the dry brine in the fridge.)
Why smoke and sear?
Smoke and meat taste good together.
Its an impressive piece of meat.
(I dont do grill marks.)
I suspect that extra time was the source of this (small, mostly cosmetic) problem.
Enough reading, nerds.
(This recipe is for a simple charcoal setup; refer toAmazingRibs.comfor instructions for gas grills.
Place baking sheet in the fridge, uncovered, for 24 hours.
Fill a large bucket or pot with water and attach your immersion circulator.
Set the temp to 130F.
Sous vide the steaks for 2 hours.
When you have about 5 minutes left in the cook time, make an ice bath.
Remove the steaks at the 2-hour mark and plunge them into the ice bath to stop the cooking.
Fill a charcoal chimney full of charcoal and set it over a lit fuel cube.
Open up the grill, and transfer the steak to the hot cast iron pan to sear.
