Decided to mix things up a bit with my new sous vide. I picked up a couple of thick ribeyes on closeout — nothing special, about a $15 purchase. After doing some research, I decided to cook them 2.5 hours in the water at 129°F. Normally that would be followed by removing them and searing straight away, but I decided to add an extra step this time and smoke them first.
I seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then sealed them.
Sealed and Ready for a bath
I placed them in the water and set it for 2.5 hours.
Cooling Before the Smoke
Since I’d decided to smoke these too, I placed the bags in an ice bath to cool them down first.
The Smoke
I put them on the smoker with some hickory, planning to bring them back up to around 120°F.
The Sear
On my grill’s side burner, I got the cast iron skillet smoking hot and dropped them in.
I seared all edges of the steaks, taking about 4 minutes total in the pan.
Result
The steaks were beautiful when I removed them.
I could have sliced them with a butter knife, but I chose a sharp carving knife instead.
The steaks were fantastic — so tender, tons of flavor, and cooked perfectly. My best steak ever… so far.
Looking back on it now, this ended up being the only steak on the site where I ran all three methods in one cook — sous vide, then smoke, then a hard sear. If you’re curious how the individual pieces compare on their own, I’ve done pure sous vide (no smoke) on strip steak and picanha, and pure reverse sear (smoke, no sous vide) on strip steak and tomahawk.